Slow as molasses? Sweet but deadly 1919 disaster explained
BOSTON — The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 — one of Boston’s most peculiar disasters — killed 21 people, injured 150 others and flattened buildings when a giant storage tank ruptured.
Now Harvard University researchers think they know why the wave of sticky stuff claimed so many lives: A winter chill rapidly cooled the molasses as it streamed through the streets, complicating rescuers’ frantic efforts to free victims.
A team of experts who studied the disaster to gain a better understanding of fluid dynamics concluded that cold temperatures quickly thickened the syrupy mess, which might have claimed few if any lives had it occurred in spring, summer or fall.