molasses massacre

From: phil@rahul.net (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Re: Great Boston molasses flood?
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 00:10:30 GMT

Scott Larson writes:
>Can anyone confirm or deny that years ago there was a "great molasses
>flood" in Boston.

On January 15, 1919, a molasses tank belonging to the United States Industrial
Alcohol Company, located near the junction of Commercial and Causeway Streets
in Boston, burst when the temperature rose to an unseasonable 43 degrees F.

A trolley freight terminal and several warehouses and homes were destroyed.
Support pillars for the elevated railway were bent.  Twenty-one people
were crushed, drowned, gooped, or otherwise molassassed to death.

The cleanup was a tedious process.  Legend has it that streetcar seats were
sticky as far west as Worcester.

>Why can't I find any mention of it in an encyclopedia? 

Either it's not in the encyclopaedia or you looked in the wrong place.

Phil "Feeding Lee a rather obvious straight line" Gustafson


January 25, 1995