Posted on 11/26/2016 8:17:37 AM PST by sparklite2
“A dull muffled roar gave but an instant’s warning before the top of the tank was blown into the air,” The New York Times wrote in 1919. “Two million gallons of molasses rushed over the streets and converted into a sticky mass the wreckage of several small buildings which had been smashed by the force of the explosion.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Commemorated by the Undead Thread with a keyword “Molasses miasma”
That is a lot of molasses. For perspective an olympic size competition pool is about 650,00 gallons. So at least 3 times that.
Also molasses is good for rust removal. Takes a while though.
How is that science?
Tell you what, I'm going to study the Hindenburg disaster, but I'm not going to use Hydrogen when I build a scale model. It's too dangerous. Instead, I will use some other gas so that I can precisely measure exactly what happened during the explosion. You know, it;'s this kind of "science" that provides Global Warming nonsense.
By the way, back to Molasses in 1919, I've been told that you could smell molasses in Boston's North End for decades during warm weather.
There was also the London Beer Flood if memory serves.
I’d love to know why they were storing over 2 million gallons of molasses in one tank.
Also, beer saved the world. I saw it on TV. Seemed legit.
For the manufacture of rum.
“What’s taking you so long? I swear you’re slower than molasses in November!”
Chemically, molasses and corn syrup are very similar in terms of composition and viscosity.
Molasses would be sucrose; corn syrup would be glucose + fructose. Sucrose is made of one fructose + one glucose, covalently bonded. The viscosity is dependent on the water content.
In the case of the students, the decision to use corn syrup instead of molasses could have been for a number of reasons: the cost, the smell, or the potential of molasses to stain things could all have been factors.
It is not unusual in science to use something that is similar to the substance actually being studied. As long as the proxy is validated to behave like the actual substance in the conditions being studied, the results are completely valid.
We use all kinds of proxies to stand in for human beings in medical research.
The hydrogen flamed are pretty much invisible. It was the fabric of the blimp that was highly flammable. Bad combination there.
See link posted @ #14
How about "chocolate?"
Cue the Smothers Brothers.
Regards,
Ed
I believe it had to do with filling it as much as possible just before prohibition took effect. It was filled on a very cold day - the rivets gave way on a much warmer January day.
Possibly the first “Global Warming” disaster in American history.
Dare I say it ... “Oh, the humanity ...”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.