At work, some kind coworkers invited me to sit with them (which was nice, because I’m new). The conversation, twisted, turned and landed on disasters. Landslides in Italy. Then floods in Australia.
This lead to a more unbelievable catastrophe: the Boston Molasses Disaster.
Not one of us had all the details, but we worked together and came up with this (without reaching for our smartphones):
It happened back around the 1920s.
It was caused by the brilliant idea of painting a massive molasses tank black. Heat combined with the expansionary properties of such a viscous fluid, and boom, you get an ooey-gooey black flood.
Something like 2 million gallons of the stuff were spilled down the streets of the city, wrecking buildings and causing havoc.
Rumour has it that you can still smell the molasses on hot days.
It was a sticky, tasty, destructive and collaborative reference bomb! Bam!
Where's an interpretive plaque when you need it?
Further Reading:
Wiki entry on the disaster.
Boston Public Library’s flickr gallery on the disaster.
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