1 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:22,370 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Tim here with an exciting announcement about the Cautionary Club, 2 00:00:22,690 --> 00:00:26,850 Speaker 1: our Patreon community for Cautionary Tales listeners. So many of 3 00:00:26,850 --> 00:00:30,210 Speaker 1: you joined our live table read earlier this year that 4 00:00:30,330 --> 00:00:33,610 Speaker 1: we're doing it again. Join me and I production team 5 00:00:33,770 --> 00:00:37,690 Speaker 1: for a live reading of an unreleased episode about the 6 00:00:37,730 --> 00:00:43,410 Speaker 1: people who almost invented the iPhone fifteen years early and 7 00:00:43,450 --> 00:00:46,770 Speaker 1: the surprising reasons they failed. This will be a chance 8 00:00:46,850 --> 00:00:49,010 Speaker 1: for you to see how the stories we tell are 9 00:00:49,010 --> 00:00:53,490 Speaker 1: developed in real time and ask your burning questions about 10 00:00:53,490 --> 00:00:57,010 Speaker 1: cautionary Tales. It's on the eighth of July at five 11 00:00:57,050 --> 00:01:01,090 Speaker 1: pm UK or noon Eastern. If you join the Patreon 12 00:01:01,170 --> 00:01:03,770 Speaker 1: before then, or if you're already a member, you'll get 13 00:01:03,770 --> 00:01:10,170 Speaker 1: your exclusive invitation. Head to patreon dot com slash Cautionary Club. 14 00:01:10,450 --> 00:01:14,050 Speaker 1: That's Patreon p A T R e O N dot 15 00:01:14,090 --> 00:01:24,810 Speaker 1: com slash Cautionary Club. Boston, January nineteen nineteen. Giuseppe Yantosca 16 00:01:24,970 --> 00:01:28,370 Speaker 1: stands at his kitchen window searching for his ten year 17 00:01:28,370 --> 00:01:32,610 Speaker 1: old son. All sorts of people come and go in 18 00:01:32,650 --> 00:01:35,610 Speaker 1: Boston's North End, and Giuseppe likes to keep a close 19 00:01:35,690 --> 00:01:40,050 Speaker 1: eye on little Pasquale or Pasqualino as he's affectionately known. 20 00:01:40,090 --> 00:01:44,530 Speaker 1: At home. Giuseppe doesn't speak much English. Like many of 21 00:01:44,570 --> 00:01:49,650 Speaker 1: their neighbors. The Antoscas hail from southern Italy. They're very poor. 22 00:01:50,250 --> 00:01:53,570 Speaker 1: Even with Giuseppe's shifts at the Boston and Maine Railroad, 23 00:01:54,130 --> 00:01:58,130 Speaker 1: backbreaking work laying track, they struggle to make ends meet. 24 00:01:59,010 --> 00:02:01,050 Speaker 1: Fresh milk and meat to rare. It is in the 25 00:02:01,090 --> 00:02:04,930 Speaker 1: Antosca house and Giuseppe and his wife Maria worry about 26 00:02:04,930 --> 00:02:12,650 Speaker 1: their six small children. Where is Pasqualino. Giuseppe surveys Commercial Street, 27 00:02:12,890 --> 00:02:16,170 Speaker 1: the thoroughfare beneath his window that curves along the water. 28 00:02:16,890 --> 00:02:20,370 Speaker 1: It's an unusually fine day from mid January, and the 29 00:02:20,450 --> 00:02:24,690 Speaker 1: harbour is bustling. Fishermen hurry to their lunch, a plate 30 00:02:24,730 --> 00:02:28,730 Speaker 1: of spaghetti at home, perhaps, or a pie from Partial's bakery. 31 00:02:29,490 --> 00:02:33,450 Speaker 1: Dock workers shout as they unload shipping crates and horse 32 00:02:33,530 --> 00:02:39,050 Speaker 1: drawn wagons hauling beer barrels mingle with peddler's carts. Motorized 33 00:02:39,090 --> 00:02:42,570 Speaker 1: trucks rattle to and from the factories that ring the 34 00:02:42,650 --> 00:02:48,490 Speaker 1: north end. Giuseppe scans the elevated railroad that swoops above 35 00:02:48,570 --> 00:02:53,170 Speaker 1: Commercial Street and the freight trains directly beneath it. Finally 36 00:02:53,770 --> 00:02:58,210 Speaker 1: he traces the hulking storage tank that dominates the wharf. 37 00:02:58,930 --> 00:03:02,810 Speaker 1: His eyes flick to a tiny figure clad in red 38 00:03:03,410 --> 00:03:06,730 Speaker 1: and crouching in the shadow of the high steel walls. 39 00:03:07,850 --> 00:03:14,650 Speaker 1: Pasqualino Giuseppe breathes a sigh of relief. Down on the wharf, 40 00:03:15,010 --> 00:03:19,010 Speaker 1: Pasquale An Tosca, and his friends Tony and Maria Destacio 41 00:03:19,330 --> 00:03:24,690 Speaker 1: are huddling beside the enormous storage tank, fifty feet high 42 00:03:24,730 --> 00:03:29,850 Speaker 1: and ninety feet wide. Its grumbles and shudders, and its sweet, 43 00:03:30,090 --> 00:03:34,770 Speaker 1: earthy scent are familiar to them. The tank isn't designed 44 00:03:34,770 --> 00:03:40,050 Speaker 1: to store diesel or grain, but of all things, a thick, 45 00:03:40,890 --> 00:03:47,530 Speaker 1: dark sugary liquid and a glasses. It pools around the 46 00:03:47,570 --> 00:03:51,050 Speaker 1: base of the tank, and the children like to play there, 47 00:03:51,610 --> 00:03:56,410 Speaker 1: dodging stern railroad workers to scoop the sticky liquid into 48 00:03:56,450 --> 00:04:02,130 Speaker 1: their pails and hurrying home with their syrupy treasure. But 49 00:04:02,250 --> 00:04:06,610 Speaker 1: today Pasqualino doesn't feel like playing. He knows his father's 50 00:04:06,650 --> 00:04:12,450 Speaker 1: watching him. He's also very hot beneath his bright red knitwear. 51 00:04:12,890 --> 00:04:16,450 Speaker 1: It's the second sweater his mother insisted he wear that morning. 52 00:04:17,370 --> 00:04:20,690 Speaker 1: She fears him catching a cold. But the day's mild 53 00:04:20,770 --> 00:04:23,090 Speaker 1: and the extra bowlk also slows him down. As he 54 00:04:23,130 --> 00:04:30,050 Speaker 1: gathers firewood, the tank groans, which isn't unusual. A fresh 55 00:04:30,170 --> 00:04:34,050 Speaker 1: load of the sugary substance has recently arrived from the Caribbean. 56 00:04:35,130 --> 00:04:41,290 Speaker 1: Pasqualino looks up at the massive container fifty foot streams 57 00:04:41,410 --> 00:04:47,410 Speaker 1: of molasses seep down its side in long, treakily tears. 58 00:04:49,130 --> 00:05:16,650 Speaker 1: I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to cautionary tales. Arthur P. 59 00:05:16,970 --> 00:05:21,770 Speaker 1: Gell had his work cut out. It was late nineteen fourteen, 60 00:05:22,010 --> 00:05:26,210 Speaker 1: and had been tasked with building an enormous molasses container 61 00:05:26,490 --> 00:05:32,690 Speaker 1: near Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gell was assistant treasurer at the Purity 62 00:05:32,810 --> 00:05:38,930 Speaker 1: Distilling Company, part of United States Industrial Alcohol or USIA. 63 00:05:39,890 --> 00:05:45,290 Speaker 1: USIA processed molasses into alcohol for munitions like dynamite and 64 00:05:45,410 --> 00:05:50,290 Speaker 1: smokeless powder, so when Europe went to war in nineteen fourteen, 65 00:05:51,050 --> 00:05:55,490 Speaker 1: the company had begun boosting production. Its plant in Cambridge 66 00:05:55,530 --> 00:05:58,730 Speaker 1: was one of the largest in the country, but USIA 67 00:05:59,010 --> 00:06:02,570 Speaker 1: struggled to keep up with demand. It didn't have its 68 00:06:02,610 --> 00:06:06,570 Speaker 1: own storage facility, so it had to source its molasses 69 00:06:06,650 --> 00:06:10,010 Speaker 1: from a broker in South Boston rather than directly from 70 00:06:10,010 --> 00:06:17,010 Speaker 1: the Caribbean. This in turn ate into profits to truly 71 00:06:17,130 --> 00:06:21,690 Speaker 1: make hay while the sun Shone, Usia needed its own tank, 72 00:06:22,250 --> 00:06:25,410 Speaker 1: one that would be up and running by December thirty first, 73 00:06:25,730 --> 00:06:31,250 Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, and it was decided that reliable, efficient Arthur 74 00:06:31,410 --> 00:06:36,690 Speaker 1: Jell was the man for the job. The deadline was 75 00:06:36,850 --> 00:06:41,850 Speaker 1: virtually impossible, but Gell's bosses had hinted that if he succeeded, 76 00:06:42,370 --> 00:06:45,930 Speaker 1: a New York City promotion was on the cards. He 77 00:06:46,050 --> 00:06:53,090 Speaker 1: was determined to give it his best shot. As Stephen 78 00:06:53,170 --> 00:06:57,450 Speaker 1: Pulio explains in his book Dark Tide, Gell had spent 79 00:06:57,530 --> 00:07:01,690 Speaker 1: his professional life in a range of clerical positions. An 80 00:07:01,730 --> 00:07:05,890 Speaker 1: experienced administrator, he was confident that he knew the right people. 81 00:07:06,570 --> 00:07:11,050 Speaker 1: He consulted other tank manufacturers about the appropriate factor of 82 00:07:11,130 --> 00:07:14,170 Speaker 1: safety for a container like this one, and ordered steel 83 00:07:14,250 --> 00:07:18,930 Speaker 1: plates to form the sides of the cylindrical structure. He 84 00:07:19,010 --> 00:07:23,010 Speaker 1: also negotiated a lease for the perfect spot in Boston's 85 00:07:23,050 --> 00:07:28,490 Speaker 1: North End. Here, steamships from the Caribbean could discharge the molasses, 86 00:07:28,890 --> 00:07:31,370 Speaker 1: and the sugary substance could then travel on to the 87 00:07:31,410 --> 00:07:37,250 Speaker 1: Cambridge plant by railcar. Sure the area was densely populated, 88 00:07:37,410 --> 00:07:40,330 Speaker 1: and there was a children's playground right next to the 89 00:07:40,370 --> 00:07:44,050 Speaker 1: proposed tank site, but Jell knew that the residents of 90 00:07:44,090 --> 00:07:49,650 Speaker 1: the North End were unlikely to resist the structure. Many 91 00:07:49,650 --> 00:07:53,330 Speaker 1: of them were poor immigrants from Italy's south. They didn't 92 00:07:53,330 --> 00:07:57,050 Speaker 1: speak English and kept to their own tight enclave. Their 93 00:07:57,090 --> 00:08:03,650 Speaker 1: political participation was scant. All the same, lease negotiations were slow. 94 00:08:04,370 --> 00:08:07,770 Speaker 1: By the time Gell had secured the location, it was 95 00:08:07,850 --> 00:08:13,370 Speaker 1: September nineteen ten, fifteen, and the clock was ticking. Ever resourceful, 96 00:08:13,570 --> 00:08:16,970 Speaker 1: he installed electric lighting at the wharf so that the 97 00:08:17,010 --> 00:08:20,890 Speaker 1: construction crew could work through the night. But when a 98 00:08:21,010 --> 00:08:27,370 Speaker 1: laborer fell inside the empty tank, Gell lost more time, 99 00:08:28,210 --> 00:08:32,490 Speaker 1: so traumatized with the other workers by the dying man's screams, 100 00:08:34,330 --> 00:08:38,690 Speaker 1: then a superstorm blasted Boston and he lost a further 101 00:08:38,770 --> 00:08:47,050 Speaker 1: two days. Gell couldn't afford any more embarrassing setbacks or expenses. 102 00:08:47,970 --> 00:08:51,010 Speaker 1: When the time came to test the tank for leaks, 103 00:08:51,690 --> 00:08:54,330 Speaker 1: he knew that they could only fill the massive structure 104 00:08:54,570 --> 00:08:58,330 Speaker 1: by tapping into the municipal water supply. This would be 105 00:08:58,490 --> 00:09:02,250 Speaker 1: time consuming and costly, so he came up with a solution. 106 00:09:03,250 --> 00:09:06,530 Speaker 1: The crew ran six inches of water into the bottom 107 00:09:06,530 --> 00:09:09,290 Speaker 1: of the container to just above the first joint. At 108 00:09:09,290 --> 00:09:12,850 Speaker 1: its base if the first joint didn't leak right with 109 00:09:12,970 --> 00:09:17,810 Speaker 1: the rest of them. The tank held its six inches 110 00:09:17,890 --> 00:09:23,730 Speaker 1: of water, and gel announced that it was ready. It 111 00:09:23,810 --> 00:09:32,930 Speaker 1: was late December nineteen fifteen. He had met his impossible deadline. 112 00:09:34,210 --> 00:09:40,090 Speaker 1: Business boomed. From nineteen fourteen to nineteen sixteen, USIA's net 113 00:09:40,130 --> 00:09:46,370 Speaker 1: profit increased nearly ninefold. The investors were thrilled. In April 114 00:09:46,450 --> 00:09:51,170 Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, the US declared war on Germany, and Gell 115 00:09:51,410 --> 00:09:54,250 Speaker 1: was ready to show the managers in New York that 116 00:09:54,410 --> 00:10:00,530 Speaker 1: Boston could rise to the challenge. That month, a munitions 117 00:10:00,570 --> 00:10:07,210 Speaker 1: factory in Pennsylvania was bombed, the work of foreign employees 118 00:10:07,290 --> 00:10:12,050 Speaker 1: who were angry about the war. Italian anarchists were said 119 00:10:12,050 --> 00:10:17,450 Speaker 1: to be behind other similar bombings. Jell took note and 120 00:10:17,730 --> 00:10:23,290 Speaker 1: increased security at the Boston Tank. A couple of weeks later, 121 00:10:23,690 --> 00:10:29,090 Speaker 1: Gell ran into another complication. A man called Isaac Gonzales 122 00:10:29,330 --> 00:10:35,170 Speaker 1: burst into his Cambridge office uninvited and unapproved. Gonzales was 123 00:10:35,250 --> 00:10:40,450 Speaker 1: also a USIA employee, the assistant to the caretaker at 124 00:10:40,450 --> 00:10:43,930 Speaker 1: the Boston Tank, and he was raving about some leaks 125 00:10:43,970 --> 00:10:48,930 Speaker 1: in the structure. Apparently, the tank oozed gallons of molasses 126 00:10:49,090 --> 00:10:53,410 Speaker 1: on to the wharf. Everyone had noticed, and children even 127 00:10:53,530 --> 00:10:57,890 Speaker 1: liked to play with it. Gonzales shoved tiny pieces of 128 00:10:57,970 --> 00:11:02,650 Speaker 1: steel into Gell's hands and said that rusty flex dropped 129 00:11:02,690 --> 00:11:07,050 Speaker 1: into his hair each time he entered the tank. Gell 130 00:11:07,170 --> 00:11:11,730 Speaker 1: did his best to keep calm. This man was clearly paranoid, 131 00:11:12,330 --> 00:11:15,730 Speaker 1: even obsessed. Molasses had a life of its own, and 132 00:11:15,810 --> 00:11:19,810 Speaker 1: leaks were normal, especially in a relatively new structure, and 133 00:11:20,010 --> 00:11:24,170 Speaker 1: especially after a fresh shipment. Plus, Gel had had the 134 00:11:24,210 --> 00:11:28,330 Speaker 1: tank resealed, so he knew it was being maintained. He 135 00:11:28,410 --> 00:11:31,730 Speaker 1: told Gonzales that he needed to do a better job 136 00:11:31,810 --> 00:11:36,050 Speaker 1: of keeping the neighborhood children away from company property. That 137 00:11:36,090 --> 00:11:40,930 Speaker 1: would shut him up. He thought it didn't shut him up. Next, 138 00:11:41,170 --> 00:11:44,290 Speaker 1: Gonzales revealed he had been sleeping at the tank so 139 00:11:44,330 --> 00:11:48,130 Speaker 1: that he could sound the alarm should it start to fall. 140 00:11:49,410 --> 00:11:55,330 Speaker 1: Gell was disturbed. Company employees should be returning home after work. 141 00:11:56,130 --> 00:11:59,970 Speaker 1: The tank still stands. The tank will stand, he snapped. 142 00:12:00,650 --> 00:12:03,130 Speaker 1: Then he sent the man on his way, promising to 143 00:12:03,210 --> 00:12:07,330 Speaker 1: fire him if he breathed another word of this nonsense. Yes, 144 00:12:07,570 --> 00:12:12,170 Speaker 1: Arthur Jell was a reliable, efficient man. Nothing would hinder 145 00:12:12,170 --> 00:12:16,930 Speaker 1: productivity on his watch. Not saboteurs with bombs, and certainly 146 00:12:16,970 --> 00:12:24,770 Speaker 1: not some jumped up manual laborer Isaac Gonzales returned to 147 00:12:24,810 --> 00:12:31,210 Speaker 1: his post through nineteen seventeen and nineteen eighteen. Other Bostonians 148 00:12:31,290 --> 00:12:34,530 Speaker 1: muttered to him about the tank. The men of Engine 149 00:12:34,690 --> 00:12:39,090 Speaker 1: thirty one firehouse, which stood just along the wharf, commented 150 00:12:39,130 --> 00:12:43,090 Speaker 1: on the obvious leaks that streaked its sides and the 151 00:12:43,170 --> 00:12:48,410 Speaker 1: strange sounds it made. When another local worker pressed his 152 00:12:48,530 --> 00:12:51,610 Speaker 1: back against the tank, he told Isaac it felt as 153 00:12:51,650 --> 00:12:56,610 Speaker 1: though the steel walls were moving, pulsing in and out 154 00:12:56,770 --> 00:13:02,690 Speaker 1: with the flow of the liquid inside. Gonzales continued his 155 00:13:02,930 --> 00:13:07,610 Speaker 1: nighttime vigil in secret. Of course, he knew he couldn't 156 00:13:07,650 --> 00:13:11,890 Speaker 1: speak to jail again, but in nineteen eighteen he complained 157 00:13:11,930 --> 00:13:16,490 Speaker 1: to his superintendent, William White, he waited to see if 158 00:13:16,490 --> 00:13:22,170 Speaker 1: his bosses would do anything. They did. In August, a 159 00:13:22,330 --> 00:13:28,610 Speaker 1: crew arrived at the tank, paint in hand. Gel had 160 00:13:28,770 --> 00:13:32,890 Speaker 1: ordered them to dare the gray steel walls with a 161 00:13:33,010 --> 00:13:40,810 Speaker 1: dark red brown, the color of molasses. Gonzales had had enough. 162 00:13:41,530 --> 00:13:47,970 Speaker 1: He quit his job and joined the army. Cautionary tales 163 00:13:48,210 --> 00:14:02,730 Speaker 1: will return. Usia had done well out of the war 164 00:14:02,810 --> 00:14:06,490 Speaker 1: in Europe, but when the armistice was signed in November 165 00:14:06,610 --> 00:14:11,850 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, it faced a steep fall in profits. Assistant 166 00:14:12,010 --> 00:14:16,890 Speaker 1: Treasurer Arthur jel knew all too well that the investors 167 00:14:17,050 --> 00:14:21,210 Speaker 1: wouldn't be happy. But all was not lost. As the 168 00:14:21,330 --> 00:14:26,290 Speaker 1: United States looked to ratify the eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution, 169 00:14:27,210 --> 00:14:33,770 Speaker 1: Usia spotted a slim window of opportunity. The prohibition of 170 00:14:33,850 --> 00:14:39,570 Speaker 1: the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors wouldn't actually 171 00:14:39,650 --> 00:14:44,050 Speaker 1: go into effect for another year, during which time there 172 00:14:44,050 --> 00:14:49,570 Speaker 1: would surely be a spike in alcohol sales. Usia resolved 173 00:14:49,570 --> 00:14:53,810 Speaker 1: to repurpose its distilleries for the liquor industry. It would 174 00:14:53,850 --> 00:14:59,650 Speaker 1: once again make hay while the sun shone. On January 175 00:14:59,650 --> 00:15:05,330 Speaker 1: the twelfth, nineteen nineteen, a ship cruised into Boston Harbor 176 00:15:05,770 --> 00:15:12,890 Speaker 1: with one point three million gallons of molasses. The dark, 177 00:15:13,250 --> 00:15:17,770 Speaker 1: viscous liquid had been warmed to facilitate its transfer, and 178 00:15:17,850 --> 00:15:22,010 Speaker 1: it flowed easily into the tank. By next morning, the 179 00:15:22,050 --> 00:15:26,410 Speaker 1: container was very nearly full. It held two point three 180 00:15:26,890 --> 00:15:31,730 Speaker 1: million gallons of the sticky substance, weighing roughly twenty six 181 00:15:32,050 --> 00:15:37,730 Speaker 1: million pounds. The weather in Boston had been bitterly cold, 182 00:15:38,210 --> 00:15:42,650 Speaker 1: and when the warm, free flowing molasses topped up the colder, 183 00:15:43,010 --> 00:15:49,370 Speaker 1: thicker liquid already in the tank, something unexpected happened. The 184 00:15:49,410 --> 00:15:54,810 Speaker 1: introduction of all that additional heat accelerated a fermentation process 185 00:15:55,250 --> 00:16:00,570 Speaker 1: producing carbon dioxide. The gas had nowhere to go, and 186 00:16:00,650 --> 00:16:04,450 Speaker 1: it began to push against the steel walls of the tank. 187 00:16:06,530 --> 00:16:10,930 Speaker 1: USIA's only responsibility, as the company saw it, was to 188 00:16:11,010 --> 00:16:15,890 Speaker 1: maximize profit. Somehow, that always seemed to mean profit now 189 00:16:16,050 --> 00:16:21,970 Speaker 1: rather than profit later, and so Arthur Gel prioritized speed, 190 00:16:22,530 --> 00:16:30,810 Speaker 1: growth and quarterly returns. If that sounds familiar, it could 191 00:16:30,810 --> 00:16:35,210 Speaker 1: be because Silicon Valley has become famous or infamous for 192 00:16:35,330 --> 00:16:40,810 Speaker 1: a similar corporate logic. Facebook's motto was move fast and 193 00:16:40,890 --> 00:16:45,210 Speaker 1: Break things, and it became the tech world's battle cry. 194 00:16:46,410 --> 00:16:50,730 Speaker 1: A move fast and break things culture can encourage innovation 195 00:16:51,210 --> 00:16:56,170 Speaker 1: and banish fear of mistakes. After all, errors are path 196 00:16:56,210 --> 00:17:00,410 Speaker 1: of the course, especially when you're making something new. And 197 00:17:00,450 --> 00:17:05,170 Speaker 1: while slow and steady can bring small, consistent benefits to 198 00:17:05,210 --> 00:17:09,330 Speaker 1: a business, throwing caution to the wind might gener rate 199 00:17:09,530 --> 00:17:16,890 Speaker 1: a single, massive payoff. But when a corporation values efficiency 200 00:17:17,010 --> 00:17:21,730 Speaker 1: and growth above all else, there can be other consequences. 201 00:17:22,650 --> 00:17:28,690 Speaker 1: Environmental costs, community welfare and workers' rights fall by the wayside, 202 00:17:29,330 --> 00:17:35,450 Speaker 1: safeguards are eroded, accountability dissolves, and harm is written off 203 00:17:36,170 --> 00:17:44,570 Speaker 1: as a cost of doing business. January fifteenth, nineteen nineteen, 204 00:17:45,050 --> 00:17:49,450 Speaker 1: is a cloudy day in Boston, but unusually mild. The 205 00:17:49,490 --> 00:17:52,770 Speaker 1: weather has been punishingly cold of late, and the people 206 00:17:52,850 --> 00:17:56,130 Speaker 1: of the North End take advantage of the slight thaw. 207 00:17:57,010 --> 00:18:01,010 Speaker 1: At lunchtime, the harbor is a buzz. Workers eat their 208 00:18:01,090 --> 00:18:05,330 Speaker 1: lunch on front steps and chatter on sidewalks. The mood 209 00:18:05,810 --> 00:18:11,970 Speaker 1: is mellow. Tank Superintendant William White has just received a 210 00:18:12,010 --> 00:18:15,170 Speaker 1: phone call from his wife. She has her eye on 211 00:18:15,330 --> 00:18:18,650 Speaker 1: new dress and wants to go shopping together. It'll be 212 00:18:18,690 --> 00:18:21,570 Speaker 1: a quiet work day now that the new load of 213 00:18:21,690 --> 00:18:26,370 Speaker 1: molasses has been safely delivered, and White sees no reason 214 00:18:26,730 --> 00:18:32,530 Speaker 1: not to spoil her. Just before midday, he leaves his post. 215 00:18:34,330 --> 00:18:38,010 Speaker 1: If he had lingered, he might have noticed Pasqualeis and 216 00:18:38,170 --> 00:18:42,290 Speaker 1: Tosca and the Dastasio children sneaking onto the wharf to 217 00:18:42,330 --> 00:18:49,210 Speaker 1: collect firewood. Instead, a railroad worker begins scolding Maria Dastasio. 218 00:18:49,970 --> 00:18:53,610 Speaker 1: You shouldn't be here, he chides, this isn't a playground. 219 00:18:55,770 --> 00:18:58,730 Speaker 1: Just along the wharf. The men of the Engine thirty 220 00:18:58,770 --> 00:19:03,210 Speaker 1: one Firehouse a playing whist on their lunch break, smoking 221 00:19:03,250 --> 00:19:07,570 Speaker 1: their pipes and mocking bay Ruth's ridiculous demands for a 222 00:19:07,690 --> 00:19:11,090 Speaker 1: pay rise. The baseball star would never survive on a 223 00:19:11,130 --> 00:19:16,170 Speaker 1: firefighter's wage, they scoff. Fifty six year old John Barry, 224 00:19:16,770 --> 00:19:20,650 Speaker 1: a stonecutter for the City of Boston Street Department, has 225 00:19:20,770 --> 00:19:24,890 Speaker 1: joined them from his workshop next door. Burly and muscular, 226 00:19:25,370 --> 00:19:29,850 Speaker 1: Barry is physically formidable, but his friends at the firehouse 227 00:19:30,010 --> 00:19:33,450 Speaker 1: know that his ten children are never far from his thoughts. 228 00:19:36,090 --> 00:19:40,490 Speaker 1: What was that It sounded like thunder? One of the 229 00:19:40,530 --> 00:19:45,890 Speaker 1: firefighters scrambles to a window. His face darkens with fear. 230 00:19:46,730 --> 00:19:51,610 Speaker 1: Oh my god, he cries. Run at his kitchen window. 231 00:19:51,890 --> 00:19:56,610 Speaker 1: Giuseppe yan Tosca jumps back in horror. He's been following 232 00:19:56,650 --> 00:20:01,250 Speaker 1: his Pasqualino as he gathers firewood, tracing that bright red 233 00:20:01,290 --> 00:20:05,290 Speaker 1: sweater as it bobs along the gray wharf. But something 234 00:20:05,290 --> 00:20:10,010 Speaker 1: has just swallowed the little boy, the kind of dark, 235 00:20:10,410 --> 00:20:17,450 Speaker 1: gleaming wave pushing forwards, tearing towards Commercial Street. Kitchen growls 236 00:20:17,490 --> 00:20:20,610 Speaker 1: and shakes, and before he can move, Giuseppe's been thrown 237 00:20:20,650 --> 00:20:26,850 Speaker 1: to the floor. He hits his head everything goes back. 238 00:20:29,730 --> 00:20:34,210 Speaker 1: At a call box on Commercial Street, policeman Frank McManus 239 00:20:34,370 --> 00:20:39,730 Speaker 1: is making a routine report to headquarters. That chilling sound 240 00:20:41,330 --> 00:20:46,730 Speaker 1: somewhere between a thunderclap sickening scrape of metal, makes him 241 00:20:46,770 --> 00:20:52,610 Speaker 1: turn receiver still to his mouth. He can't quite believe 242 00:20:52,690 --> 00:20:55,810 Speaker 1: what he's seeing, but he manages to utter a few 243 00:20:56,050 --> 00:20:58,050 Speaker 1: shocked words to the dispatcher. 244 00:20:58,930 --> 00:21:02,650 Speaker 2: Send all available rescue vehicles and personnel. Immediately. There's a 245 00:21:02,810 --> 00:21:09,450 Speaker 2: wave of molasses coming down Commercial Street. What follows is 246 00:21:09,490 --> 00:21:14,930 Speaker 2: the stuff of nightmares. The tank has burst clean open 247 00:21:15,410 --> 00:21:21,210 Speaker 2: rid its screaming through the air like shrapnels. A worker 248 00:21:21,610 --> 00:21:25,370 Speaker 2: trapped in the railroad freight office saw the tank's steel 249 00:21:25,530 --> 00:21:31,890 Speaker 2: walls fly into other buildings, which crumpled like egg. Two 250 00:21:31,930 --> 00:21:36,850 Speaker 2: point three million gallons of molasses has rushed onto the wharf, 251 00:21:37,410 --> 00:21:42,490 Speaker 2: a syruped tsunami, thirty five feet high, one hundred and 252 00:21:42,530 --> 00:21:46,690 Speaker 2: sixty feet wide, and traveling at thirty five miles per hour. 253 00:21:47,450 --> 00:21:51,410 Speaker 2: It snuffs out the daylight and wrenches the fire house 254 00:21:51,450 --> 00:21:59,130 Speaker 2: from its foundations on Commercial Street. 255 00:21:59,730 --> 00:22:04,170 Speaker 1: In the dining room of his second floor apartment, Robert Burnette, 256 00:22:04,530 --> 00:22:08,050 Speaker 1: he is a swish like a brushing of wind. A 257 00:22:08,170 --> 00:22:11,650 Speaker 1: shadow falls across the room, and he hurries to the window. 258 00:22:12,730 --> 00:22:16,810 Speaker 1: A great black wave is bearing down on the house. 259 00:22:18,330 --> 00:22:21,570 Speaker 1: Burnett snatches at his front door that the wave is 260 00:22:21,650 --> 00:22:25,330 Speaker 1: already surging up the stairs in the hallway. He slams 261 00:22:25,370 --> 00:22:29,090 Speaker 1: the door and runs for the roof. The wall of 262 00:22:29,170 --> 00:22:35,850 Speaker 1: molasses rebounds off buildings, shattering windows and pulverizing brickwork. It 263 00:22:36,050 --> 00:22:40,450 Speaker 1: twists and snaps the steel girders of an elevated railroad, 264 00:22:40,850 --> 00:22:45,690 Speaker 1: obliterating the track for more than one hundred feet. Horses, carts, 265 00:22:45,690 --> 00:22:50,330 Speaker 1: and motor trucks are overturned, children and adults vanish in 266 00:22:50,450 --> 00:23:03,170 Speaker 1: a treatily deluge. Stonecutter John Barry lies in total darkness, 267 00:23:03,770 --> 00:23:09,410 Speaker 1: wood and metal crushing his back its agony. He can 268 00:23:09,450 --> 00:23:14,530 Speaker 1: barely breathe. When the wave of molasses ripped the firehouse 269 00:23:14,570 --> 00:23:19,490 Speaker 1: off its foundations, the building collapse and the treacherous syrup 270 00:23:19,930 --> 00:23:26,170 Speaker 1: seeped through the debris. Barry is trapped pinned, face down, 271 00:23:26,930 --> 00:23:32,250 Speaker 1: one cheek grinding into molasses. Only his left arm is free, 272 00:23:32,650 --> 00:23:35,890 Speaker 1: and he clears the vial liquid from his face as 273 00:23:35,930 --> 00:23:42,610 Speaker 1: best he can. Barry tries to call out to scream, 274 00:23:42,930 --> 00:23:47,450 Speaker 1: but his voice is thin and reading, he imagines foul 275 00:23:47,730 --> 00:23:52,770 Speaker 1: rats scuttling over his body, burrowing their yellow teeth into 276 00:23:52,770 --> 00:23:58,290 Speaker 1: his flesh. I'm going to die here, he thinks. He 277 00:23:58,410 --> 00:24:08,650 Speaker 1: wonders what will become of his ten children. On his 278 00:24:08,730 --> 00:24:13,650 Speaker 1: kitchen floor, Giuseppe and Tosca comes too. His wife Maria 279 00:24:13,810 --> 00:24:16,530 Speaker 1: is crying in the corner of the room. One of 280 00:24:16,570 --> 00:24:23,530 Speaker 1: their daughters is comforting her bruised. Stunned, Giuseppe pulls himself 281 00:24:23,650 --> 00:24:27,890 Speaker 1: up and goes shakily to the front door. He will 282 00:24:27,930 --> 00:24:34,970 Speaker 1: find Pasqualino. If it kills him. Cautionary tales will be 283 00:24:35,010 --> 00:24:46,570 Speaker 1: back shortly. In the first moments of the disaster, the 284 00:24:46,610 --> 00:24:51,450 Speaker 1: molasses flow through the streets of Boston like water, or 285 00:24:51,530 --> 00:24:56,610 Speaker 1: perhaps like ketchup being jiggled out of a bottle. Like ketchup, 286 00:24:56,810 --> 00:25:01,650 Speaker 1: molasses flows freely when being violently shaken and exploding out 287 00:25:01,690 --> 00:25:05,170 Speaker 1: of a high pressure tank is certainly a violent movement, 288 00:25:06,290 --> 00:25:12,490 Speaker 1: but when molasses cools, it thickens. On January fifteenth, the 289 00:25:12,530 --> 00:25:15,930 Speaker 1: temperature in Boston had climbed a little, but the winter 290 00:25:16,050 --> 00:25:20,450 Speaker 1: air was still much cooler than the syrupy liquid, and 291 00:25:20,530 --> 00:25:23,410 Speaker 1: as it flowed out of the tank and through the streets, 292 00:25:23,970 --> 00:25:31,730 Speaker 1: it began to slow and congeal like quicksand trapped its victims. 293 00:25:32,330 --> 00:25:37,490 Speaker 1: As the Boston Post explained, snared in its flood was 294 00:25:37,530 --> 00:25:42,850 Speaker 1: to be stifled. Once it smeared ahead human or animal. 295 00:25:43,330 --> 00:25:47,370 Speaker 1: There was no coughing off the sticky mass. To attempt 296 00:25:47,410 --> 00:25:49,530 Speaker 1: to wipe it with hands was to make it worse. 297 00:25:50,010 --> 00:25:55,490 Speaker 1: It plugged the nostrils almost air tight. Horses thrashed around 298 00:25:55,570 --> 00:26:00,810 Speaker 1: in the glooy mass like so many flies on sticky flypaper. 299 00:26:02,130 --> 00:26:07,770 Speaker 1: They couldn't be freed and were shot dead. At a 300 00:26:07,810 --> 00:26:13,610 Speaker 1: local relief station, nurses and orderlies streaked with molasses treated 301 00:26:13,650 --> 00:26:18,850 Speaker 1: the injured. They carried patients on sticky stretchers, cutaway clothing, 302 00:26:19,250 --> 00:26:24,490 Speaker 1: and cleaned gaping wounds. Anguished Bostonians clamored to know if 303 00:26:24,490 --> 00:26:29,250 Speaker 1: their missing relatives were there. A lucky few were relatively unscathed. 304 00:26:30,210 --> 00:26:33,450 Speaker 1: Five year old Albert Janschi had been picked up by 305 00:26:33,450 --> 00:26:37,210 Speaker 1: the wave and drenched in molasses, but was miraculously unhurt. 306 00:26:37,850 --> 00:26:40,290 Speaker 1: Once it had been cleaned up and had something to eat, 307 00:26:40,810 --> 00:26:45,290 Speaker 1: he was allowed to return home. Others were taken straight 308 00:26:45,370 --> 00:26:54,130 Speaker 1: to the local morgue. In the ruins of the firehouse, 309 00:26:54,890 --> 00:27:01,050 Speaker 1: John Barry's back seared with pain despite his incredible strength, 310 00:27:01,730 --> 00:27:06,090 Speaker 1: he couldn't move. He couldn't see anything either. It was 311 00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:11,130 Speaker 1: pitch black, but he could hear something. With the shred 312 00:27:11,210 --> 00:27:16,010 Speaker 1: of energy he had left, he strained his ears. There 313 00:27:16,050 --> 00:27:21,050 Speaker 1: it was again a man's voice. He wasn't alone down here. 314 00:27:21,970 --> 00:27:26,090 Speaker 1: His friends were imprisoned with him in the debris. And 315 00:27:26,130 --> 00:27:31,370 Speaker 1: then John Barry heard something else, the unmistakable sound of 316 00:27:31,530 --> 00:27:37,330 Speaker 1: sores on wood and metal yielding to flame. Someone knew 317 00:27:37,410 --> 00:27:47,290 Speaker 1: they were down there, Someone was coming to get them. 318 00:27:47,490 --> 00:27:52,730 Speaker 1: Giuseppe jan Tosca spent hours searching for Pasqualino, but to 319 00:27:52,770 --> 00:27:58,130 Speaker 1: no avail. Maria Destacio had been found. She had been 320 00:27:58,210 --> 00:28:01,050 Speaker 1: right in the path of the monstrous wave and had 321 00:28:01,090 --> 00:28:06,690 Speaker 1: suffocated immediately, but her brother Tony had survived. Had been 322 00:28:06,770 --> 00:28:09,770 Speaker 1: thrown against a lamppost and suffered a frac should skull, 323 00:28:10,450 --> 00:28:13,010 Speaker 1: but a firefighter had managed to pull him from the 324 00:28:13,050 --> 00:28:18,010 Speaker 1: morass before he drowned. Could Guiseppe's boy have been rescued 325 00:28:18,810 --> 00:28:22,050 Speaker 1: had he been swept into the harbor, or perhaps he 326 00:28:22,170 --> 00:28:27,530 Speaker 1: was trapped beneath the debris on the wharf. In broken English, 327 00:28:27,610 --> 00:28:32,290 Speaker 1: Touseeppe frantically questioned the dazed and injured along Commercial Street, 328 00:28:33,370 --> 00:28:35,610 Speaker 1: but no one had seen a little boy in a 329 00:28:35,650 --> 00:28:40,930 Speaker 1: red sweater. Firefighters had rallied to reach their trapped colleagues 330 00:28:40,930 --> 00:28:45,050 Speaker 1: from Engine thirty one. Chopping and digging through the wreckage 331 00:28:45,170 --> 00:28:49,210 Speaker 1: was perilous work. With every move they made, the remains 332 00:28:49,250 --> 00:28:52,730 Speaker 1: of the building shifted around them. They found some of 333 00:28:52,770 --> 00:28:56,330 Speaker 1: their fellows in time, but thirty four year old father 334 00:28:56,450 --> 00:29:00,650 Speaker 1: of three, George Lahey was dragged from the wreckage dead. 335 00:29:03,570 --> 00:29:07,930 Speaker 1: After three hours and as many injections of morphine into 336 00:29:07,970 --> 00:29:12,530 Speaker 1: his back, John Barry heard a saw slicing away at 337 00:29:12,570 --> 00:29:16,450 Speaker 1: the wood near his head. It was getting closer and closer, 338 00:29:17,450 --> 00:29:22,290 Speaker 1: and then quite suddenly it stopped, and he felt the 339 00:29:22,410 --> 00:29:29,210 Speaker 1: great weight beheaved from his back. The exhausted stonecutter was 340 00:29:29,250 --> 00:29:34,730 Speaker 1: lifted onto a stretcher and rushed to hospital. When his 341 00:29:34,850 --> 00:29:39,930 Speaker 1: stricken daughters reached the ward, they didn't recognize him. Their 342 00:29:40,170 --> 00:29:46,210 Speaker 1: powerful father had vanished. In his place was a fragile 343 00:29:46,250 --> 00:29:54,770 Speaker 1: old man. Arthur Jell visited the waterfront. He was aghast 344 00:29:54,810 --> 00:29:59,090 Speaker 1: at the devastation, but kept calm. There would be a 345 00:29:59,330 --> 00:30:04,650 Speaker 1: plausible explanation for the disaster, one that absolved Usia and 346 00:30:04,770 --> 00:30:11,450 Speaker 1: himself of any responsibility. In the days that followed, the 347 00:30:11,530 --> 00:30:17,810 Speaker 1: flood clean up operation began. Businesses had been decimated, and 348 00:30:17,890 --> 00:30:20,730 Speaker 1: the harbor police picked all sorts of objects out of 349 00:30:20,770 --> 00:30:26,210 Speaker 1: the water, rolls of cloth, barrels of ale, tubs of lard. 350 00:30:27,650 --> 00:30:32,250 Speaker 1: Firemen spread sand on the pavements and dispersed the tenacious 351 00:30:32,330 --> 00:30:42,170 Speaker 1: molasses with jets of salt water. On January seventeenth, USIA 352 00:30:42,490 --> 00:30:46,890 Speaker 1: issued a statement the company knew beyond question that the 353 00:30:46,930 --> 00:30:50,770 Speaker 1: tank was not weak. This calamity was the work of 354 00:30:50,810 --> 00:30:59,450 Speaker 1: an outside influence. It was another three days before Giuseppe 355 00:30:59,490 --> 00:31:04,450 Speaker 1: and Maria Jantosca learned the fate of their son. Rescue 356 00:31:04,490 --> 00:31:06,930 Speaker 1: workers pulled the body of a little boy in a 357 00:31:06,970 --> 00:31:12,610 Speaker 1: red sweater from the wreckage. A railroad car carried fifty 358 00:31:12,730 --> 00:31:16,370 Speaker 1: feet by the wave had crushed him into a wall. 359 00:31:17,570 --> 00:31:22,610 Speaker 1: Giuseppe was asked to identify the child. He was slicked 360 00:31:22,810 --> 00:31:29,650 Speaker 1: with molasses and his face was horribly disfigured. Weeping, Giuseppe 361 00:31:29,810 --> 00:31:35,530 Speaker 1: lifted his red sweater and saw a second sweater underneath. 362 00:31:37,490 --> 00:31:42,170 Speaker 1: His heart breaking, he gathered Pasqualino's tiny body in his 363 00:31:42,330 --> 00:31:51,250 Speaker 1: arms and hugged him close. One hundred and fifty people 364 00:31:51,330 --> 00:31:55,130 Speaker 1: were injured in the molasses flood, and twenty one people 365 00:31:55,290 --> 00:31:59,210 Speaker 1: lost their lives. It was months before all the bodies 366 00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:04,810 Speaker 1: were recovered. At the inquest into the disaster, Judge Wilfred 367 00:32:04,930 --> 00:32:09,890 Speaker 1: Bolster rebuked USIA, but he was also scared about the 368 00:32:09,930 --> 00:32:15,610 Speaker 1: Boston Buildings Department. The city had bypassed the proper permit procedures. 369 00:32:16,290 --> 00:32:18,690 Speaker 1: No one in the building's department had been qualified to 370 00:32:18,730 --> 00:32:22,370 Speaker 1: assess whether the steel structure was fit for purpose, and 371 00:32:22,490 --> 00:32:26,130 Speaker 1: then accepted the paper design simply because it bore the 372 00:32:26,210 --> 00:32:31,930 Speaker 1: name of a civil engineer. This single accident has cost 373 00:32:32,090 --> 00:32:36,370 Speaker 1: more in material damage than all the supposed economies in 374 00:32:36,370 --> 00:32:42,410 Speaker 1: the building department. Laws are cheap of passage, costly of enforcement. 375 00:32:43,170 --> 00:32:52,010 Speaker 1: They do not execute themselves, Bolster declared. Despite Judge Bolster's rebuke, 376 00:32:52,450 --> 00:32:56,010 Speaker 1: a grand jury found that there was insufficient evidence to 377 00:32:56,050 --> 00:33:00,610 Speaker 1: return an indictment of manslaughter. The people of Boston were 378 00:33:00,650 --> 00:33:06,530 Speaker 1: appalled USIA was getting away with it. A group of 379 00:33:06,610 --> 00:33:11,050 Speaker 1: Bostonians prepared to sue the company. If nobody would go 380 00:33:11,090 --> 00:33:13,810 Speaker 1: to jail for their carelessness, they could at least be 381 00:33:13,850 --> 00:33:17,610 Speaker 1: made to pay a price, But USIA had some tricks 382 00:33:17,650 --> 00:33:23,930 Speaker 1: up its sleeve. Today, it's generally believed that the Boston 383 00:33:24,050 --> 00:33:28,730 Speaker 1: molasses disaster was the result of brittle fracture, the sudden 384 00:33:29,090 --> 00:33:32,930 Speaker 1: catastrophic failure of the tank structure due to poor design. 385 00:33:34,010 --> 00:33:38,010 Speaker 1: To withstand the strains they would experience, the tank walls 386 00:33:38,050 --> 00:33:41,490 Speaker 1: needed to be at least twice as thick. Over time, 387 00:33:41,770 --> 00:33:46,730 Speaker 1: as the tank was repeatedly emptied and refilled, the steel fatigued. 388 00:33:47,450 --> 00:33:51,090 Speaker 1: The fatal fracture probably began as a circular hatch at 389 00:33:51,090 --> 00:33:57,570 Speaker 1: the base of the tank. Engineers balance efficiency, resource allocation, 390 00:33:57,970 --> 00:34:03,770 Speaker 1: and safety. Arthur Jell, who oversaw the tank's rapid construction, 391 00:34:04,530 --> 00:34:09,290 Speaker 1: was a skilled administrator, but he wasn't an engineer. His 392 00:34:09,410 --> 00:34:13,650 Speaker 1: focus wasn't the complex harmony of function and long term 393 00:34:13,730 --> 00:34:20,170 Speaker 1: public safety, but short term profit. USIA regarded the residents 394 00:34:20,210 --> 00:34:25,290 Speaker 1: of Boston's North End not as vulnerable individuals worthy of dignity, 395 00:34:25,930 --> 00:34:30,130 Speaker 1: but as factors in a business model. The company had 396 00:34:30,210 --> 00:34:34,770 Speaker 1: taken advantage of a power imbalance, knowing that the Italian 397 00:34:34,770 --> 00:34:38,770 Speaker 1: Americans who lived near the harbor were unlikely to resist 398 00:34:38,930 --> 00:34:44,370 Speaker 1: the building of the Malasses tank. USIA also knew that 399 00:34:44,450 --> 00:34:49,130 Speaker 1: people were suspicious of Italian Americans, and in its next move, 400 00:34:49,730 --> 00:34:54,090 Speaker 1: it sought to capitalize on that fear. In the wake 401 00:34:54,170 --> 00:34:59,650 Speaker 1: of the disaster, one hundred and nineteen Bostonians sued USIA, 402 00:35:00,450 --> 00:35:04,170 Speaker 1: arguing that the Great Va of Malasses had been structurally 403 00:35:04,210 --> 00:35:12,130 Speaker 1: deficient and built without proper safeguards. Caretaker Isaac Gonzalez, who'd 404 00:35:12,170 --> 00:35:15,690 Speaker 1: warned off the gel about the tank and been dismissed, 405 00:35:16,530 --> 00:35:20,970 Speaker 1: took the stand and told of how molasses had oozed 406 00:35:21,090 --> 00:35:27,370 Speaker 1: incessantly through the tank's riveted joins. John Barry, his hair 407 00:35:27,490 --> 00:35:31,730 Speaker 1: now white from the stress of his ordeal, also testified 408 00:35:32,650 --> 00:35:35,770 Speaker 1: he could no longer work as a stonecutter because he 409 00:35:35,810 --> 00:35:40,330 Speaker 1: couldn't stand up straight. My back hurts all the time, 410 00:35:40,850 --> 00:35:44,970 Speaker 1: he said. It's as though my spine is breaking. The 411 00:35:45,010 --> 00:35:50,850 Speaker 1: doctor says there's no cure. Giuseppe and Tosca described the 412 00:35:50,970 --> 00:35:56,050 Speaker 1: earth shattering moment his Pasqualino was engulfed by a dark wave. 413 00:35:57,650 --> 00:36:02,090 Speaker 1: USIA countered that Pasquale an Tosca shouldn't have been there 414 00:36:02,130 --> 00:36:06,810 Speaker 1: at all. A company is under no obligation to make 415 00:36:06,850 --> 00:36:13,650 Speaker 1: its premises safe for trespassing, snarled one defense attorney. USIA 416 00:36:13,850 --> 00:36:17,610 Speaker 1: held that at lunchtime on January the fifteenth, nineteen nineteen, 417 00:36:18,410 --> 00:36:23,890 Speaker 1: unknown anarchists, probably Italian, had dropped a bomb in the tank. 418 00:36:25,170 --> 00:36:28,610 Speaker 1: The company had spent more than fifty thousand dollars on 419 00:36:28,810 --> 00:36:33,530 Speaker 1: expert witnesses to support its claims. It continued to take 420 00:36:33,570 --> 00:36:38,410 Speaker 1: this line even after a professor from MIT testified that 421 00:36:38,490 --> 00:36:43,290 Speaker 1: the tank had been of insufficient thickness to withstand the 422 00:36:43,330 --> 00:36:49,050 Speaker 1: pressure of the molasses inside. Order Sir Hugh Ogden listen 423 00:36:49,130 --> 00:36:53,330 Speaker 1: to nearly one thousand witnesses and heard over twenty thousand 424 00:36:53,410 --> 00:36:58,970 Speaker 1: pages of testimony. The proceedings took five years, but in 425 00:36:59,010 --> 00:37:05,650 Speaker 1: the end he rejected USIA's claims of sabotage. I cannot 426 00:37:05,650 --> 00:37:10,330 Speaker 1: help feeling that a proper regard for the appalling possibility 427 00:37:10,370 --> 00:37:13,370 Speaker 1: of damage to persons and property contained in the tank 428 00:37:13,490 --> 00:37:17,570 Speaker 1: in case of accident demanded a higher standard of care 429 00:37:17,810 --> 00:37:24,050 Speaker 1: in inspection from those in authority. Ogden declared. He recommended 430 00:37:24,050 --> 00:37:28,770 Speaker 1: that the plaintiffs receive damages. A private agreement was reached, 431 00:37:29,250 --> 00:37:33,490 Speaker 1: and in nineteen twenty five USIA took a charge against 432 00:37:33,490 --> 00:37:38,530 Speaker 1: profits of six hundred and twenty eight thousand dollars due 433 00:37:38,570 --> 00:37:43,170 Speaker 1: to the Boston tank accident, about eleven point five million 434 00:37:43,210 --> 00:37:49,490 Speaker 1: dollars today, that's not nothing, but split between one hundred 435 00:37:49,530 --> 00:37:55,810 Speaker 1: and nineteen traumatized and grievously injured plaintiffs. It's also not 436 00:37:56,050 --> 00:38:02,090 Speaker 1: very much. USIA closed its Cambridge plant and fired the 437 00:38:02,130 --> 00:38:05,930 Speaker 1: people that worked there, but Arthur P. Gell seems to 438 00:38:05,970 --> 00:38:09,330 Speaker 1: have got his New York City promotion. He took the 439 00:38:09,450 --> 00:38:14,250 Speaker 1: vice presidency at another USIA subsidiary, the American Solvents and 440 00:38:14,370 --> 00:38:19,530 Speaker 1: Chemical Association. Gell remained a company man through and through. 441 00:38:20,810 --> 00:38:23,650 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty one, he was named in a federal 442 00:38:23,730 --> 00:38:29,770 Speaker 1: grand jury indictment against USIA for violating prohibition laws. He 443 00:38:29,890 --> 00:38:33,570 Speaker 1: died in nineteen sixty three at the ripe old age 444 00:38:33,610 --> 00:38:39,610 Speaker 1: of eighty four, survived by his wife, daughter, and four grandchildren. 445 00:38:43,130 --> 00:38:47,290 Speaker 1: Isaac Gonzales had warned gel about the tank, and when 446 00:38:47,330 --> 00:38:51,690 Speaker 1: his warnings had been repeatedly ignored, he'd quit and joined 447 00:38:51,690 --> 00:38:56,610 Speaker 1: the army. After the war, he faced yet another test 448 00:38:56,650 --> 00:39:00,530 Speaker 1: of his courage. He scaled a burning building to rescue 449 00:39:00,530 --> 00:39:03,490 Speaker 1: a woman and her three small children, wrapping them in 450 00:39:03,530 --> 00:39:07,610 Speaker 1: bedclothes and carrying them out. When they were safe, he 451 00:39:07,730 --> 00:39:10,530 Speaker 1: returned to the blazing upon just in case anyone had 452 00:39:10,530 --> 00:39:14,930 Speaker 1: been left behind. The fire cut his exit off and 453 00:39:15,010 --> 00:39:18,970 Speaker 1: he had to jump to safety from an upper window. 454 00:39:20,090 --> 00:39:24,090 Speaker 1: Gonzales was a hero, but it's hard not to wonder 455 00:39:24,570 --> 00:39:27,850 Speaker 1: if his time at the Molasses Tank might have left 456 00:39:27,890 --> 00:39:34,050 Speaker 1: him with some survivor's guilt, if only Arthur Gel had 457 00:39:34,050 --> 00:39:47,650 Speaker 1: felt the same sense of responsibility. The key source for 458 00:39:47,690 --> 00:39:52,330 Speaker 1: this episode of Cautionary Tales is Dark Tide the Great 459 00:39:52,490 --> 00:39:57,570 Speaker 1: Boston Molasses Flood of nineteen nineteen by Stephen Pulio. For 460 00:39:57,650 --> 00:40:00,170 Speaker 1: a full list of sources, see the show notes at 461 00:40:00,210 --> 00:40:04,730 Speaker 1: Timharford dot com. Cautionary Tales as written by me Tim 462 00:40:04,770 --> 00:40:08,770 Speaker 1: Harford with Andrew Wright, Alice Fines, and Ryan Dilly. It's 463 00:40:08,770 --> 00:40:12,810 Speaker 1: produce by Georgia Mills and Marilyn Rust. The sound design 464 00:40:12,930 --> 00:40:16,690 Speaker 1: and original music are the work of Pascal Wise. Additional 465 00:40:16,730 --> 00:40:20,250 Speaker 1: sound design is by Carlos San Juan at Brain Audio 466 00:40:20,970 --> 00:40:25,650 Speaker 1: Bend and Dapfhaffrey edited the scripts. The show also wouldn't 467 00:40:25,650 --> 00:40:29,130 Speaker 1: have been possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Greta Cohene, 468 00:40:29,450 --> 00:40:34,930 Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, Christina Sullivan, Kira Posey, and Owen Miller. Cautionary 469 00:40:34,970 --> 00:40:38,450 Speaker 1: Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like 470 00:40:38,530 --> 00:40:41,890 Speaker 1: the show, please remember to share, rate, and review. It 471 00:40:41,930 --> 00:40:43,730 Speaker 1: really makes a difference to us. And if you want 472 00:40:43,730 --> 00:40:46,210 Speaker 1: to hear the show, add free and get access to 473 00:40:46,330 --> 00:40:50,610 Speaker 1: exclusive content. Sign up to the Cautionary Club that is 474 00:40:50,690 --> 00:41:14,450 Speaker 1: over at patreon dot com. Slash Cautionary Club contectlyt the 475 00:41:14,690 --> 00:41:17,010 Speaker 1: Compact and