Legacy of the Molasses Flood

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Think again. more Americans listen to podcasts than add supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHart's twice as large as the next two combined. Len how podcasting can help your business. C eight four four. eight four four iHart Pushkin Boston january nineteen nineteen Guseppe Yantoska stands at his kitchen window, searching for his ten year old son All sorts of people come and go in Boston's North End, and Giuseppe likes to keep a close eye on littleittle Pasquale, or Pasqualino, as he's affectionately known at home Chusepppe doesn't speak much English likeike many of their neighbors, The Antoscas hail from southern Italy They're very poor Even with Gusepp's shift at the Boston and Maine raailroad Breaking work, laying track They struggle to make ends meet. Fresh milk and me are rare it is in the Antosca house, and Giuseppe and his wife Maria worry about their six small children Where is Pasqualino Giuseppe surveys commmercial Street, a thoroughfare beneath his window that curves along the water It's an unusually fine day for mid January And the harbour is bustling. Fishermen hurry to their lunch, a plate of spaghetti at home perhaps, or a pie from Pziale's bakery. Dock workers shout as they unload shipping crates, and horse drawn wagons hauling beer barrels mingle with pedlers' carts. Motorized trucks rattle to and from the factories that ring the north end Guseppe scans the elevated railroad that swoops above Commercial Street and the freight trains directly beneath it Finally He traces the hulking storage tank dominates the war His eyes flick to a tiny figure, clad in red Crouching in the shadow of the high steel walls Squillina Guseppe breathes a sigh of relief Down on the wharf, Pasquale Antoska and his friends, Tony and Maria Distasio Puddling beside the enormous storage tank fifty feet high and ninety feet wide It's grumbles and shudders And its sweet earthy scent are familiar to them The tank isn't designed to store diesel or grain All things dark Sugary liquid pools around the base of the tangle And the children like to play there, dodging stern railroad workers the sticky liquid into their pails Hurrying home with their syrupy treasure But today Pasqualino doesn't feel like playing He knows his father's watching him. He's also very hot Beath his bright red knitwear It's the second sweater his mother insisted he wear that morning She fears him catching a cold The day's mild. And the extra bulk also slows him down as he gathers firewood. tank gs, which isn't unusual A fresh load of the sugary substance has recently arrived from the Caribbean. Colino s up at the massive container. Fifty foot streams of molasses seep down its sides Tars I'm Tim Harford you're listen Tailes Arthur P. Jell had his work cut out It was late nineteen fourteen and had been tasked with building an enormous molasses container near Cambridge, Massachusetts Gell was asssistant treasurer at the Purity Distilling Company. partart of United States industrial alcohol USIA USIA processed molasses into alcohol for munitions like dynamite and smokeless powder So when Europe went to war in nineteen fourteen company had begun boosting production The plant in Cambridge was one of the largest in the country USIA struggled to keep up with demand It didn't have its own storage facility So it had to source its molasses from a broker in South Boston, rather than directly from the Caribbean Pace In turn Profits To truly make hay while the sun shone, USIA needed its own tank One that would be up and running by december the thirty first, nineteen fifteen And it was decided that reliable, efficient Arthur Jell. was the man for the job The deadline was virtually impossible Jel's bosses had hinted that if he succeeded, New York City promotion was on the cards He was determined to give it his best shot Stephen Pulio explains in his book Dark Tide, Jel had spent his professional life in a range of clerical positions. An experienced administrator, he was confident that he knew the right people consulted other tank manufacturers. factor of safety for a container like this one and ordered steel plates to form the sides of the cylindrical structure He also negotiated a lease for the perfect spot in Boston's North End Here, steam ships from the Caribbean could discharge the molasses The sugary substance could then travel on to the Cambridge plant by rail car. Sure, the area was densely populated, and there was a children's playground right next to the proposed tank site. Cell knew that the residents of the North End unlikely to resist the structure Many of them were poor immigrants from Italy's south They didn't speak English and kept to their own tight and clove. political participation was scant All the same, lease negotiations were slow. By the time Jell had secured the location, it was september nineteen fifteen Ticaking Ever resourceful, he installed electric lighting at the wharf so that the construction crew could work through the night But when a laborer fell inside the empty tank Jall So traumatized were the other workers by the dying m screams. Then a superstorm blasted Boston. We lost a further two days Jell couldn't afford any more embarrassing setbacks or expenses When the time came to test the tank for leaks He knew that they could only fill the massive structure by tapping into the municipal water supply This would be time consuming and costly So he came up with a solution The crew ran six inches of water into the bottom of the container to just above the first joint at its base. If the first joint didn't leak, why would the rest of them The tank held its six inches of water and Jel announced that it was ready It was late december, nineteen fifteen. He had met his impossible deadline. Business boomed From nineteen fourteen to nineteen sixteen, USIA's net profit increased nearly ninefold The investors were thrilled In april nineteen seventeen, the US declared war on Germany And Jell was ready to show the managers in New York. Boston could rise to the challenge. Mum The munitions factory in Pennsylvania was bombed, the work of foreign employees who were angry about the war Italian anarchists were said to be behind other similar bombings. Gell took note and increased security at the Boston tank A couple of weeks later, Jel ran into another complication A man called Isaac Gonzanz burst into his Cambridge office, uninvited and unapproved Gonzalez was also a USIA employee the assistant to the caretaker at the Boston tank And he was raving about some leaks in the structure Apparently the tank oozed gallons of molasses onto the wharf Everyone had noticed childildren even like to play with it. Gonzalez shoved tiny pieces of steel into Gel's hands and said that rusty fleckx dropped into his hair each time he entered the tank Jell did his best to keep calm This man was clearly paranoid E even obsessed. Molasses had a life of its own and leaks were normal. especially in a relatively new structure and especially after a fresh shipment Plus, Jel had had the tank resealed He knew it was being maintained He told Gonzalez that he needed to do a better job of keeping the neighborhood children away from company property. Shut him up, he thought. didn't shut him up. Next, Gonzalez revealed he'd been sleeping at the tank so that he could sound the alarm should it start to Thank Jel was disturbed Company employees should be returning home after work. The tank still stands. The tank will stand sbed Then he sent the man on his way, promising to fire him if he breathed another word of this nonsense. Yes, Arthur Jell was a reliable, efficient man. Nothing would hinder productivity on his watch saboteurs with bombs And certainly not some jumped up manual laborer Isaac Gonzalees return to his post. Trough nineteen seventeen and nineteen eighteen Other Bostonians muttered him The men of Engine thirty one Firehouse, which stood just along the wharf. commented on the obvious leaks that streaked its sides and the strange sounds it made When another local worker pressed his back against the tank He told Isaac, it felt as though the steel walls were Pulsing in and out flow of the liquid inside az continued his you secret, of course He knew he couldn't speak to jail again nineteen eighteen explain to his superintendent, William White. He waited to see if his bosses would do anything est crew arrived at the tank paint Jell had ordered them to dorub the gay steel walls. with a dark red brown Color Molasses Gonzalees had had enough quit his job and joining the army Portutionary toails Rurn If you run a business, consider this. seventy seven percent of Americans say our nation's two hundred fiftieth birthday is an appropriate time to celebrate That gives you the green light to advertise. Let iHardart help you advertise around America two hundred fifty. Get started today at iHardadvertising. com Being a small business owner isn't just a career, it's a calling Chase for Business knows how much heart and effort go into building something of your own. 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More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IiHart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus only IiHart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. podast can help your business, thinkink iH. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. call eight four four, eight four four iHart to get started. That's eight four four, eight four four iHart USIA had done well out of the war in Europe But when the armistice was signed in november nineteen eighteen It faced a steep fall in profits Assistant treasurer Arthur Jell. all too well. that the investors wouldn't be happy But all was not lost As the United States looked to ratify the eighteenth amendment of the Constitution USIA spotted a slim window of opportunity ambition of the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors wouldn't actually go into effect yeah during which time there would surely be a spike in alcohol sales USIA resolved to repurpose its distilleries for the liquor industry It would once again makeake hay while the sun shine january the twelfth nineteen, nineteen a ship Bruised into Boston Harbor One point three million gallons Molasses The dark, viscous liquid had been warmed to facilitate its transfer And it flowed easily into the tank By next morning the container was very nearly full It held two point three million gallons of the sticky substance Weighing roughly twenty six million pounds The weather in Boston had been bitterly cold And when the warm free flowing molasses coolder, thicker liquid already in the tank somethingomething unexpected happened The introduction of all that additional heat accelerated a fermentation process producing carbon dioxide The gas had nowhere to go And it began to push against the steel walls of the tank. USIA's only responsibility, as the company saw it was to maximize profit somehow that always seemed to mean profit now rather than profit later. And so Arthur Jell Prioritized speed Gth Qarterly returns. It sounds familiar M be because Silicon Valley has become famous or infamous a similar corporate logic Facebook's motto was move fast and break things And it became the tech world's battle cry A move fast and break things' culture can encourage innovation and banish fear of mistakes After all errors are partf of the course. especially when you're making something new And while slow and steady can bring small consistent benefits to a business Sowing caution to the wind might generate a single Massive paos When a corporation values efficiency and growth above all else can be other consequences Environmental costs, community welfare, and workers' rights. Fall by the wayside. Safeguards are eroded, accccountability dissolves Palm is written off cost of doing business january fifteenth, nineteen nineteen is a cloudy day in Boston, but unusually mild The weather has been punishingly cold of late, and the people of the North End take advantage of the slight thaw. At lunchtim, the harbour is a buzz. Workers eat their lunch on front steps and chatter on the sidewalks. The mood is meow. Tank suuperintendent William White has just received a phone call from his wife. She has her eye on a new dress and wants to go shopping together. It'll be a quiet workday now that the new load of molasses has been safely delivered, and White sees no reason not to spoil her Just before midday, he leaves his post If he'd lingered, he might have noticed Pasquale Antoska and the Distasio children sneaking onto the wall to collect firewood Instead, a railroad worker begins scolding Maria Distasio. You shouldn't be here, he chides. This isn't a playground Just along the wharf, the men of the Engine thirty one firehouse are playing whist on their lunch break. smoking their pipes and mocking Bay Ruth's ridiculous demands for a pay rise. The baseball star would never survive on a firefighter's wage, they scoff fifty six year old John Barry, a stone cutter for the city of Boston's Street Dpartment, has joined them from his workshop next door Surly and muscular, Barry is physically formidable. But his friends at the firehouse know that his ten children are never far from his thoughts sounded like Thunder One of the firefighters scrambles to a window. His face darkens with fear Oh my Godd, he cried, Run At his kitchen window, Giuseppe Yantoska jumps back in horror. He's been following his Pasqualino as he gathers firewood Tracing that bright red sweater as it bobbs along the grrey wharf. But something is just swallowed the little boy kind of Dg. Gleaming wave pushing forwards, tearing towards commercial street. Kitchen growls and shakes and before he can move, Gisep's been thrown to the floor It's his head Everything goes by Call boox on commercial Street. Policeman Frank McManus is making a routine report to headquarters Chilling sound someomewhere between a thundercloud. Cpe of metal. Makes him turn Receiver stilled his mouth C of quite Lieve what he's saying he manages to utter a few shocked words to the dispatcher seend all available rescue vehicles and personnel immediately There's a wave of molasses coming down commercial street What follows is the stuff of nightmares The tank has burst clean open, withts screaming through the air like shrapnels A worker, trapped in the railroad freight office, saw the tank's steel walls fly into other buildings which crumpled like eggs. two point three million gallons of molasses has rushed onto the wharf, a syrued tsunami thirty five feet high, one hundred sixty feet wide and traveling at thirty five miles per hour It snuffs out the daylight and wrenches the firehouse from its foundations on commercial stream. in the dining room of his second floor apartment Robert Burnett here's a Sish Brushing a wind A shadow falls across the room An hurres to the window G. bllack wave is bearing down on the house Burnette snatches at his front door, The wave is already surging up the stairs in the hallway He slams the door R rununs for the roof The wall of molasses rebounds off buildings, shattering windows and pulverizing brickwork It twists and snaps the steel girders of an elevated railroad, obliterating the track for more than a hundred feet Horses, carts and motor trucks are overturned, children and adults vanish. Stonecutter John Barry lies in total darkness Wood and metal crrushing his back It's agony He can bady breathe When the wave of molasses ripp fire house off its foundations building collapsed. Nurous syrup seeped through the debris Barry is trapped pinned face down O cheek grinding into molasses Only his left arm is free clears the vial liquid from his face as best he can Barry tries to call out to scream His voice is thin and reading. He imagines foul rats scuttling over his body burrowing their yellow teeth into his flesh. I'm glad to die hand thinkinks He wonders What will become of his ten children kitchen floor Tiseppi Jantoska comes too His wife Maria is crying in the corner of the room. One of their daughters is comforting her Cruised stunned. J said he pulls himself off and goes shakea lead to the front door. will find Pasqualino kills him Cutionary Tales will be back short. If you run a business, you know how hard it is to get your customers' attention. Yet eighty five percent of consumers say radio is the last thing they hear before shopping. Let iHart Radio help you reach your next customer today at eight four four, eight for four iHart Small businesses are the pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities and drive growth with a widespread presence in communities across the country, chase for business supports small business owners at a local level. That makes it possible for you to connect, learn from each other and grow together. There's a real commitment to seeing small businesses succeed The Chaseer businessiness team has knowledge and expertise that span a wide range of financial areas. They can help you make more informed decisions as you navigate the complexities of running your business. They'll help your business grow with individual guidance and convenient digital tools all in one place. With that guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther. build a brighter future for your community Learn more at chase d. com slash business Chase for business. M more of what's yours The Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices, message and data rates may apply. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA meber FDIC Copyright twenty twenty six JP Morgan Chase and Company runun a business and not thinking about podcasting. Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IiHart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus only IiHart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business? Think Hart, streaming, radio, and podcasting Eight four four, eight four four, Ii heart to get started. That's eight four four, eight four four, heart In the first moments of the disaster The molasses flowed through the streets of Boston like water pererhaps like ketchup being jiggled out of a bottle Molasses flow freely when being violently shaken, and exploding out of a high pressure tank is certainly a violent movement When molasses cools Ss On january the fifteenth, the temperature in Boston had climbed a little The winter air was still much cooler than the syrupy liquid And as it flowed out of the tank and through the streets began to slow shield Eound Its victims Boston Post explained It's snred and it's flawed was to be stifled Once it smeared ahead human or animal. There was no coughing off the sticky mass to attempt to wipe it with hands was to make it worse the nostrils almost airtight horses thrashed around in the gluey mass so many flies on sticky fly paper couldn't be freed ical relief station Nurses and orderlies streaked with molasses treated the injured They carried patients on sticky stretches. cutw away clothing and cleaned gaping wounds Anguished Bostonians clamored to know if their missing relatives were there. The lucky few were relatively unscathed Five year old Albert Jani had been picked up by the wave and drenched in molasses but was miraculously unhurt. once had been cleaned up and had something to eat, He was allowed to return home Others were taken straight to the local Mor In the ruins of the fire John Barry's back seeared with pain Despite his incredible strength He couldn't see anything either It was pitch black. he could hear something dread of energy he had left He strained his ears There it was again. man's voice He wasn't alone down here. His friends were imprisoned with him in the debris And then John Barry heard something else. the unmistakable sound of sores on wood and metal yielding to flame someomeone knew they were down there Someone was coming to get them Guseppe Yantoskca spent hours searching for Pasqualina too no avail Maria Distasio had been found She'd been right in the path of the monstrous wave and had suffocated immediately But her brother, Tony had survived He hadd been thrown against a lamppost and suffered a fractured skull The firefighter had managed to pull him from the morass before he drowned as Sepp's boy have been rescued Had he been swept into the harbour? Perhaps he was trapped beneath the debris on the wharf broken English, Guseppe frantically questioned the dazed and injured along commercial street No one had seen a little boy in a red sweater Firefighters had rallied to reach their trapped colleagues from Engine thirty one Spping and digging through the wreckage was perilous work With every move they made remains of the building shifted around them They found some of their fellows in time thirty four year old father of three, George Lahy dragged from the wreckage dead After three hours, and as many injections of morphine into his back John Barry heard a saw slicing away at the wood near his head. It was getting closer and closer and then Quite suddenly It's done And he felt the great weight be heaved from his back. The exhausted stone cutter was lifted onto a stretcher rush to hospital. When his stricken daughters reached the ward They didn't recognize him Their powerful father vanished. in his place F child. Arthur Jell visited the waterfront He was aghast at the devastation C There would be a plausible explanation for the disaster. One that absolved USIA and himself of any responsibility In the days that followed the flood Can up operation began. Businesses have been decimated And the harbour police picked all sorts of objects out of the water Rolls of cloth barrels of ale Tubs of lard Firemen spread sand on the pavements and dispersed the tenacious molasses with jets of salt water. On january seventeenth USIA issued a statement The company knew beyond question that the tank was not weak This calamity was the work of an outside influence It was another three days Gorgiuseppi and Maria Yantoska learned the fate of their son Rescue workers pulled the body of a little boy in a red sweater from the wreckage a railroad car carried fifty feet by the wave crrushed him into a wall Guseppe was asked to identify the child He was slicked with molasses And his face was horribly disfigured Weeping. Giuseppe lifted his red sweater So A second sweater underneath is heartbreaking He gathered Pasqualino's tiny body in his arms one hundred and fifty people were injured in the molasses flood And twenty one people lost their lives It was months before all the bodies were recovered inquest into the disaster Judge Wilfred Bollster rebuked USIA He was also scathing about the Boston Buildings Department The city had bypassed the proper permit procedures No one in the building's department had been qualified to assess whether the steel structure was fit for purpose and then accepted the paper design simimply because it bore the name of a civil engineer This single accident has cost more in material damage than all the supposed economies in the building department Laws are cheap of passage costly of enforcement Do not execute themselves Bolster declared Despite Judge Bolster's rebuke A grand jury found that there was insufficient evidence to return an indictment of manslaughter People of Boston were appalled USIA was getting away with it A group of Bostonians prepared to sue the company If nobody would go to jail for their carelessness could at least be made to pay a price but USIA had some tricks up its sleeve Today, it's generally believed that the Boston Molasses disaster was the result of brittle fracture the sudden catastrophic failure of the tank structure. po design. to withstand the strains they would experience tank walls needed to be at least twice as thick Over time, as the tank was repeatedly emptied and refilled Steel fatigued. fatal fracture probably began as a circular hatch at the base of the tank Engineers balance efficiency, resource allocation and safety. Arthur Joe oversaw the tank's rapid construction was a skilled administrator he wasn't an engineer His focus wasn't the complex harmony of function and long term public safety but short term profit. USIA regarded the residents of Boston's North End not as vulnerable individuals worthy of dignity. but as factors in a business model, The company had taken advantage of a power imbalance Knowing that the Italian Americans who lived near the harbor unlikely to resist the building of the molasses tank USIA also knew that people were suspicious of Italian Americans And its next move It sought to capitalize on that fear In the wake of the disaster, one hundred and nineteen Bostonians sued USIA arrguing that the great Vat of molasses had been structurally deficient and built without proper safeguards former caretaker Isaac Gonzalez, who'd warned after the Jail about the tank and been dismissed the stand and told of how molasses had oozed incessantly through the tank's riveted joins John Barry his hair now white from the stress of his ordeal also testified He could no longer work as a stone cutter because he couldn't stand up straight hurts all the time he said Its as though my spine is breaking. Doctor says there's no cure Guseppi Jant Toskca described the earth shattering moment his Pasqualino was engulfed by a dark wave USIA counted that Pasquale andnt Toska shouldn't have been there at all Comany is under no obligation to make its premises safe for trespassers snarled one defense attorney USIA held that at lunchtime on january fifteenth, nineteen nineteen unknown anarchists Probably Italian. bomb in the tank. The company had spent more than fifty thousand dollars on expert witnesses to support its claims continue to take this line even after a professor from MIT, testified that the tank had been of insufficient thickness to withstand the pressure of the molasses inside