Posted on 01/19/2011 6:29:25 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Yesterday was the 92nd anniversary of one of the strangest tragedies ever to take place on American soil. It's the stuff of Weekly World News or The Onion. Yet it was a very real, deadly, (and delicious) disaster. To this day on hot summer days in an old Boston neighborhood, residents swear that they can smell a vague odor of molasses. It's a sweet-smelling reminder of a day when some 150 people were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed by a sudden flood of molasses...
Purity Distilling Company was doing big business. A large quantity of stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant. The stored molasses was near Keany Square, at 529 Commercial Street, in a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700,000 L).
As you probably already guess, the tank collapsed. Witnesses claim that there was a loud rumbling sound, like a machine gun as the rivets shot out of the tank; and say that the ground shook as if a train were passing by. The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 and 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h)...
The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet (60 to 90 cm).
(Excerpt) Read more at datelinezero.com ...
I would like to add the “ Texas City Disaster”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
Interesting how both Halifax and Texas City involved French ships. Explosive yield for both disasters was 3 kilotons (20% of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.)
Add the Charleston earthquake of 1886, the great New Madrid series of earthquakes of 1811-12, the Black Tom explosion in NY harbor, 1916?, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, and the Johnstown Flood in PA. I think the Galveston Hurricane (est. 8,000) and the Johnstown Flood (est. 2,000) were the most deadly. Oh, and let’s not forget the Caribbean ring of fire volcanos of 1902: Pelee in Martinique (est. 35,000 to 40,000), La Soufriere in St. Vincent (est. 2 to 4,000), Santa Maria in Guatemala (est. 5,000), and 2 others in Central America with fewer casualties.
Wow, the guy who did the Bath School Bombing prefigured the methodology of the Arab terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere. Bomb once, then again when the crowd gathers.
Also, let’s not forget the Peshtigo (sp?) fire that occurred north of Chicago and on the same day as the famous Chicago Fire and killed more than 1,000.
I've noticed an increasing trend on FR of posting articles about anniversaries where the number of years since the remembered event is anything but a round number. Maybe there should be a thread to discuss the pros and cons of this.
General Robert was active in Methodist Church matters and, being an army officer, would become impatient with what he thought were inefficient and poorly run church meetings. His little pamphlet on how to conduct a meeting evolved into the Rules of Order we're so familiar with today.
My mother was a little girl of 5 years living in Halifax during the explosion. She recalled sitting on the bed in the upstairs bedroom beneath the blown-out skylight waiting for the German soldiers to climb down from the roof.
“My mother was a little girl of 5 years living in Halifax during the explosion. She recalled sitting on the bed in the upstairs bedroom beneath the blown-out skylight waiting for the German soldiers to climb down from the roof. “
One thing that fascinates me with FR is finding out how closely we are connected to historical events via stories like yours above.
I recall reading a contemporary tidbit in reader’s digest written by an old man 20+ years ago that went something like this: when the old man was a young boy his grandfather took him one Saturday to meet a very old man who was held in high esteem by the community. The boy shook the old man’s hand, brief conversation with grandfather, old man and boy.
On the way home the grandfather explained to the boy that when the old man was a boy his grandfather had taken him to meet a old man and shake his hand; that old man had fought in the revolution when he was boy.
The contemporary old man wrote about how closely we are connected to history “I shook the hand of a man who shook the hand of one of our nation’s founding fathers.”
Mike's Pastries alone is one of the most wonderful-smelling places I've ever been in. If you're ever there, take my advice: leave the gun, take the cannolis. And if you are unfamiliar with sfogliatelle, you might just want to acquaint yourself with it. Then, walk next door to Café Vittoria for some real, strong espresso.
Thanks for those interesting details.
McKinley's fault. Those darn Republicans.
Yeah, and look!
Back row, left, in the bonnet...
It's Sarah Palin!
LOL!
My father played horn in the marching band for Memorial Day, etc. all through school. He remembered when the Civil War veterans were marching in the parade. Then later, he recalls them being too old to march but were driven in automobiles. Around that time he got to play in a band conducted by John Philips Souza.
For my part, I got to meet Ronald Reagan in 1976.
Ten years before that I got ride in an elevator with Ann-Margret. I was 10 years old and the perfect height!
The Texas City Disaster dwarfs the Molasses Flood on body count, and is at least equally obscure for most.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
I’m just glad there are people around whom I don’t ping who keep track of stuff like this.
Thanks! If I ever go back, I’ll try it.
All of the buildings in the area affected by the molasses flood are old, porous brick. As a student, there were a couple of hot days when I noticed the smell before I ever learned about the molasses flood or saw the plaque. It could have been the smell from from the local businesses, but the smell was different than in other parts of the North End.
I'm not saying it was molasses . . . but there was a slight, inoffensive, sweet odor. And with all of that old brick and cracked mortar, I don't believe you could ever clean the area of molasses short of tearing it down and rebuilding it.
Heck a couple of years ago, didn't the North End get "solar
powered trash cans (@ $20K/pop), only to find out that
narrowness of the streets precluded sufficient sun for the
things to work?
No UV rays to kill off the little critters.
(The US Park Service found that out when Algor was VP and they
built solar powered toilets (the ventilation fans, iirc) on the
North side of shading trees. No O2 or UV.)
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