Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Gooey...

What a mess!
  On January 15, 1919 in Boston Massachusetts there was a flood, the result of an industrial accident and facility collapse.
  Purity Distilling Company owned a holding tank for molasses, the tank burst and two million, three hundred thousand gallons of molasses ran down hill.  The molasses was used as a sweetener, to make rum and even in munitions at that time.
  It was said the bursting tank sounded like a machine gun with all the rivets breaking loose, and there was a loud rumble as the molasses escaped.  Twenty-one people were killed and over seventy were injured as a result.  A section of the elevated railroad was destroyed along with a score of buildings in a wave of molasses 8 to 15 feet high.
  I can't even imagine how all of this was cleaned up.
The remains of the holding tank
The story in the paper
This plaque is at the site of the accident.

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