One of the strangest catastrophes of the twentieth century

95 years ago in the United States could be one of the most bizarre disasters of the twentieth century: the part of the city of Boston was flooded sticky sweet liquid. Archival photos and facts about the "flood" - in this post.

1. Morning January 15 issued not in the winter warm - sunny weather lured into the street hundreds of residents north of Boston. Most of them were natives of Ireland and Italy.

Suddenly, the city boomed low rumble - cast-iron tank burst of Purity Distilling.

In the photo: the company before the accident





2.



3. A moment after the accident at the Boston street Commercial Street collapsed wave of black crude molasses two storeys high.

All this happened during the gradual implementation of the "dry law". The fermented molasses while widely used for the production of ethanol. On the eve of the introduction of a total ban owners, respectively, sought to produce and implement as many as possible of products ...



4. Unusual stream overflowed and adjacent to the port areas. Escape from a fast wave was beyond the power of any passers-by, or even horse harness. Sugar-containing liquid wave swept through the city streets with a speed of 60 km / h.



5. As a result, two million gallons of molasses, which were to go to the production of rum, swept to death 21 people. Lessons from molasses body was almost impossible to identify.

Another 150 residents went to the hospital with various injuries.



6. Look at the chaos and curious townspeople gathered that immediately mired in sticky residue. Is it any wonder that the molasses soon spread throughout the city.



7. Black wave destroyed several buildings and even brought down the railroad overpass. Several horses that are not drowned in molasses have been so much stuck with it, that they had to shoot.



8. The rescue operation lasted four days.



9. In the aftermath of the city became a division of the US Navy, and to clear the streets of the city from molasses, took 87,000 man-hours. For a long time local residents suffered from breathlessness and coughing.

Port of Boston for another six months after the accident remained brown.



10. "The store closed due to molasses»

Hard to believe, but some residents of Boston say that so far from the old buildings in the city on hot days odor of caramel.

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