Comment Re:15 foot high waves of molasses (Score 1) 592
Actually, the devastation was pretty extreme for that portion of Boston.
See:
http://edp.org/molasses.htm
It turned out to be a huge debacle in the city, due to the important nature of molasses at the time (this was right before WWI and molasses is used to make munitions) and the destruction it caused to one of Boston's poorest and most crowded neighborhoods.
Plus, the racial component. There was a scare in the city at the time about Italian anarchists trying to stop the American war machine, and the disaster was initially blamed on them.
There's an excellent book about it. I've read it and heartily recommend it to people interested in wierd history or Boston history. It covers all the factors that caused the accident, the accident itself, and the massive legal case that resulted from it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807050210/sr=8-2 /qid=1149249807/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-9498425-1206560?_ encoding=UTF8
See:
http://edp.org/molasses.htm
It turned out to be a huge debacle in the city, due to the important nature of molasses at the time (this was right before WWI and molasses is used to make munitions) and the destruction it caused to one of Boston's poorest and most crowded neighborhoods.
Plus, the racial component. There was a scare in the city at the time about Italian anarchists trying to stop the American war machine, and the disaster was initially blamed on them.
There's an excellent book about it. I've read it and heartily recommend it to people interested in wierd history or Boston history. It covers all the factors that caused the accident, the accident itself, and the massive legal case that resulted from it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807050210/sr=8-
