136-The Boston Molasses Disaster
Futility Closet9 Tammi 2017

136-The Boston Molasses Disaster

In 1919 a bizarre catastrophe struck Boston's North End: A giant storage tank failed, releasing 2 million gallons of molasses into a crowded business district at the height of a January workday. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Boston Molasses Disaster, which claimed 21 lives and inscribed a sticky page into the city's history books.

We'll also admire some Scandinavian statistics and puzzle over a provocative Facebook photo.

Intro:

In 1888 three women reported encountering a 15-foot flying serpent in the woods near Columbia, S.C.

In 1834 the American Journal of Science and Arts reported the capture of a pair of conjoined catfish near Fort Johnston, N.C.

Sources for our feature on the Boston Molasses Disaster:

Stephen Puleo, Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, 2003.

Fred Durso Jr., "The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919," NFPA Journal 105:3 (May/June 2011), 90-93.

Sean Potter, "Retrospect: January 15, 1919: Boston Molasses Flood," Weatherwise 64:1 (January/February 2011), 10-11.

Kaylie Duffy, "Today in Engineering History: Molasses Tanker Explodes, Kills 21," Product Design & Development, Jan. 15, 2015.

Steve Puleo, "Death by Molasses," American History 35:6 (February 2001), 60-66.

Chuck Lyons, "A Sticky Tragedy," History Today 59.1 (January 2009), 40-42.

Dick Sinnott, "21 Persons Drowned in Molasses Flood," Reading [Pa.] Eagle, Jan. 15, 1959.

Edwards Park, "Without Warning, Molasses in January Surged Over Boston," Smithsonian 14:8 (November 1983), 213-230.

"12 Killed When Tank of Molasses Explodes," New York Times, Jan. 16, 1919.

Ferris Jabr, "The Science of the Great Molasses Flood," Scientific American, Aug. 1, 2013.

United Press International, "The Great Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919," Jan. 17, 1979.

Peter Schworm, "Nearly a Century Later, Structural Flaw in Molasses Tank Revealed," Boston Globe, Jan. 14, 2015.

William J. Kole, "Slow as Molasses? Sweet but Deadly 1919 Disaster Explained," Associated Press, Nov. 24, 2016.

Erin McCann, "Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly 'Tsunami of Molasses' of 1919," New York Times, Nov. 26, 2016. (The corn syrup video is midway down the page.)

Jason Daley, "The Sticky Science Behind the Deadly Boston Molasses Disaster," Smithsonian, Nov. 28, 2016.

Jennifer Ouellette, "Incredible Physics Behind the Deadly 1919 Boston Molasses Flood," New Scientist, Nov. 24, 2016.

The Boston Public Library has photos and newspaper headlines.

Listener mail:

Erik Bye's song on the 15th Wisconsin Regiment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o5TUozjQXw

Statistics Norway's names database.

Wikipedia, "Old Norse" (accessed Jan. 5, 2017).

This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Tommy Honton, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle).

You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset.

Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website.

Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode.

If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(365)

365-Lateral Thinking Puzzles

365-Lateral Thinking Puzzles

For this final episode of the Futility Closet podcast we have eight new lateral thinking puzzles — play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no questions. Intro:...

29 Marras 202132min

364-Sidney Cotton's Aerial Reconnaissance

364-Sidney Cotton's Aerial Reconnaissance

One of the most remarkable pilots of World War II never fired a shot or dropped a bomb. With his pioneering aerial reconnaissance, Sidney Cotton made a vital contribution to Allied planning. In this w...

22 Marras 202134min

363-The Lambeth Poisoner

363-The Lambeth Poisoner

In 1891, a mysterious figure appeared on the streets of London, dispensing pills to poor young women who then died in agony. Suspicion came to center on a Scottish-Canadian doctor with a dark past in ...

15 Marras 202133min

362-The Leatherman

362-The Leatherman

In 1856, a mysterious man appeared on the roads of Connecticut and New York, dressed in leather, speaking to no one, and always on the move. He became famous for his circuits through the area, which h...

25 Loka 202133min

361-A Fight Over Nutmeg

361-A Fight Over Nutmeg

In 1616, British officer Nathaniel Courthope was sent to a tiny island in the East Indies to contest a Dutch monopoly on nutmeg. He and his men would spend four years battling sickness, starvation, an...

18 Loka 202129min

360-Haggard's Dream

360-Haggard's Dream

In 1904, adventure novelist H. Rider Haggard awoke from a dream with the conviction that his daughter's dog was dying. He dismissed the impression as a nightmare, but the events that followed seemed t...

11 Loka 202130min

359-Stranded in Shangri-La

359-Stranded in Shangri-La

In 1945, a U.S. Army transport plane crashed in New Guinea, leaving three survivors marooned in the island's mountainous interior. Injured, starving, and exhausted, the group seemed beyond the hope of...

4 Loka 202130min

358-The Radium Girls

358-The Radium Girls

In 1917, a New Jersey company began hiring young women to paint luminous marks on the faces of watches and clocks. As time went on, they began to exhibit alarming symptoms, and a struggle ensued to es...

13 Syys 202130min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
mayday-fi
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
huijarit
mystista
rss-ikiuni
tsunami
konginkangas
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
totuus-vai-salaliitto
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
rouva-diktaattori
rss-peter-peter
historiaa-suomeksi
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
maailmanpuu
paluu-historiaan
rss-kikka-forever
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin