31.7 Did molasses really kill 21 people in Boston?
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This article is from the Chemistry FAQ, by Bruce Hamilton B.Hamilton@irl.cri.nz with numerous contributions by others.
31.7 Did molasses really kill 21 people in Boston?
From: mica@world.std.com (mitchell swartz) Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1993
Subject: Molasses Accident
[excerpt from the Book of Lists #3 (Wallace et alia)]
THE GREAT BOSTON MOLASSES FLOOD
"On Jan. 15, 1919, the workers and residents of Boston's North End, mostly
Irish and Italian, were out enjoying the noontime sun of an unseasonably
warm day. Suddenly, with only a low rumble of warning, the huge cast-iron
tank of the Purity Distilling Company burst open and a great wave of raw
black molasses, two stories high, poured down Commercial Street and oozed
into the adjacent waterfront area. Neither pedestrians nor horse-drawn
wagons could outrun it. Two million gallons of molasses, originally
destined for rum, engulfed scores of persons - 21 men, women, and children
died of drowning or suffocation, while another 150 were injured. Buildings
crumbled, and an elevated train track collapsed. Those horses not
completely swallowed up were so trapped in the goo they had to be shot by
the police. Sightseers who came to see the chaos couldn't help but walk in
the molasses. On their way home they spread the sticky substance throughout
the city. Boston smelled of molasses for a week, and the harbor ran brown
until summer."
From this we see 21 people were killed, the half life was fairly short for
the contaminants. Long term effects were probably negligible.
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