1919 — Jan 15 Molasses Tank Collapse/Flood, U.S. Industrial Alcohol Co., Boston, MA– 21
–21 Boston Fire Historical Society. Boston’s Fire Trail. 2007, p. 20.
–21 Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.”
–21 History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Jan 15, 1919. Molasses Floods Boston Streets
–21 National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).
–21 Puleo, Stephen. Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Beacon, 2004.
–17 Worthington. “The Molasses Tank Disaster in Boston.” Safety Engineering, V37/N1, p. 7.
–13 Snow. Marine Mysteries and Dramatic Disasters of New England. 1976, p. 22.
–12 Browne. “Molasses Tank Explosions,” NFPA Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4, April 1934, 310.
Narrative Information
Celebrate Boston: “On January 15th 1919, a huge storage tank of molasses exploded[1] without warning, and caused a wave of molasses and debris to travel down Commercial Street at 35 miles per hour. About twenty-one people were killed, and 150 people were injured. The value of all property destroyed was around $1,000,000 [or $12.4 million current dollars]. The tank was five stories high, and contained 2.3 million gallons of molasses. This event became known as the Boston Molasses Flood.
“Prohibition of alcohol consumption was being amended to the U.S. Constitution in 1919, and molasses is used in the manufacture of rum. Plans were made by the tank owners to convert their East Cambridge plant from the production of rum over to (still legal) industrial alcohol. A final batch of molasses for rum production arrived in November 1918—the ill-fated shipment. The tank had been hastily constructed 3 years earlier, and proper design and construction standards were not followed (rivet strength was not checked as an example).[2]
“The Boston Molasses Flood was historic for several reasons. The flood was tragic because many innocent people were killed, including a Boston firefighter who slowly drowned in the molasses, having been trapped in the debris in a nearby damaged firehouse. A class action lawsuit was filed, and $628,000 was eventually awarded to the victims, a large sum at that time. It was unusual for such suits to be successful back then. The tank’s owner had claimed an anarchist had blown it up, which was rejected.
“Some of the good results of the Boston Molasses Flood were improved engineering safety standards, such as the use of stamp plans (documenting changes during construction), architects authorizing all work, and more observation during the construction process.” (Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.”)
History.com: “Fiery hot molasses floods the streets of Boston on this day in 1919, killing 21 people and injuring scores of others. The molasses burst from a huge tank at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company building in the heart of the city. [“The tank had been hastily constructed 3 years earlier, and proper design and construction standards were not followed (rivet strength was not checked as an example).”]
“The United States Industrial Alcohol building was located on Commercial Street near North End Park in Boston. It was close to lunch time on January 15 and Boston was experiencing some unseasonably warm weather as workers were loading freight-train cars within the large building. Next to the workers was a 58-foot-high tank [5 stories] filled with 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses.
“Suddenly, the bolts holding the bottom of the tank exploded, shooting out like bullets, and the hot molasses rushed out. An eight-foot-high wave of molasses [moving at 35 mph (Boston Disasters)] swept away the freight cars and caved in the building’s doors and windows. The few workers in the building’s cellar had no chance as the liquid poured down and overwhelmed them.
“The huge quantity of molasses then flowed into the street outside. It literally knocked over the local firehouse and then pushed over the support beams for the elevated train line. The hot and sticky substance then drowned and burned five workers at the Public Works Department. In all, 21 people and dozens of horses were killed in the flood. It took weeks to clean the molasses from the streets of Boston.
“This disaster also produced an epic court battle, as more than 100 lawsuits were filed against the United States Industrial Alcohol Company. After a six-month investigation that involved 3,000 witnesses and 45,000 pages of testimony, a special auditor finally determined that the company was at fault because the tank used had not been strong enough to hold the molasses. Nearly $1 million was paid in settlement of the claims.” (History.com. This Day in History, January 15, 1919. “Molasses Floods Boston Streets.”)
National Fire Protection Association, 1934: “…a great disaster…happened in the famous collapse of a molasses tank in Boston on January 15, 1919, when twelve persons were killed, forty injured and vast damage was done to surrounding property….
“With regard to the Boston catastrophe of January 15, 1919, which Dr. Spengler terms an explosion, it should be stated that many engineering experts who investigated this disaster pronounced it a collapse and not an explosion. (See report of C. E. Worthington, Safety Engineering, January 1919.) The Boston tank was 90 feet in diameter and 50 feet high, the depth of the molasses being 48 feet, 10 in. The estimated quantity of molasses in the container at the time of the accident was over 2,000,000 gallons or approximately 12,000 tons….
“Chief Justice Bolster of the Municipal Court of Boston in his report of the inquest of the disaster (Quarterly, April 1919, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 372-3) made the following statement:
My conclusion from all this evidence is that this tank was wholly insufficient in point of structural strength to handle its load, insufficient to meet either legal or engineering requirements. I am satisfied that the adequate and predominating cause of this accident was a bursting from internal pressure exceeding its structural strength and I so find.
“…Mr. Harry E. Lake, Engineer of the Massachusetts Fire Prevention Commission, also stated in his report for January 15, 1919:
I am of the opinion that the rupture started at or near the weak patch plate or connection and the failure threw sufficient tension into the overstressed plates to cause the complete failure of the tank, and that the failure was due to the structural defects of the tank.
(NFPA. “Molasses Tank Explosions,” NFPA Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4, April 1934, 310.)
Worthington: “The tank, owned by the United States Industrial Alcohol Company, stood on the northerly side of Commercial street, nearly opposite the termination of Copp’s Hill Terrace, and perhaps 50 feet to the westward.
“The construction was steel, lap-jointed and double-rived (triple-riveted in the lower courses), with ¾ inch rivets. The plates were 15/16 inch thick at the base, graduating to 5/8 inch at the top. It was braced and stayed in the usual manner and surmounted by a conical cover, lightly secured, with a central ventilating pipe 6 inches in diameter and 4 manholes. The foundation was concrete with latticed steel reinforcement, upon which the bottom of the tank rested without intervening space. It was constructed in 1916.
“The dimensions were: Diameter, 90 feet; height of sides, 50 feet. The total capacity (completely full) was 2,385,000 gallons. The constructing engineer’s calculation gave a factor of safety of 100 per cent.
“The total dead weight of the contents with the tank was full was something in excess of 27,500,000 pounds, about 340 pounds per square foot of ground area.
“How the Tank Was Used: The tank was used for storage of low grade molasses for distilling. The molasses came by water from Cuban and West Indian ports, and was pumped from the holds of the vessels directly into the tank.
“From the large tank it was withdrawn by pumps passing through the adjoining pumphouse, and, being warmed in transit to secure fluidity, into a smaller tank in the adjacent shed, from which it was transferred by gravity to tank cars of the Electric Express Company, and taken by rail to the distillery in Cambridge. The officials of the United States Industrial Alcohol Company explicitly state that there were no heating pipes of any description in the tank, and they also deny the use of compressed air or other means of increasing pressure above the molasses, stating that all withdrawal was by pumping and that the ventilator was never closed.
“The location was immediately west of the City of Boston Paving Department Yard, upon which a series of frame structures extended nearly to the river bank, the engine house of Engine 31, Boston Fire Department, and a bath house terminating the row. Beyond there lay the North-End playground.
“Northward and westward were the pump house, a small fireproof structure, and the grouped freight houses and offices of the Electric Express Company, and southerly, across Commercial street, and extending from Copp’s Hill westward, a closely build series of small brick and frame buildings, mostly of inferior construction. Along the center of Commercial street extended the Elevated Railway.
“The tank was practically full. On November 28 there was received a cargo of 1,700,000 gallons, and on December 14, 600,000 gallons, the estimated contents on January 15 exceeding 2,000,000 gallons.
“On the Day of the Disaster. At noon on January 15 everything was apparently normal; the usual noon slackening of travel was on, the paving yard employees at lunch, and the firemen enjoying a game of cards.
“Ten minutes later the engine house was a heap of ruins, under which the imprisoned firemen struggled for life; the buildings of the paving yard had ceased to exist; the freight sheds to the north were crushed and wrecked; the great steel pillars of the elevated were bent and twisted until the girders sagged nearly to the street. One home on the south side of Commercial street was in ruins, and the rest flooded to the middle of the first story, and in several instances damaged beyond repair. The street, the paving yard and the playground were covered with debris and struggling men and horses, wrecked wagons and automobiles.
“A Collapse, Not An Explosion. The great tank had suddenly and silently and without warning opened and disgorged a wave of molasses, 45 feet high, impelled outward by gravity and the 370,000 lbs. of the tank roof, to sweep resistless force until it broke out against Copp’s Hill or lost itself in the Charles River.
“There was no explosion, all that was heard was what the firemen called a ‘rumbling like a passing train, but louder,’ evidently the noise of falling structures and tossing debris. In the majority of cases those who escaped had no warning until the molasses was upon them.
“The force was terrific; buildings were leveled; horses, wagons and automobiles swept away like feathers, one man being swept bodily from his auto and landing in the river where his rescue was effected by men from the warship.
“The total ascertained loss of life is 17, with a probability of additional victims being discovered later. The employees of the Alcohol Company and Paving Department suffered most severely. One death occurred in No. 534 Commercial, which was completely demolished, and two members of Engine Company were lost. A number of passers-by were swept to death and 50, more or less, severely injured….
“What apparently happened was this: From some at present unknown cause some rivets sheared on the easterly face and the tank at once opened up vertically, folding back upon itself, peeling away as it were from the contents, and the roof settled down, adding the impetus of its 370,000 lbs. or more to gravity in forcing out the great wave….” (Worthington. “The Molasses Tank Disaster in Boston.” Safety Engineering, V37/N1, p. 7.)
Sources
Boston Fire Historical Society. Boston’s Fire Trail: A Walk Through the City’s Fire and Firefighting History. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2007.
Browne, C. A. “Molasses Tank Explosions,” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 27, No. 4, April 1934, pp. 310-315.
Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Boston Molasses Flood, 1919.” Accessed 10-17-2017 at: http://www.celebrateboston.com/disasters/molasses-flood.htm
History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, January 15, 1919. “Molasses Floods Boston Streets.” Accessed 12-6-2008: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=01/15&categoryId=disaster
National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003). (Email attachment to B. W. Blanchard from Jacob Ratliff, NFPA Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, 7-8-2013.)
Puleo, Stephen. Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Beacon Press, 2004.
Worthington, C. D. “The Molasses Tank Disaster in Boston.” Safety Engineering, Vol. 37, No. 1, Jan 1919, pp. 6-7. Google digitized. Accessed 10-17-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=iSDOAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0
Snow, E. R. Marine Mysteries and Dramatic Disasters of New England. NY: Dodd, Mead, 1976.
[1] We use the term “collapse” in the heading in that, as is noted in the Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA, 27/4, April, 1934), “many engineering experts who investigated this disaster pronounced it a collapse and not an explosion.”
[2] On this point see NFPA/1934 below.