Modern Mysteries

Mystery surrounds 1919 'wave of molasses'

By T.K. Randall
November 27, 2016 ·  16 comments

The flood of molasses proved devastating. Image Credit: Public Domain It had been a cold January day in the Massachusetts capital when a massive tidal wave, not of water, but of molasses burst from a holding tank in the city's North End.

Two million gallons of the sweet substance rushed across the waterfront, forming a wave up to 40ft high that destroyed buildings, overturned vehicles, killed 21 people and left 150 others injured.

While the event itself is indisputable, exactly what combination of conditions lead to such a deadly wave of syrup has puzzled experts for the better part of 100 years.

Now though, a team of scientists and students at Harvard may have finally found the answer to the mystery and it is all to do with the temperature of the molasses relative to that of the outside air.When the molasses initially arrived at Boston harbor it had been heated up which made it less viscous and thus easier to transfer to a storage tank.

When the tank burst a few days later the molasses were still significantly warmer than the winter air outside, so while it flowed very rapidly across the waterfront to begin with it quickly thickened, trapping unwary bystanders who found themselves unable to escape.

If the accident had occurred in warmer weather the flow would have stayed thinner for longer.

"It's a ridiculous thing to imagine, a tsunami of molasses drowning the North End of Boston," said Professor Shmuel M. Rubinstein. "But then you look at the pictures."

Source: New York Times | Comments (16)

Tags: Boston, Molasses