Hometown History

Hometown History

Boston, Massachusetts: The Great Molasses Flood That Changed American Law

On January 15, 1919, at about 12:30 in the afternoon, a massive steel storage tank at 529 Commercial Street in Boston's North End ruptured and released 2.3 million gallons of molasses in a wave fifteen to twenty-five feet high moving at thirty-five miles an hour. The Purity Distilling Company tank stood fifty feet tall and ninety feet across and held twelve thousand tons, and it had been leaking since the day it was first filled in December 1915. Company treasurer Arthur P. Jell, who had no engineering background at all, oversaw its construction with steel roughly fifty percent too thin and low enough in manganese to turn brittle in cold weather. When the neighborhood complained about the leaking, the company painted the tank brown to hide the seepage. Twenty-one people died and roughly 150 were injured. The lawsuit that followed, one of the largest class actions the country had seen, ran five and a half years, with 341 days of testimony, before auditor Hugh W. Ogden ruled United States Industrial Alcohol completely liable. Timeline of Events Spring 1915: Hammond Iron Works fabricates the steel panels in Brooklyn and the tank goes up at 529 Commercial Street. December 1915: The tank is filled for the first time and begins leaking immediately. The company paints it brown. 1915 to 1918: Neighbors complain, no structural repairs are made, and children collect the leaking molasses in cans and pails. January 13, 1919: A steamer arrives from the Caribbean with warm molasses, and the tank is filled to capacity. January 15, 1919, about 12:30 PM: The tank ruptures. Twenty-one people are killed and roughly 150 injured. January 16, 1919: The Eighteenth Amendment is ratified the day after the disaster. It did not outlaw industrial alcohol, but the timing coincidence gets told wrong constantly. 1920: Hearings begin in the consolidated class-action lawsuit. April 28, 1925: auditor Hugh W. Ogden rules United States Industrial Alcohol completely liable and awards $628,000 in damages, about $11 million today. After 1925: Massachusetts passes laws requiring engineering stamps on plans for industrial structures. Historical Significance The Great Molasses Flood changed how America regulates industrial construction. Massachusetts passed the first laws requiring professional engineers to certify plans for industrial structures, which ended the era when a company treasurer with no engineering background could make structural decisions about infrastructure sitting in a residential neighborhood. Boston wrote its first comprehensive building codes covering industrial and residential structures alike. The five-and-a-half-year lawsuit set precedent for corporate accountability in industrial disasters, and the case is still cited as an engineering teaching example. Metallurgist Ronald Mayville's 2014 analysis confirmed what the victims' lawyers argued in 1920: the steel was fifty percent too thin and dangerously low in manganese. The North End rebuilt, and Langone Park stands near the tank site today. Sources Massachusetts Superior Court records, 1920 to 1925 Ronald Mayville metallurgical analysis, 2014 WPA Guide to Boston Boston Globe and Boston Post accounts, 1919 Engineering case-study literature on the disaster If you liked this: Episode 179, Gay Head, Massachusetts. Another Massachusetts disaster where the death toll came down to decisions made long before anyone drowned. Hometown History explores forgotten stories from small-town America. The overlooked events, hidden triumphs, and buried tragedies that shaped the country we live in. New episodes every Tuesday. Find every episode at mythsandmalice.com/hometown-history Episode 216 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy