8/19/2023 0 Comments Great boston molasses flood plaque![]() “There’s very little indication, other than this one very small plaque tucked away in a corner that this is where this massive disaster occurred. Today there’s a small plaque marking the tragedy, but Sharp says most of the area is a park. “It caused a lot changes in how a companies were required to file with the city for the building of different structures and containers that were going to be holding different materials “It was one of the early prototype for a class action law suit because so many people sued the company over this accident Great Boston Molasses Flood Plaque Boston, Massachusetts The site of one of the strangest disasters in historya wave of deadly molasses traveling at 35 mph. In the aftermath of the molasses flood, Sharp says there was a protracted legal argument about who was to blame. “It has been almost 100 years, which is a long time for the smell of molasses to stick around.” “There’s a wives tale that says that on a hot summer’s day, that that neighbourhood of Boston still smells like molasses, which I find hard to believe but it was certainly true for some amount of time. While most things don’t tend to small quite as strongly when it’s cold, Sharp says her experiments have revealed molasses is still extremely pungent at 4°. On a brisk winter day, Stephen Puleo, author of Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, gestured towards the spot where a tank in Boston’s North End burst, releasing a tsunami of hot molasses into the streets 100 years ago, on January 15, 1919. “ would’ve started like honey but become like tar.” As rescuers worked to help survivors and recover bodies, they had to battle with the molasses becoming increasingly viscose. ![]() The temperature in Boston at the time of the incident was around 4☌. “There were also some people who were swept up by the molasses and thrown into the harbour.” “For some of them that pushed them to safety, for some of them that pushed them into heavy metal objects. She says there are reports that people managed to ‘surf’ the wave. “For that first half a minute to a minute it’s like you have a tsunami, only this wave is one and a half times denser than water.” “It takes about 30 to 60 seconds before the fact that molasses is extremely viscose actually makes a significant difference and… sort of takes over as dominating the sort of flow that you get. The fact that the molasses was so heavy and piled up so high caused it to move so quickly at first. “Historical estimates say that they think the molasses moved at about 56 kilometres per hour.” Unfortunately 21 people were unable to outrun the wave, nor could a number of horses which were in carts nearby. It leaked from its initial construction and eventually collapsed, releasing a giant sticky wave. The tank holding the molasses was not structurally sound as its construction had not been overseen by somebody who had technical experience and could not read blueprints. “That’s a lot of weight and a lot of potential energy. “Molasses itself is very dense, it’s about one and half times heavier than water and the tank that it was being held in was very tall, it was over 15m tall. Molasses is a by-product of sugar production, and is similar to treacle or malt. Sharp told RNZ’s Bryan Crump the volume of molasses that flooded could have filled three and a half Olympic swimming pools. Listen to Bryan Crump's interview with Nicole Sharp
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