In Boston, February 1916, Isaac Gonzales started his first day as the maintenance man looking after a 50-foot tall/90-foot diameter molasses storage tank. Isaac listened carefully as his boss William White walked him around the storage tank and property, showing him how to keep the intake clear, how to get molasses from the ships in the harbor to the storage tank and then on to a pipeline or to the train. It was his lucky break – jobs had been scarce lately. He noticed some molasses dripping through the seams of the tank, which concerned him (though the great rumbles and roars of the tank at various points in the day concerned him even more). He mentioned his concerns, but they were brushed off.
After a while, Isaac got so nervous about the state of things that he showed up at his boss’s boss’s office without an appointment. He went right up to Arthur Jell’s desk and dumped enormous rust flakes from the tank right in front of him. Arthur said, “I don’t know what you want me to do. The tank still stands.” Isaac was risking his job and he had no idea how unlikely Arthur P. Jell was to listen to him. You see, Arthur had been the company secretary when they asked him to be in charge of building that very tank. He was told that if he was able to get the thing done before the end of 1915, there would be a promotion in it for him. Arthur had zero background in construction or engineering. The tank had no permit, no city inspection.
Its steel walls were too thin for the weight and pressure of the molasses. The rivets were flawed. Structural engineers knew how to build a safe and secure tank at the time. It’s just – none of them were consulted for this tank. It wasn’t properly inspected, cracks were ignored, and no safety checks happened over the years. The builders said Arthur should fill the tank with saltwater to make sure it didn’t leak. Arthur figured that the water would be expensive. He filled the tank with 6 inches of water and called it good. When the company was first informed about the leaks, their response was to calculate which would cost more: keeping the leaks or fixing the problem? Since the leaks were cheaper, they left it alone. They had had record profits in 1914 and they meant to keep it up.
In June 1916, after Isaac’s repeated complaints, Arthur had the tank recaulked twice, which didn’t help. Isaac began having nightmares so severe that he went to check on the tank in the middle of the night to make sure it was still standing. Some nights, he even slept by the tank! Arthur treated him like an annoyance. Then, in August 1918, Arthur had the tank repainted brown (you know, molasses-colored, like the leaks). Out of sight, out of mind wasn’t good enough for Isaac. Eventually, Isaac had enough and he quit. A few months later, the tank burst.
It’s hard to imagine two million gallons of molasses pouring into your neighborhood. That’s enough to fill 3.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools! And it wasn’t slow and sludgy, either. It moved up to 35 mph, with waves that sometimes crested 15 feet (or more!). A number of people and animals died; a train car was knocked off the tracks; buildings were swept away. Molasses was waist-deep in the streets. It took more than 87,000 hours of work to get everything cleaned up. It’s not hard to see who had the truth of things in the end.
Resources:
-https://books.google.com/books?id=e9OHvbC0_BoC&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=%22william+white%22+%22molasses+flood%22&source=bl&ots=9DrRyVhsI0&sig=ACfU3U0YakT_0D6hFS5t6qBZEwr8K32X9A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYubOticqGAxWyLtAFHQI5M6o4ChDoAXoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q=%22william%20white%22%20%22molasses%20flood%22&f=false
– https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/250762/massachusetts-heavy-syrup-blues/
– https://www.history.com/news/great-molasses-flood-science
– https://peimpact.com/the-great-boston-molasses-flood/
– https://blog.kainexus.com/continuous-improvement/mistakes-were-made-the-great-molasses-flood-of-1919
– https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2019/01/the-great-molasses-flood#_ftn24
– https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/250762/massachusetts-heavy-syrup-blues/
– https://backstory.newamericanhistory.org/episodes/death-on-the-assembly-line/1/
– https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/great-molasses-flood/submoment/hugh-ogden-issues-report-on-cause-of-the-molasses-flood.html
– https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/12/20/816084/-How-Regulation-came-to-be-The-Great-Molasses-Flood
– https://digging-history.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/DHMagJanFeb19Promo.pdf