Podcasts about boston molasses flood

Send us a textA campy 1980s anti-shoplifting short film. The revolutionary Nautilus fitness equipment. Some of the best debut songs ever.Episode 178 brings the heat of nostalgia for the cold days of winter.New Year, New You...old equipment? We kick off with a look back at the creation of a fitness revolution. The Nautilus brand of exercise machines set the standard for all others to follow. Though primitive by today's standards the original machines of half a century ago are nonetheless highly influential.Shoplifting is the scourge of all business owners. Apparently never more so than in the early 1980s when everyone was a thief. We go way back in the day to review an anti-shoplifting educational short film. Shoplifters: The Criminal Hordes shows some of the wacky but real ways people would steal and some of the ways to combat it. Every legend started somewhere. This week's Top 5 features some of the greatest debut songs ever. These are the songs that kickstarted some of the most important careers in music history.There is a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the bizarre but terrifying Boston Molasses Flood.For more great content become a subscriber on Patreon!Helpful Links from this EpisodePurchase My New Book Cape Cod Beyond the Beach!In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide(2nd Edition)Hooked By Kiwi - Etsy.comDJ Williams MusicKeeKee's Cape Cod KitchenChristopher Setterlund.comCape Cod Living - Zazzle StoreSubscribe on YouTube!Initial Impressions 2.0 BlogUPDATE: Bonnie Bickwit and Mitchel Weiser Case - Rolling Stone.comWebcam Weekly Wrapup PodcastCape Cod 1929 PodcastShoplifters: The Criminal HordesListen to Episode 177 hereSupport the show

As kids, we often dreamed of visiting a land made of candy or other sugary substances. But for people living in Boston's North End in 1919, this fantasy became a terrifying reality, as a giant wave of molasses swept through the neighborhood, injuring some 150 people and claiming 21 lives as a result. Just what caused this industrial disaster? Who or what was at fault? And how was it that the North End smelled sickly-sweet for decades afterward? Tune in this week to find out. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historylovescompany/support

On January 15, 1919, a storage tank collapsed releasing two million gallons of molasses on the North End of Boston. The thick liquid poured out like a tsunami wave, reaching speeds of up to 35 miles per hour, destroying everything in its path. The molasses flooded streets, crushed buildings, derailed trains and ultimately killed 21 people and injured 150 more.

In 1919 the North End of Boston was flooded with molasses! It was a terrible tragedy! Check out the info on this season's premier episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steve-childers5/support

We're releasing episodes from our mini failure library while we're on production hiatus. This week's Mini Failure is about the Boston Molasses Flood. Over 100 years ago, A wave of molasses flooded the streets of North End in Boston and took out everything in its path. Lessons were learned and new regulations were added to prevent this type of incident from happening again. Original Air Date: April 3, 2022 Episode Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood Ways to get in touch with us Twitter - https://twitter.com/failurology Email - thefailurologypodcast@gmail.com Website - www.failurology.ca

Tragedy struck Boston's North End neighborhood in 1919 when dozens died and hundreds were injured in a freak accident. Today, we're slip-sliding into Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919, examining the aftermath and the causes. Go to http://hellofresh.com/5030mm and use code 5030mm for 50% off plus 15% off the next two months. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/30MM to get 10% off your first month. Follow us on Social: https://twitter.com/elysewillems https://twitter.com/JessicaVasami Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a cold morning in January, 1919, the City of Boston was hit by a tidal wave of the most unusual sort, molasses. By the end of the day 31 people had lost their lives, multiple buildings were destroyed and the smell of molasses would linger in the city for decades. So, naturally, we treat the event with the reverence and maturity it deserves... for about five minutes. Then Josh tells us about his most unusual Google search and everything goes off the rails.

Go to http://mintmobile.com/darkdives to get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month, and get the plan shipped to your door for free. Sign up for our Patreon to support what we do! https://www.patreon.com/iilluminaughtii Welcome to Dark Dives, a new series where we explore the murky and devious depths of humanity. The Great Molasses Flood sounds like something out of a cartoon, but it's not. This very real, very deadly tidal wave of molasses raced through Boston in the early 1900s, killing and injuring any Bostonians in its path. Over a hundred years later, this incident can still teach us about poor regulatory measures and the sour situations we may find ourselves in as a result of them. Connect With Me: https://linktr.ee/iilluminaughtii' Sources: https://justpaste.it/asvhl Writers/Researchers/Helpers: Ali Z-B This episode was edited and mixed by: G. Thomas Craig Album cover art created by: Betsy Primes Intro Song Credits: Last to Fall- Will Van De Crommert Outro Song Credits: Sacred and Profane- Nicholas Rowe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While this fatal event sounds outlandish, or even made-up - I can assure you that it isn't. On a warm day in 1919 Boston's North End would be nearly swept up by millions of gallons of molasses leaving some for dead and other's lives permanently altered. ☕️ Help support the podcast by subscribing to my Patreon tier! It's only $2!! https://www.patreon.com/irenewalton ⭐️ Leave a five-star review and a comment letting me know what you might like to hear in the future! 

The year? 1919. The place? Boston. The disaster? A bit sticky. How did a giant tank of molasses claim the lives of innocent bystanders? How did prohibition play a role in this disaster? How did people survive for 15 years during prohibition? At least two of those questions will be answered in this episode. Also, we learn that Ian is uncultured swine. Sources used: 1. Tikkanen, A. (n.d.). Great Molasses Flood. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Molasses-Flood 2. Cavanaugh, R. (2019, January 14). Great Molasses Flood at 100: How Boston Disaster Made Us Safer. Time. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://time.com/5500592/boston-great-molasses-flood-100/ 3. Boston Legal history: The great molasses disaster. Chambers Associate. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://www.chambers-associate.com/where-to-start/commercial-awareness/regional-insights/boston-legal-history-the-great-molasses-disaster 4. The Ohio State University: College of Arts and Sciences. (n.d.). Why prohibition? Temperance & Prohibition. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://prohibition.osu.edu/why-prohibition

This week's engineering failures are from our mini failure library. We're talking about the Boston Molasses Flood (1:50) and the London Beer Floods (18:30).  Check out our Patreon page for Mini Failure bonus episodes - https://www.patreon.com/failurology Photos/Sources/Summary from this episode - https://www.failurology.ca/ Ways to get in touch Twitter - https://twitter.com/failurology Email - thefailurologypodcast@gmail.com Linked In - https://www.linkedin.com/company/failurology-podcast YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh1Buq46PYyxKbCDGTqbsDg

The boys get into a pretty sticky situation when Joey uses the episode on a lethal food spill as a platform to attack the hardworking Italian Americans of 1919 Boston. Also a little bonus loser shows up at the end for all our DMB fans. Sources: The Great MOLASSES Flood of 1919-ReactionsThe Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919- The History GuyThe Great Boston Molasses Flood: why the strange disaster matters today: GuardianAdam McShane, Joey Bednarski, and Cosmo Nomikos are stand up comedians based out of Chicago, IL.AJL is part of the Lincoln Lodge Podcast Network: https://www.thelincolnlodge.com/podcasts

Anna and Paul discuss the negligent plutocrats who literally painted over the structural issues of a giant Bostonian vat of molasses... with predictable results. Spoiler alert: they blamed the terrorists.

Today is a little different...we are covering the Boston Molasses Flood. It's a crazy story!

In this episodes the Deep Lore Boys unfold the story of Wojtek, the bear who was enlisted in the Polish army during World War II, and had a habit for snacking on cigarettes. After that wholesome tale, we plunge into the deep and sticky lore of the Boston Molasses Flood and London Beer Flood, but not before giving Matthew's celestial dog Scout a proper introduction. Further Reading: Wojtek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear) Great Molasses Flood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood London Beer Flood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood Intro: City Lights — Babasmas [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/W9IQfypOkkYFree Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/city-lights Music: Jazz In Paris - Media Right Productions https://youtu.be/mNLJMTRvyj8 Celestial by Scott Buckley https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/3g16WLj Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/63bzVzufGwE

The 1919 Boston Molasses Flood was a terrifying sticky disaster for the city. Thankfully the team at the Boston Post was on the story and their reporting is word perfect.

bagels, pop culture 1964, boston molasses flood, superbowl 1, lloyd bridges, lisa lisa, pitbull, lynyrd skynyrd, martin luther king jr., mario van peebles, chad lowe, regina king, top hat invented, happy days debuted,

This week's episode is about a very sticky situation! Seriously though, this was a huge disaster that changed the 'flow' of history. Tangents include edible leaves and an unnecessary thought experiment. Follow us on instagram @pantrystaplespod

This week we are taking a look at the Boston Molasses flood a natural disaster or negligence?

The Defenders learn that haunted Virginia is for ghost lovers, when they visit Gargoyle's ancestral home in Defenders #103! Topics of discussion include: Billy and the Boingers, the Boston Molasses Flood, and whether Devil Slayer is a serial killer. Enjoy! Enjoy!If you enjoy the show and would like access to bonus materials, please consider donating at patreon.com/ttwastelandYou can get into touch with us at ttwasteland@gmail.com or Titan Up the Defense PO Box 20311 Portland, OR 97294

This episode is a bit of a break from the darkness we normally cover…but it's still kinda dark…sorry! Joe covers the 1919 Boston Molasses Flood, so listen in to find out exactly what happened in this ~sticky situation~ Cheers!

The guys get together without Sam to listen to a sweet ass story about the Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Tons of people were hurt, some were killed, and even more covered in the sticky sugar. Resources; "Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly ‘Tsunami of Molasses' of 1919" from The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/science/boston-molasses-flood-science.html "The Physics of the Boston Molasses Flood" from fyfluiddynamics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5sYoUnp5A0 "5 questions you may have about Boston's deadly Great Molasses Flood, answered" from Boston.com https://www.boston.com/news/history/2019/01/14/great-molasses-flood-questions --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/blacksheepandbadapples/message

Both are sad events, for breakfast food everywhere.

Stroll with us down to Boston's North End and take a deep breath: do you smell something sweet? In Episode 12, we go over the 1919 industrial accident that resulted in a tsunami of molasses - over 2 million gallons - pouring down the street at 30 miles per hour, killing 21 Bostonians and a number of horses. We'll discuss what exactly happened, what was responsible (anarchists? capitalism? Prohibition? bad luck?), and why there was a huge, poorly-designed, poorly built storage vat of molasses sitting around in the North End in the first place. We'll also tackle the critical question of how the molasses got cleaned up, and if a popular local legend - that a molasses smell lingers in downtown Boston on a hot afternoon - holds up 102 years later. Sources for this episode include: "Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919" by S. Puleo, 2019

You've heard of drowning, you've heard of molasses, but have you ever heard of drowning in molasses? We've got you covered. This week we explore the Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, which blanketed the North End of the Massachusetts capital with a sweet, sticky wave of, you guessed it: death.   All music by Interesting Times Gang: https://itgang.bandcamp.com/

Gather round at your local beerery and try not to get caught out in this flood of worthless info. This week we have sticky situations galore. Listen to Nikki tell you about the Boston Molasses Flood and learn why you shouldn't trust your accountant to build ANYTHING. Ever. And then cleanse your palate with Joyce while she tells us about the London Beer Flood. Not as fun as it sounds. Please remember to rate and review and tell everyone you know about this podcast. 

The Boston Molasses Flood took place on this day in 1919. / On this day in 1850, Russian mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya was born. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Maggie and Jasmin tell the story of the ridiculously horrifying Boston Molasses Flood. *Source list at thegoodolddayspod.com. ***This episode is brought to you by Libro.fm. Use promo code OLDDAYS to get two audiobooks for the price of one. libro.fm/redeem/olddaysSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/darknostalgiaworks)

In our third historically-bent podcast series Mike n' Steve dissect some over history's most shocking overlooked events, including; -The *actual* war between Connecticut and Pennsylvania -The surgeon with a 300% mortality rate -The great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 Check us out on Podchaser! https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-songtopsy-report-1569260 "Oppressive Gloom" and "Barroom Ballet" by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4174-oppressive-gloom License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Join us while we discuss the tragic history of the Boston, MA Molasses Flood. We honor those killed by this horrific event caused due to the negligence and corporate greed. It isn't all bad, though - we do turn it around and talk about the surprising and interesting history of Gingerbread.As always, thank you for your support - we love you, Tater Tots.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PROOF OF LICENSESubject to your compliance with our terms of use, Soundstripe Inc. grants Linette Llewellyn a perpetual, non-exclusive, nonsublicensable and nontransferable license to download,reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the song Dewdroppahsolely as combined with your work of authorship, titled The Boston Molasses Flood, for your business purposes. Our terms of use can be found here.SOUNDSTRIPE: Song Copyright Information Sheet If this track is to be used in broadcast, network Cue Sheets must be finalized and sent to broadcast@soundstripe.com within 30 days of Commercial Broadcast. Track Title: Dewdroppah Artist Name(s): Dresden, The Flamingo Writer Name: Matthew Wigton Writer IPI Number: 480250868 Writer PRO: ASCAP Writer Percentage: 50.0% Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION Publisher IPI Number: 00882718598 Publisher PRO: ASCAP Publisher Percentage: 50.0%

In 1919, a flood of Molasses devastated the North End neighborhood of Boston. In this episode we talk about the disaster in detail and even discuss some of the possible reasons for the horrible killer wave of sweet molasses. Then we chat with writer, speaker and Bostonian Amma Marfo to see if she's heard of it!To view the interview in its unedited format, along with all TMW2G Podcast Interviews, join our Patreon!Learn about our guest Amma Marfo at AmmaMarfo.comPhotos of the Boston Molasses Flood of 1919: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3 

In the second installment of their Labor Day themed episodes, Laura and Nicole cover workplace disasters, such as the Boston Molasses Flood and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Social distance yourself with our new Scissors N Scrubs face masks. For each one ordered, a medical grade one will be donated to Direct Relief. They can be found at https://www.teepublic.com/user/mikedenison/masks Please check out (& subscribe!) our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmrdobwH0i4Gh7yINyZ_zMQ Lastly, we want to hear from you! Send us your stories to scissorsnscrubs@gmail.com and we may just read it on an upcoming episode. Include your shipping info and we will send you a free sticker!

Even stickier in Boston --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kenneth-broussard3/support

A sticky situation in Boston Harbor. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kenneth-broussard3/support

Special guest Karol (aka doom-rapper "garbageface") drops by the podcast to tell us about possibly the original sticky situation.  How could such a sweet treat turn deadly?  Maybe by storing two million gallons of it in a paper-thin water tower?  A cautionary tale about paying attention to warning signs, and the children running home with cups of molasses.  WW1, building codes, and so much molasses.   Video about the efforts to simulate the Boston Molasses Flood:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5sYoUnp5A0    Karol, aka "garbageface":https://garbageface.bandcamp.com/   Leigh & Peter's band, HAMN:https://hamn.bandcamp.com/   Karol's song pick:: Sloth Esteem by The Slothspringhttps://hirs.bandcamp.com/track/sloth-esteem   Leigh's song pick:: Hamburger Lady by Throbbing Gristlehttps://open.spotify.com/track/1opJnFer19nDXPpAw3PK9S   Peter's song pick:: Mirror Reaper by Bell Witchhttps://bellwitch.bandcamp.com/album/mirror-reaper   If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a review!Also, tell your friends!Tell your enemies too, we're not picky.   Become a patron, get exclusive content, help us make more disasters!www.patreon.com/thisdisasterpod   Want a cool Disaster Shirt?  Pre-order yours before May 31st!  Patrons, don't forget your discount code...www.thisdisasterpod.com/shop   Instagram/Twitter/Facebook: @thisdisasterpod www.thisdisasterpod.com   Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

A wave of black, sticky molasses engulfs a Boston neighbourhood, wreaking a sweet-tasting but deadly kind of havoc. It's one of history's more unusual disasters, but that doesn't mean it should be treated lightly. Drawing from both modern and contemporary reports and eyewitness accounts, I'll tell the story of the Boston Molasses Flood.Visit www.greatdisasters.co.uk for the full transcript and more.Check out the Great Disasters Podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - let me know what you think of the show.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/greatdisasters)

We discuss the tragic Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Nothing so sweet — and so ridiculous-sounding — has ever been so deadly. A storage tank bursts, sending a 15-foot wave of the sticky stuff through the streets of the North End at 35 mph, killing 21.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We both had a theme this week of building code changes due to disasters. Breana goes over the infamous 1919 Boston Molasses Flood. Brett tells us all about how intense Hurricane Andrew was in 1992, the devastation that it caused, the news crews who stuck it out, and how it changed housing in Florida. And of course, surprise, Breana mispronounces some words, for your giggling pleasure. Don't forget to Rate, Review, & Subscribe! Come hang out with us: Instagram // Twitter // Facebook

Kola and her good friend Aaron talk about the time Princeton researchers turned a cat into a telephone and the horrific Boston Molasses Flood.

Hey Campers get away from that Pukwudgie and over to the fire, we got some stories to tell. This week we cover The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 and how a over 200 Bostonians faced a 25ft wave of sticky goo that made the town sticky for a summer. We also cover the lore of the North American creature the Pukwudgie and how not only are the good with a poison dart and a knife, but also "deadly" accurate with a pinecone.CAMPSTRANGE.COMINSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK / TWITTER

Heather doubted Linda's popular culture references and Linda, was, indeed, correct in using "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" as a reference for chaos. Here is a link to the ride at Disney. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride We should be hearing an apology in a few episodes. NPR remembers the Boston Molasses Flood

Be they big or small, purposeful or accidental, innocuous or potentially-planet-destroying, there is no question that humans are great at making messes and not so great at cleaning them up. Joe Hanson, host of the PBS channel Hot Mess, joins us to talk about some of the more notable messes we’ve made, and what, if anything, we can do to be less messy in the future.   Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out themes for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!   And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links: [Truth or Fail]   Molasses Disasters:   Boston Molasses Flood: https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2019/01/09/the-great-molasses-flood-was-boston-strangest-disaster/VawySumFUf5vKCibM9PLtJ/story.html   https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130917-molasses-oil-spill-hawaii-honolulu-cleanup/   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1814-beer-flood-killed-eight-people-180964256/   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bourbon-and-smoke/ https://whiskeyreviewer.com/2016/01/the-biggest-modern-whiskey-disasters-012516/ [Fact Off]   Project West Ford:   https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4217/ch8.htm https://www.wired.com/2013/08/project-west-ford/   Fatbergs and flushable wipes: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/explainer-are-flushable-wet-wipes-really-flushable/1017594.article https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/are-wet-wipes-wrecking-the-worlds-sewers/504098/ [Ask the Science Couch]   Minerals: https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-fossils-of-the-21st-century-1830693850 https://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/early/2013/12/19/SP395.2 http://www.fordite.com/history.html https://carnegiescience.edu/news/first-ever-catalog-208-human-caused-minerals-bolsters-argument-declare-anthropocene-epoch   Plastiglomerate: http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/6/article/i1052-5173-24-6-4.htm https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/06/rocks-made-plastic-found-hawaiian-beach   [Butt One More Thing]   Coccyx cuckoo: https://www.etymonline.com/word/coccyx

Adam and Windy don't shut up, talking about Football, Unicorns and Giraffes, The Boston Molasses Flood, and other dumb shit

Adam and Windy don't shut up, talking about Football, Unicorns and Giraffes, The Boston Molasses Flood, and other dumb shit

The Boston Molasses Flood took place on this day in 1919. Get more to the story in the October 5, 2009 episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

We discuss the events of a Massachusetts disaster, the Boston Molasses Flood, in honor of the 100th anniversary on January 15.

Of all the things to fear in this world you may have overlooked the diabolical villain that sits quietly upon your pantry shelf: molasses. Well the people of Boston will never forget. On this day exactly one hundred years ago a sticky wall of molasses travelled at speeds of up to 35 mph, killing 21 and injuring 150. In this episode, Robin tells the legendary tale of this sticky situation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slow as molasses in January is a common American idiom for something that is painfully slow. The history of this expression dates to the turn of the twentieth century and to one very specific event. On an unseasonably warm winter day in 1919, only a few weeks into the new year, Boston, Massachusetts suffered one of history's strangest disasters. Have you ever heard of the Great Boston Molasses Flood? DOWNLOAD NOW Credit: For this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Stephen Puleo, historian, public speaker, and author of Dark Tide, and Nicole Sharp, an aerospace engineer turned science communicator who runs a Tumblr blog on fluid dynamics. Sources: Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919; Puleo, Stephen; Beacon Press; 2004; Reprinted 100th Anniversary Edition, January 2019. Incredible physics behind the deadly 1919 Boston Molasses Flood; Ouellette, Jennifer; NewScientist; November 24, 2016. The Great Molasses Flood of 1919; Andrews, Evan; History; January 13, 2017. The Great Molasses Flood; Stanly, Robert; New England Today; January 15, 2018. Remembering Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919; Trex, Ethan; Mental Floss; January 15, 2018. Eric Postpischil’s Molasses Disaster Pages; Mason, John; Yankee Magazine; August 27, 2015. Great Molasses Flood of 1919: Why This Deluge of Goo Was So Deadly; Choi, Charles; LiveScience; November 21, 2016.

This week, we're covering two things that spun wildly out of everyone's control: a freak historical tragedy that drowned dozens of Bostonians in molasses, and TanaCon, a narcissistic runaway youtuber convention that collapsed in on itself like a black hole. Both of these topics have so many twists and turns, its a struggle to keep track, but its impossible to look away. Cling tightly to your VIP badge and stay horrified.

This episode we do things a little differently. We examine an event that happened in Boston a long time ago. It may sound strange, and quirky but this man made disaster was no laughing matter. Find out how a series of bad choices, led to one of the strangest disasters in American History.

It towered over Commercial Street in the North End of Boston, its massive form looming over the elevated train tracks and Engine #31 firehouse. It groaned loudly every time it was filled, its contents leaking in an absurd mockery of bleeding. It wordlessly threatened for years to collapse. Finally, on January 15, 1919, it spilled its contents onto the neighborhood -- 2.3 million gallons of molasses.

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!

Today we talk about the benefits of the Electoral College, the Boston Molasses Flood, how to escape from quicksand, pranks with fake iPhones, a man disolving at Yellowstone, project Dead Drop, why we can't launch nuclear waste into the sun, correlation vs causation, and Enchroma glasses.Links from this episode: - Avoid chaos by keeping Electoral College | Opinion - Three Amigos-What Is A Plethora? - YouTube - A-G-L-E-T Song from Phineas and Ferb - YouTube - Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly ‘Tsunami of Molasses’ of 1919 - How to Escape Quicksand: An Illustrated Guide - Fake iPhone* - Man Dissolved in Acidic Water After Trying to Soak in Yellowstone National Park Hot Pool - Dead Drops - Geocaching - Ever Wondered Why Don’t We Send Nuclear Waste To The Sun? Here Is Why It Is Not Possible - Smoke Detectors and Americium - Hilarious Graphs Prove That Correlation Isn’t Causation - First Time Reactions to EnChroma Glasses

Strange things happen. Fish sometimes fall from the sky. Unexplained lights perform strange maneuvers in the night sky. Children claim to 'remember' past lives. While all of these must be taken with more than a modicum of suspicion, there are strange occurrences in history which are without a doubt real and actual events. The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 is one such event. Be careful. Though you might be tempted to laugh at the idea of a flood of molasses as  ludicrous and unbelievable, the series of tragic events that took place on January 15, 1919 left twenty-one people dead and a score of people injured. As strange and as sickeningly sweet as it sounds, Boston experienced the world's only known disaster caused by a sugar by-product. Molasses was a staple food in colonial New England. Slave ships emptied their cargo in the West Indies and filled their holds with barrels of molasses and then headed to the colonies. Sugar was one of the most expensive staples in the colonial pantry, so molasses was a welcome and much less expensive alternative. Colonists used it in the production of beer and rum and you cannot have true New England Baked Beans, brown bread or pumpkin pie without it. Most people are unaware that molasses had a very important role to play during wartime and it had nothing to do with food. As any home brewer will tell you, sugar and yeast together create something very powerful: alcohol. Ships from Cuba, Puerto Rico and other islands in the West Indies would dock and pump out thousands of gallons to later be carried by rail car to the Purity plant in Cambridge where it underwent the process of conversion to industrial alcohol. Then, the alcohol could be used in the mass manufacture of munitions and explosives, adding to the war effort and making a lot of money for the United States Industrial Alcohol Company. Since the outbreak of war in 1914, overseas demand for alcohol had strained domestic resources and the British, the Canadian and the French governments could not get enough. With a paltry twenty percent of the molasses shipped to American converted into rum, a whopping 80 percent of the substance was turned into a major ingredient of weaponry, especially of dynamite, smokeless powder and other explosives. In order to facilitate the collection and distribution of the molasses, the company built a massive holding tank, fifty feet high and ninety feet in diameter capable of holding as much as 2,300,000 gallons of molasses. The tank stood in the North End, near Boston Harbor and the historic section of town that housed the Old North Church and Paul Revere's House. The tank was very to close the Copp's Hill Burying Ground and Commercial Street. It was one of the largest structures in the area and it towered over many houses and commercial buildings in the area, always in the background. It was built the same way that metal ships like the Titanic were built at the time with sheet steel and rivets overlapping at the edges. Like the Titanic, the Boston tank had a major flaw in the steel common to all steel manufactured in the early part of the century: it was made with very little manganese, an element that strengthens steel making it capable of withstanding great pressure without cracking. From the very beginning, people became used to seeing the dark brown stain of molasses running down from rivet holes all over the structure. Children would be dispatched with containers to visit the plant and collect as much of the run-off as they could. Though most of the people who actually lived in the area were Italian immigrants and therefore out of the mainstream of Boston life, it became a problem for the company that owned the tank. They did not want word to spread that there was a problem with it. Something had to be done. In their wisdom, the people at the US Industrial Alcohol Company found a way to fix the issue: they ordered the structure to be painted a molasses brown, so the leaks could easily be masked. Although the structure was only ever filled to capacity three times before the accident, it was on constant use and was never shut down and emptied for a complete inspection. Perhaps no one could imagine that a substance so obviously harmless as brown liquid sugar could ever be deadly in another sense, a very real and overwhelming sense, without ever being converted into alcohol. January 15, 1919 should have been a quiet day at the molasses tank. The ship Miliero had unloaded her cargo two days ago. It had taken everything that the pumps had to urge the semi-solid sticky substance through the tubes in freezing weather, but after this unloading, there wouldn't be another ship for at least three months. During those three months, the molasses would be slowly shipped to the Purity plant to be converted into alcohol bound for munition factories. A few who survived the event can remember hearing the shifting and gurgling that occurs when molasses is actively fermenting and perhaps that process helped speed along the final conditions that led to the failure of the hoops at the bottom of the tank and the rivets along the seams. At 12:41 PM, the tank gave way. The headline of the Boston Daily Globe for the next morning read "Molasses Tank Explosion Inures 50 and kills 11. Death and devastation in wake of North End Disaster." By the time they found all of the bodies glued to the ground in the muck and immovable mire, the number of dead had risen to twenty-one.  What happened directly after 12:41 was witnessed by hundreds. A black wave of death flowed much more quickly than might be imagined, twenty-five feet high and one hundred and sixty feet wide.The wave was so heavy that it essentially smashed the waterfront like a bomb. One half-mile of Commercial Street was destroyed and it flowed in all directions. Rivets snapped off and turned into projectiles: steel bullets randomly filling the air as the tank continued to break. The Engine 31 Firehouse was ripped from its foundation and almost made it to the dark waters of the harbor. "Men and women, their feet trapped by the sticky mass, slipped and fell and were suffocated," reported the Boston Globe in a remembrance of the event in 1968.  Brick tenements, storefronts, various wooden structures were all torn and shattered. Anything that stood in the path of the oncoming molasses was hit by the heavy liquid hammer of the cascading molasses. What wasn't destroyed or swept into Boston Harbor was glued to the ground or covered by the rubble. Cellars were filled with molasses. Electrical poles and live electrical lines snapped and popped in the thick detritus of the event. The rescuers were stunned when they arrived. How does a person move in waist-deep molasses? It is even possible? Horses were frozen on the ground, drowning in the thick goo and one of the first things that had to be done was to quickly dispatch them, leaving their fallen forms glued to the ground. How could the rescuers tell where a human form might be beneath the deep mass of molasses? So many died because they could not be reached in time or because they were simply overwhelmed and died of asphyxiation. Some were able to rise from the sticky mass and ride on small flotillas of flotsam and jetsam. Rescuers at the Haymarket Relief Station risked death as their boots bogged down in the mire. At the stations set up to process the injured, teams of rescuers worked tirelessly to remove the hardening molasses from breathing passages and remove the sticky clothing of the victims. Doctor and nurses soon became covered in molasses and blood. Nothing like this had ever been experienced before. When the time came to clean the molasses, sea water became the only solvent that was plentiful and able to cut through the thick, heavy goop that covered Commercial Street.  It would take weeks in the wintry weather to even begin to make a dent in the destruction. Boston Harbor went brown. How could this have happened? The company that was responsible for the tank had a theory: anarchists. Italian anarchists were immediately labeled as the mad bombers of their day. Surely, given the disproportionate amount of discrimination that Italian Bostonians had to endure, it was easy to imagine that they might have struck back with such an act. Boston had been the hotbed for Italian anarchist activities. Why not a bomb and why not terrorism? In August of 1919, the US Industrial Alcohol Company lost two of its molasses ships, without a trace. These unexplained losses seemed to point toward the same source again: anarchists. The Boston Molasses Disaster had ramifications that continued to run through the courts and the halls of industry. If no identifiable person or persons could be found, someone would have to bear the burden of the property damages and that had leveled Commercial Street in Boston. The US Industrial Alcohol Company would be taken to court . Valued at today's prices, over $100 million dollars worth of wreckage was claimed. We know from examining the records that no engineer or architect was ever consulted during the design and building of the huge tank. The tank was built quickly with an eye on spending as little as possible. Six years later the good people who lived in the North End and who lost their lives or their their homes, each received around $7000 each from the US Industrial Alcohol Company which had been found liable for all damages by the Massachusetts Superior Court. Never again would the state of Massachusetts allow such a structure to be built without state supervision and construction codes. Could such a thing ever happen again? Surely not. But it did. A more recent molasses spill occurred in 2013 in Honolulu, Hawaii. A faulty pipe poured over 1,400 tons of the sticky mass into Honolulu Harbor. All sea life in the harbor was killed due to the de-oxygenation of the water caused by the molasses covering the entire bottom. Sources Puleo, Stephen, Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, copyright 2004, Beacon Press, Boston. Schworm, Peter "Nearly a century later, structural flaw in molasses tank revealed," Boston Globe 01/14/2015

Strange things happen. Fish sometimes fall from the sky. Unexplained lights perform strange maneuvers in the night sky. Children claim to ‘remember’ past lives. While all of these must be…

DisasterCast has covered some pretty weird topics. We’ve dealt with pilot defenestration, spontaneous human combustion, and exploding death stars. IRead more »

Today, people associate molasses with cookies and other sweets. Yet in 1919 molasses was used in munitions as well as food -- and Boston had one of the biggest tanks around. Learn how molasses flooded Boston in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers