Over forty years ago I worked for a company that retailed Muskin and Doughboy above ground pools. And you always had people who just wanted to put them up in their backyards as quick as possible. When we put them up for customers, we always leveled the area, and provided a sand base under the liner. People always complained about the costs, and "that sand is killing my lawn.' "It's only water." Well, each gallon of water is 8.34 pounds, and your 30 ft diameter pool holds about 19,000 gallons. It's not neurosurgery to figure out that's a lots of force. Every cubic yard weighs about what the original Volkswagen Beetle did, so, when you see that water coming toward your home because you put your pool up incorrectly, imagine a VW Beetle coming towards your sliding glass doors at 35 mph...
I recall as a 6 year old kid, back in 1957 having so much fun in a 'Doughboy' above ground swimming pool at a friend's home. It seemed like a giant ocean to me. My first car was a 1967 VW Beetle that I bought used in 1972. Great fun in that pool, great car that I owned until 1979. Your comment had double the affect on my ability to image a 1967 Beetle coming at my friend's living room window, not far from that swimming pool! Great comment Mr. Manthony1956! A little sticky, but GREAT history story Mr. History Guy!
@@dennisammann9104 I owned my last Beetle in 1994. I owned five Beetles between 1974 and 1994, and a fastback. I can honestly same I am overly familiar with the Beetle and repairs. Still have my copy of "How to Repair your Volkswagen. For the Compleat Idiot.
I used to watch Doughboy take advertising photos at the plant located behind my office. they would have people out there on a cold day getting in and out of those pools for the photos. They had plant on pallets so they could move them from pool to pool for land scaping. I do not know what the original VW bug weighted but a Cubic yard of ware weights about 1686 pounds.
I work on these above ground storage tanks. In fact, I am in the process of upgrading a original 1920 Chicago Bridge and Iron 117'-6" diameter tank for crude oil storage. It was moved to its present location in 1942 for oil storage in Gaines County Texas. By the next inspection/repair cycle this tank will be 110 years old. Pretty good for a riveted tank. The Boston disaster is believed to have been caused by overfilling with material heaver than the designed liquid. The tank could have safely sustained a load of liquid with a specific gravity of 1.0(water). Instead the specific gravity of liquid molasses of 1.4. That is 40% more than the tank was designed to hold. The operator had regularly overfilled the tank probably increasing the cause of failure. The rivet holes were cold punched which was the process of the day. This resulted in cold working of the edge. Due to rudimentary quality control when the steel plate was made it has always been suspected the point of failure was caused by an anomaly in the steel plate at the rivet hole and brittle fracture of the cold worked plate. The temperature changes and time if year points toward this. The failure in January 2, 1988 in Pennsylvania spilling 1 million gallons of diesel into the Monongahela shed light on this tanks suspected failure. The closed vent is now believed to be only a secondary contributor to the failure. These riveted tanks were built with a safety factor of 5 where mass and thickness were substituted for engineering knowledge. Today we have the luxury of poo pooing what happened then. But the definitive book on Above Ground Storage Tanks was not written until 1997. American Petroleum Society 12C and 650 were not published until after WW2 and the first riveted standard was published in 1936. Even today there is no such thing as a Above Ground Storage Tank engineer. Most come from mechanical or civil engineering disciplines. A truly fascinating but obscure subject in my field of endeavor.
Curtis Stewart I live in Gaines County Texas! 😅 Thanks for ensuring that tanks are made/ensuring they are safe. It’s amazing what past disasters were forgotten, and the lessons they taught us. People complain about “big government and regulations”. I tell them about this disaster, the Halifax disaster, the Coconut Grove disaster in Boston, and the forgotten turn of the century Iroqui theater fire. The Iroqui Fire occurred in a massive theater during a X-Mas performance. Was rated safe and fire proof. Even had asbestos curtains. But a fire was caused by a lamp, the place was over capacity, and the exists were blocked and locked to prevent people from sneaking in. Over 400 people, mostly women and children, died. The nation was so shocked theaters across the country were suddenly closed, inspections were done, and new regulations were made. A new invention you see on emergency exits, the Panic Bar was invented as a result. People can’t enter the building, but simple pressure on a metal bar would cause the door to open. Sadly, this only applied to theaters. It was not until the Coconut Grove on Boston did these rules about occupancy and proper fire exits get applied to restaurants and other public buildings. Over 300 died in that fire. The exits had been bricked up (mafia fears from owner) and the doors only opened in, not out. So the doors could not be pulled in by the panicking people trying to get out due to the “Crush” behind them from desperate people. Thick windows forced firefighters to watch people helplessly die right in front of them. It was so traumatizing that the city and nation rewrote the fire code. The city of Boston even banned the name “Coconut Grove” to ever be used. Look up “Triangle Coat Fire”, “The Station Fire” too. A news camera man was there and he caught on film the fire starting due to outdoor pyrotechnics being used inside. Dear God. You can see the ”Crush” of human bodies at the door, dying. So after I tell those stories, the people don’t complain about “government meddling” as much. Some regulations, like the fire code, are not written in ink. They are written in blood!
@@TreeTop1947 thanks for reading my little missive. The oldest I ever worked on was a 1897 Graver tank built for Standard Oil in East Chicago. Just east of the Whiting Refinery. Put a new bottom in and caulked all the rivets. This was in 1995. The tank remained in service until 2015 when it was took down and scrapped. I always felt good it got another 20 years of service. Just like the one I am on now. With any luck it will still be in service in 20 more years and I probably will be gone by then.
Regulations may be different in your part of the world, but here you're required to have bunding (raised earth dams all around the storage facility) which can contain _at least_ the volume of the largest tank. And can be isolated from sewer and stormwater systems. As well as being well away from commercial or residential areas.
Curtis Stewart This is exactly the way I feel about the forty to seventy five year old locomotives I work on. If I can make them last another twenty five years I have done well.
@@raydunakin Absolutely! I've seen engineering companies relocate to other countries where safety regulations are either absent or weak. The result: No safety equipment (as in guards on moving parts). The same companies that boast about how much effort they put into protecting employees.
@Andy Peek To make matters worse, it's not just that profit rules, but short term profit. As an example, the money saved by rushing the 737 MAX's initial development and certification is dwarfed by the long term costs. But of course the managers and exectives have already collected their bonuses.
I suspect that you studied every incident the Ideas program that went over this disaster also covered in some class or seminar, such as the Citigroup Center non-disaster, the business with the road bridge in New York State that collapsed because some bureaucrat decided that replacing the rip-wrap around the pier bases wasn't important enough to spend money on (luckily with no loss of life because it had a properly engineered failure mode that alerted everyone well before it fell), or the collapse of the bridge in the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency.
In almost every story I've read so far, it either includes a company cutting corners or ignoring other safety concerns On a lighter note, the London sewage system still has remnants of the original construction. The Engineer (Joseph Bazalgette) had calculated the dimensions needed for the sewage to service 1800's London, and then doubled it
@@Harshhaze I have seen the drainage systems they built for the creeks and rivers that run under London now. The brick work is amazing and still in beautiful condition. Nothing like building something the right way.
This event is very close to home for my family: my Great Grandfather was nearly a victim of the spill, had he not swapped shifts. The man he swapped with was killed.
I have read elsewhere that the clean up was complicated because the warm spell ended and all of the molasses froze and turned the streets and sidewalks into a glassy, slippery surface, you risked your back and neck trying to walk on it.
My favorite little factoid from the reports of this event is that the Molasses Flood made everything around it sticky. But humans tracked the stickiness everywhere. Due to trains, Sticky foot prints were reported as far inland as Worcester MA 45 miles inland.
There was a TV show called "Engineering Disasters" on the History Channel -- you know, back when the History Channel actually covered *HISTORY,* and wasn't just another high-numbered cable channel with "reality" crap being broadcast 24/7. Anyway, on that show, *many* years ago now, they featured an episode about this disaster. So surprising how many things have to go wrong at the same time for a disaster like this to happen. Thanks for reminding us of this important historical event, History Guy!
LMacNeill Yep I hate the reality garbage also. Thanks for mentioning where you viewed the story. I couldn;t remember, when making an earlier comment. I forgot that it was replayed on the History Channel about 3 weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to view this video's version, yet, because I'm recording a daily radio broadcast from over the internet. I can't listen to one while the other is recording. Anyway, THC's version showed a map of movement of the molasses, of rum and slaves as part of the business and the purpose of molasses. Like many, I hadn't known until view the THC episode Now that it's here, I can refer this easily to others. Have a great day..
@@vinyltapelover Yeah, I like THG's unique perspective on things. He delved into some details that the History Channel show didn't. I always enjoy learning more facts about an event, when possible. This is definitely one of my favorite channels on RU-vid.
I loved that show, Tales of the gun was another good one. Its a shame history Channel is what it is now but RU-vid and podcasts have pretty much filled that gap.
Same with my dad. He says on hot days you can still smell the molasses. I'm not sure that is true but still sounds like a story dad's everywhere like to tell.
I remember reading about this in Reader’s Digest while in Jr. High School in the mid sixties. The story said that when the weather us just right you can still smell the molasses in The North End.
Absolutely true! I remember a while back the city was doing some work in the park near there on a really hot summer day, it wasn’t to strong but you could smell it.
My grandmother was a young nurse in Boston, and had very recently been through the Influenza pandemic in the city, and then this. She had been a little girl in San Francisco's 1906 earthquake, and she said though on a much smaller scale, this reminded her in many ways of that horror. She made fabulous molasses cookies when I was a child, but I remember her always talking about this when she poured the molasses.
On a related note: There was also a great _beer_ flood in London a hundred years prior. A brewery's tanks burst, with 8 people killed (mostly from being crushed by the debris the tidal wave of booze was pushing in front of it).
GaldirEonai kinda sad that that the beer flood has disappeared into the vaults of time, but the Forgotten beer flood of London doesn’t have the same ring as the Great fire of London.
My grandfather owned a laundry business and was making deliveries and on that day his horse refused to go any further on their delivery route and returned to his stable. My mother was told this story by her father and it is in our family history book that my niece put together in 2008.
I have known the story of the great molasses flood but I had no idea just how massive the storage tank was until I saw that photo of it. And to top it off, finding out that molasses is 40% more dense than water makes it a more respectable story.
Absolutely that is a FACT and not just a local legend. I confirmed this personally when I was in Boston on three different occasions during the Summer months of 2009, 12 and 16. The smell is light to moderate but definitely was present.
Apparently there were certain areas in Paris that dogs, cats, horses etc wouldn't voluntarily go, or couldn't be kept calm, for many decades after the revolution. They had been the locations of guillotines, & the animals could still smell the blood in the pavement. It's surprising how smells can linger in a place.
My paternal granddad worked in the area and confirmed this. He stated on hot days the smell was unmistakable even through the 1950s. I imagine that it could be detected these days as well.
This is one I missed during my many binge watchings. Tasting History with Max Miller had an old video on Brown Bread and this disaster. I noticed THG vid recommended by RU-vid so, of course, I HAD to come over, see and hear! Thank you for always reminding us of the relevant. Big Biz accountability is an ongoing struggle and it is indeed a disaster that such horrible things have to happen to even consider new regulations in legislative bodies, locally and nationally. These episodes you work so hard on, DOES demand history be remembered!
Growing up in Massachusetts I would see snippets of info about the 'Molasses Disaster' throughout the years. One memorable piece was interviewing older folks who grew up in the area of the disaster. It was said on hot summer days some areas of the neighborhood effected smelled of molasses well into the 1970's.
I live in Boston, and growing up, in the summer we could smell the Molasses. When they work on the streets of the North End they always encounter a layer of Molasses under the road, and sidewalk.
I learned little history in school. It was dates and names...no context to my world it seemed. It was only as an adult and better resources that history began to be fascinating. Thank you History Guy for always providing perspective and context.💜
The Boston molasses tank collapse was one of the first detailed analysis of a failure that involved brittle fracture of a metallic structure and it contributed to the development of the science of fracture mechanics. This is quite different from normal quasi-static structural analysis and it is a crucial technique in the design of aircraft, ships and other large metal structures.
We usually learn when enough people are killed to make people angry and demand change from the policy makers. But we have a bad habit of forgetting the history end up repeating it
@@rom65536 It's a shame that there is always a big tug of war that unfortunately politicians use for their own ends. You have the ones who use disasters like this to put in regulations that are way over the top and increase costs and red tape to the point where it really can become hard to innovate or get into a particular field. Then you have the other ones who remove all regulations and say that businesses are responsible and have the best interest of their customers and will never deliberately endanger them ( extra helping of sarcasm there ). A happy medium can be found but policy makers are not interested in compromise.
The most awe-inspiring thing about this story is the guy investigating the incident hated anarchists, knew anarchists were being blamed for the incident, but DIDN'T give in to personal biases and allowed blame to fall on the right people. Call me jaded but I simply could not see that happening today.
We had to study this in my Industrial Safety Management class. A ' Wave of Molasses" sounds funny...but good Lord, this event would be terrifying in person. Every time I hear some knucklehead complain about OSHA, safety regulations or environmental law, I think of this and the Triangle Shirt Waste Factory fire.
There was a rather obnoxious individual on a construction health and safety I once attended who considered the whole premise of H&S as a waste of time and money for companies, that those who got killed or hurt deserved it for not paying enough attention, and that he was treating the event as a jolly. One of other attendees shut him up by stating that the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life was finding the strength to knock on the door of one of his employee's house to inform his wife that she had just become a widow.
When I was taking the class to become an OSHA Outreach instructor, the instructor of that class used a fire in a poultry plant where several people were killed because an exit was blocked as a case study. What made it hit home was when she revealed that one of the fatalities was her cousin.
@@nottmjas I've gone to more funerals than I should have because someone took the cheaper or quicker solution to a construction problem. Yes, we absolutely need health and safety regulations. Which is another reason to vote for candidates who support worker issues.
@@asbestosfibers1325 The most obvious problem with OSHA is the observation that there's an inflection point in the graph of the rate of industrial injuries in incidents when they came into force, and the rate of decline dropped to almost nothing. Businesses care about financial risk, like what comes from appropriate tort law for death and injury on the job. As one of the coal mining companies in the Province of Nova Scotia once said, "We can't afford to operate an unsafe mine."
All high school teachers could/should take a lesson from you. History isn't boring, nor is it just facts and figures that we are forced to memorize. History is this. The people, the stories, the uniquely American happenings that made us, US. If history was taught this way, YOUR way, I would've been a completely different student. You give the past a face, a personality. Even the story about TP...you make the seemingly uninteresting, VERY interesting. Thanks man, keep it up.
There is still one building standing that has the high-water mark, er molasses, stained on it, visible to the public. Thanks, THG, I hope it was my suggestion from many months ago that prompted you to do this well-researched presentation!
I spent two weeks installing a 24ft diameter pool when I was 16. It was during the summer. I drove a stake in the ground and took metal framing and made a 13' long pivot arm to measure out a perfect circle by marking the edge as I pivoted the arm. I dug up all the sod, then I took mesh wire and filtered the grass and roots and debris from the dirt from the sod through it. I put that filtered dirt back in the area I had dug and put a level on the arm and leveled the entire area. That was the most difficult part of the job. My children swam in that pool over a decade later and years beyond. They were amazed when my Dad told them I was the one that put it in. My Dad explained what I had to do and I just did it. It really didn't seem that hard. My Dad wired the pump though.
We talked about this in school back in 1974 or so. We were doing Geometry, or some other math I can't remember that far back! At the time I thought, "I bet NO one in that town ever ate molasses EVER again!!! I couldn't imagine drowning is molasses of all things. Thank you for this little history lesson!!
This right here. Why was “denim blue” so prevalent that it has its own Pantone ID (17-4021 for Faded Denim, 19-4118 for Dark Denim) How did the pockets get their shape? Why do women’s jeans have few or no pockets? Who / what led the change in social perception that blue jeans are for laborers, thugs and (maybe a stretch but don’t all good stories involve) pirates, to runway wear?
I lived 6 years in Boston back in the 80s (Southie and Dorchester) and learned more about this event in your 11 minutes than in all that time exploring around the area... thank you!
I worked as a journeyman boilermaker for years and we built tanks and pressure vessels. Thank goodness there are safely standards for tank building today.
This is a really good one. I'd like to see deep dives into the Halifax and Texas City explosions. They were incredible industrial disasters that could have easily been avoided.
"The tank was painted brown to hide leakage." Rumored to be the same reason Hitler wore brown pants... Great video as always, Mr. History Guy. I always learn something new.
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@@asbestosfibers1325 it's not a legend it's a joke.
If I remember correctly in 1934 the late comedian W.C Feilds had his own molasses problem in his movie It's A Gift.Thank you for your wonderful podcasts, they are informative, entertaining and a joy to view. Please stay happy and healthy during this pandemic.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York in 1911 is another horrific example of an incident that gave impetus to workplace safety. 123 women and 23 men died.
That was sooooo facinating! How much more convenient it would've been if it had just leaked into the Boston harbor. Who could've ever thought such a chain of events could happen? Rivets exploding, like bullets being fired! Makes you wonder if the fishing business was effected for a long time. What a mess.
Thanks for this episode. That event has always fascinated me. You have better pictures and a few details I had not seen before. I worked in the South Station area of Boston for several years. As mentioned by other commenters, my older colleagues told me that you could even still smell the molasses on a warm day at Quincy Market before the tourist rehab. I smelled it once in the area on a hot still day when we went to the Market for lunch.
"The end of an era when big business faced no government restriction on their activities, and no consequences". Actually, we'll call it the start of the temporary hiatus.... cuz it seems to me big business gets away with anything these days.
The Boston Molassicre is history that not only needs to be remembered, it cannot be *forgotten* when the summer heat brings the smell of the sweetener into the air in that part of Boston.
I remember some years ago when somebody first told me about this and about how much property and lives were lost, I thought it was some sort of urban legend or perhaps even a hoax- - but after looking it up, I was fascinated by the story. A couple of years ago I saw a book about it on Amazon and I bought it. Some of the photos were absolutely amazing. I especially recall one in which entire train cars had been knocked off their tracks by the wall of molasses. The book went in to quite a bit of detail - - for those who were unfortunate enough to perish, it was a horrible way to die.
I heard of people hearing about this. Legend has it that if the video is just right you can still see people comment that they know about this and that they can smell the molasses.
Some would consider it a frivolous documentary, but the consequences that resulted in the incident changed the legal responsibilities of companies. Another great and well told video!
Well done. I hit the like button even before you started talking. I had a great aunt who survived it. She was a tough old bird, loved to eat molasses and bread but obsessive about awareness and safety. No surprise there. Thanks for a good, solid video.
Why would anyone give a thumbs down . This man is teaching the ignorant the history of the world . Great channel and thanks for your expertise, wisdom and knowledge.
I had suggested this subject to THG some time ago. I was glad to see it this morning. Some of the injuries were just horrific. Bones broken and smashed. People in body casts suspended in twisted traction. My grandmother said that for years, people could smell the molasses on a hot summer day.
Great storytelling. The Boston disaster followed a similar molasses flood in New Orleans on Sept. 11, 1911, in which no one was killed, but many were trapped in houses and other structures, and had to be rescued. The New Orleans flood resulted from overlooking the fact that molasses (11.46 lb./gal.) weighs more than water (8.3 lb./gal.). The molasses was stored in a 20' tall brick reservoir occupying the block bounded by Religious, Market, St. Thomas, and Richard Streets. Built decades earlier by an old privately-owned waterworks company, the reservoir was used for molasses after the city's present publicly-owned water system went on line. Strong enough for water, it burst under the greater weight of molasses.
Years ago we had a fire that burned the upper floors of an old building in our downtown. There was a book store on the first floor and apartments above it. Several days after the fire the inspector found a cat hiding under an old heating radiator in a burned room, alive and in relatively good shape. I always thought that lucky cat used up a few of its nine live surviving that fire.
Very timely post. I am writing a story and needed research on this particular event, and here it is from my favourite historian, posted only seven days earlier. Cool.
A great presentation about a sad event in our history. I had read an article about this disaster in the American Legion magazine that Dad subscribed to, around 60-65 years ago. You had far more details and better illustrations.
This is one of my favorite historical stories. Granted, it is sad but there is also an interesting irony to it considering how liquor was made illegal a short time afterwards. Reports say that the streets would run brown after rain storms and the harbor reeked of molasses for months afterwards. Some people say even today in the right conditions you can smell a subtle hint of the syrup in the air
He reads for enjoyment? Obviously something you taught him since our schools no longer seem interested in teaching or advocating the accumulation of facts and knowledge. You are to be commended.
@@tn_bob5740 thank you sir. In our home reading is the main form of entertainment indoors. Social media does not exist in his world yet. Outdoor activities are our primary focus. We live on the Oregon coast so there are many exciting things to do.
@@tn_bob5740 I didn't think it was really worth the effort in all honesty. I enjoy conciseness when I have the opportunity for it Also though, I think my 'reply' Was a 'response' lmao A word or phrase's usage, common or not, as a slang term or colloquialism doesn't detract from it's meaning or intent, and if it gets my point across, why not use it? :P
I remember this exact story. I’ve been to Boston. Me and my family had to hike across the streets of Boston just to get to the former North End of Boston. There’s only a plaque to remember the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.
I love the new intro flag with music. I know of a part of Appalachian history that you might want to share. It involves the largest civil insurrection since the civil war. After the prosperous years of coal mining that had moved west to the Appalachians, it declined after WWI. The "Owners" passed their losses onto the miners, cutting wages and controlling them using a script, and evicting them from their company homes, gunning them down, etc...you know the deal. The miners finally took up arms and fought against this including the United States Army which dropped bombs on the miners during the conflict. One of the pilots was Billy Mitchell himself.
The place where it happened is very close to the Copps Hill Cemetery, which is just up the hill from the front of the Old North Church. We used to stay around there on family vacations, and now that area is an urban park. In other words, it's a 5 minute walk at most from the "red line" trail through the city.
I have known about this disaster for years and it always amazes me that so few people today remember, care or know about it. I got the chance to visit the North End in Boston, and when you walk down the streets by some of the building that were there when this happened, you can actually see a line "etched" in the brick that shows the level of the molasses when it ran down that particular street or alley-way. In some places, it's almost four feet! I weep for those people that were lost and the horses that had to be put down; while it's great it was the start of business accountability, we still haven't gotten anywhere close to holding their feet to the fire when justified.
Very interesting ! A wave 25 feet high of molasses is hard to imagine . It sounds like something from a horror movie ! Those poor people, what a terrible way to die. Thanks for this important historical account.
What about the poor horses who could have been saved but they killed them instead because they couldn’t be bothered. How would you like to be shot while still fully alive but struggling to get out of that sticky crap. How would like that?
Thanks for doing this piece. I served in the US Coast Guard, base Boston from '76 to '78, just blocks from this historic site. Your thorough analysis and presentation went far and beyond anything I have read about this in the past. Great work History Guy!
Thank you. I was first made aware of this in a high school history class...I sure wish that you had been my history teacher. Keep up the good work, we love your channel.
In the book “Dark Tide” about the disaster, the author recounts the struggle of the fireman who died. He was pinned by rubble but by tipping his head back all the way, could get clear to breath. Eventually his strength started to give out, and his head would dip into the molasses, only to jerk back out again gasping for air. Before rescue could arrive, and with his buddies begging him to hold on (they couldn’t reach him either) his face went into the molasses one last time and he drowned.
I ran across a book about this disaster a few years ago. I had never heard anything about it. But I found it to be an interesting tale that many would probably never hear of.
or anything other than accounting really, look at the ford pinto, the bloody thing had nothing between the exhaust and the fuel tank, so if you got rear ended, boom. A memo leaked from ford accounting stating that it was more expensive to recall the cars affected or even change than to keep paying compensation. that did not end well for the ford company.
I recently learned this history bit on another channel but I wanted your spin on it. History not confined solely on battles is my cuppa tea. Really enjoy your story telling.