1 00:00:04,210 --> 00:00:07,630 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I should say, hey, 2 00:00:07,710 --> 00:00:11,180 Speaker 1: and welcome to the short stuff. No. I'm Josh, and 3 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:13,820 Speaker 1: there's Chuck, and Jerry's sitting in for Dave. So this 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:16,940 Speaker 1: is short stuff. That was kind of tasteless, even though 5 00:00:16,980 --> 00:00:21,320 Speaker 1: it's been more than 100 years. Yeah, crazy. It's still, 6 00:00:22,340 --> 00:00:25,739 Speaker 1: I think this is sometimes taken too lightly or expressed 7 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: too lightly. It's a pretty big tragedy that we're about 8 00:00:28,260 --> 00:00:28,820 Speaker 1: to talk about. 9 00:00:29,530 --> 00:00:33,389 Speaker 2: That's right. The 1919 Boston molasses flood that I was 10 00:00:33,650 --> 00:00:37,610 Speaker 2: positive we'd covered. And it had to be on a 11 00:00:38,050 --> 00:00:39,830 Speaker 2: when we made those dumb videos back in the day. 12 00:00:39,909 --> 00:00:42,269 Speaker 2: Not don't be dumb. Those were good videos. All the 13 00:00:42,290 --> 00:00:43,669 Speaker 2: other ones were dumb, ironically. 14 00:00:44,909 --> 00:00:49,330 Speaker 1: No, thanks, man. Enough people had have written in over 15 00:00:49,370 --> 00:00:52,090 Speaker 1: the years to ask us for it. That that's where 16 00:00:52,190 --> 00:00:54,530 Speaker 1: I've heard of it. I don't remember talking about it. 17 00:00:55,210 --> 00:00:57,290 Speaker 2: We had to have it. I looked it up just 18 00:00:57,330 --> 00:00:59,330 Speaker 2: to make sure, but stuff you missed in history class 19 00:00:59,350 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 2: back in the day covered it. But this is our 20 00:01:01,310 --> 00:01:04,300 Speaker 2: shorty version. And so we'll take you back. Let's hop 21 00:01:04,340 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 2: in the Wayback Machine. It's been a minute. 22 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:06,470 Speaker 1: Oh, let's do it. 23 00:01:06,819 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 2: It is so dusty and it sounds funny, but let's 24 00:01:10,060 --> 00:01:10,480 Speaker 2: crank it up. 25 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:12,300 Speaker 1: Look out for that spider. That's pretty big. 26 00:01:12,700 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 2: That's a pretty big spider. But it came from the 27 00:01:16,700 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 2: Mesozoic era, so. 28 00:01:18,970 --> 00:01:20,570 Speaker 1: Yeah, that explains why. 29 00:01:20,690 --> 00:01:22,709 Speaker 2: That explains why. So we're going to go back to 30 00:01:22,750 --> 00:01:26,380 Speaker 2: January 15th, 1919 to Boston. to the north end of Boston, 31 00:01:26,470 --> 00:01:28,979 Speaker 2: to Commercial Street in the north end. It's a pretty 32 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 2: warm day for January, so there's a lot of people 33 00:01:31,380 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 2: out and about trying to get a little bit of sun. 34 00:01:34,260 --> 00:01:38,410 Speaker 2: And everyone is hearing a weird sound. Some people say 35 00:01:38,420 --> 00:01:41,410 Speaker 2: it sounds like gunfire. Some people it sounds like a train, 36 00:01:41,850 --> 00:01:44,569 Speaker 2: like a rumbling of the L train. And when you 37 00:01:44,610 --> 00:01:48,010 Speaker 2: look up, all of a sudden, you see a 2.3 38 00:01:48,010 --> 00:01:51,590 Speaker 2: million gallon wave, 25 feet high and 160 feet wide, 39 00:01:55,230 --> 00:01:57,670 Speaker 2: coming at us at 35 miles an hour. 40 00:01:58,170 --> 00:01:59,190 Speaker 1: Can you imagine? 41 00:01:59,910 --> 00:02:02,780 Speaker 2: No, sir. I can't imagine a water wave like that. 42 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 1: No, I know. And that's the thing. Like, there's a 43 00:02:05,180 --> 00:02:07,820 Speaker 1: couple of different properties about this that make it way 44 00:02:07,860 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: worse than a wave of water. And one is that 45 00:02:10,780 --> 00:02:13,820 Speaker 1: molasses is denser than water. So the effect it has 46 00:02:13,860 --> 00:02:15,500 Speaker 1: when it slams into you is going to be even 47 00:02:15,580 --> 00:02:19,290 Speaker 1: worse than when water does. And two, after it slams 48 00:02:19,350 --> 00:02:22,930 Speaker 1: into you and takes you under... it's going to start 49 00:02:22,970 --> 00:02:26,350 Speaker 1: to solidify and congeal once it stops moving. And you're 50 00:02:26,370 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 1: going to have a lot of trouble getting out of it. 51 00:02:28,750 --> 00:02:31,490 Speaker 1: And so that happened to a lot of people. It injured, 52 00:02:31,530 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 1: I think, 150 people. And in addition to that, 21 53 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:39,940 Speaker 1: people were killed. And in addition to that, a lot 54 00:02:39,980 --> 00:02:42,860 Speaker 1: of animals were killed. And then in addition to that, 55 00:02:43,020 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: a lot of property was destroyed. So this was a big, 56 00:02:46,380 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: big deal when this happened. 57 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,360 Speaker 2: Yeah. I can't imagine a more horrifying death than being 58 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:57,980 Speaker 2: basically suffocated and squashed by 2.3 million gallons of molasses 59 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 2: in a wave. It's just it's it's horrible to think about. 60 00:03:01,100 --> 00:03:03,639 Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel that way about landslides. And I think 61 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:05,060 Speaker 1: this is very similar to that. 62 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. So who do we have to blame 63 00:03:08,060 --> 00:03:12,290 Speaker 2: for this? We have the Purity Distilling Company, whose parent 64 00:03:12,310 --> 00:03:16,989 Speaker 2: company was the United States Industrial Alcohol. And they are 65 00:03:17,030 --> 00:03:19,910 Speaker 2: squarely to blame, as we'll see. They made rum and 66 00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:24,350 Speaker 2: industrial alcohol on the north end there And they built 67 00:03:24,389 --> 00:03:26,889 Speaker 2: a big, huge tank to hold this molasses. It was 68 00:03:26,889 --> 00:03:31,190 Speaker 2: 52 feet tall, 90 feet wide, and at its peak 69 00:03:32,450 --> 00:03:34,450 Speaker 2: holds about two and a half million gallons. And on 70 00:03:34,470 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 2: this day, there were 2.3 million gallons. 71 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,220 Speaker 1: Man, that is so many gallons of molasses, right? 72 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:39,500 Speaker 2: Yeah. 73 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: And you say, well, why did they like molasses this much? 74 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:46,920 Speaker 1: Were they making liquid compost? You say, no, no, don't 75 00:03:46,940 --> 00:03:50,290 Speaker 1: be silly. Instead, they were using it as the main 76 00:03:50,330 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: ingredient for this alcohol. Again, you said they make rum. Yeah. 77 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: So I guess they made a ton of rum because 78 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: that's a lot of molasses. And they found that this 79 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,550 Speaker 1: tank was not built by anybody who knew what they 80 00:04:03,590 --> 00:04:07,230 Speaker 1: were doing, essentially, and that it was not structurally sound 81 00:04:07,430 --> 00:04:09,730 Speaker 1: even from the beginning. And that even the locals in 82 00:04:09,770 --> 00:04:12,770 Speaker 1: the North End were like, yeah, this thing's been leaking 83 00:04:12,830 --> 00:04:15,260 Speaker 1: for a really long time. You can see it coming 84 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:18,700 Speaker 1: out of the seams. And so Purity Distilling Company had 85 00:04:18,740 --> 00:04:21,530 Speaker 1: a solution for that. They painted the tank brown so 86 00:04:21,550 --> 00:04:23,500 Speaker 1: that you couldn't see the molasses coming out of the 87 00:04:23,540 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: seams anymore. And they said, easy peasy, job done. Yeah. 88 00:04:28,060 --> 00:04:31,640 Speaker 2: And, like, people would go get the molasses. Those kids 89 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:33,760 Speaker 2: would be like, this is awesome, sweet molasses over there 90 00:04:33,779 --> 00:04:37,250 Speaker 2: at the seams. So it was very well known. What 91 00:04:37,490 --> 00:04:40,670 Speaker 2: strikes me as odd, on January 15th, this was a 92 00:04:40,730 --> 00:04:43,530 Speaker 2: year before Prohibition. Well, I guess they didn't. Did they 93 00:04:43,550 --> 00:04:45,410 Speaker 2: know Prohibition was coming? That was my question. 94 00:04:45,670 --> 00:04:46,610 Speaker 1: I don't know. 95 00:04:46,630 --> 00:04:47,630 Speaker 2: Okay. 96 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:47,860 Speaker 1: Okay. 97 00:04:48,529 --> 00:04:50,090 Speaker 2: That's probably an unwarranted suspicion then. 98 00:04:50,730 --> 00:04:53,750 Speaker 1: Well, you could make industrial alcohol still, so I don't 99 00:04:53,770 --> 00:04:55,330 Speaker 1: think they were going to be out of business. 100 00:04:56,070 --> 00:04:58,690 Speaker 2: Okay. All right. That's what I was wondering. You know 101 00:04:58,730 --> 00:05:02,370 Speaker 2: me so well. You saw where I was headed with that. 102 00:05:04,250 --> 00:05:07,630 Speaker 2: All right. So this rushes through at 35 miles an hour, 103 00:05:07,690 --> 00:05:11,990 Speaker 2: like I said. Smaller buildings were completely crushed and consumed. 104 00:05:12,730 --> 00:05:16,409 Speaker 2: Larger buildings were moved off their foundations. It knocked an 105 00:05:16,710 --> 00:05:19,510 Speaker 2: L train off of its tracks. And like you said, 106 00:05:19,510 --> 00:05:22,770 Speaker 2: 21 people died. A lot of them were sort of 107 00:05:23,430 --> 00:05:25,670 Speaker 2: laborers and drivers in the area in the North End. 108 00:05:26,190 --> 00:05:31,980 Speaker 2: But there were also kids. Pascual Antosca and Maria D'Estacio 109 00:05:32,020 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 2: were two 10-year-olds who were out just enjoying the sun. 110 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,060 Speaker 2: And they were killed. It's brutally sad. Yeah. 111 00:05:39,140 --> 00:05:42,140 Speaker 1: So is a firefighter named George Leahy, who had gone 112 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:46,159 Speaker 1: to bed, I guess, after the late shift at Engine 113 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,350 Speaker 1: 31 Station. And I think he had gone to bed 114 00:05:49,390 --> 00:05:52,970 Speaker 1: and maybe the basement in the basement was swamped with molasses. 115 00:05:53,010 --> 00:05:56,310 Speaker 1: So he died in bed. And so, you know, all 116 00:05:56,330 --> 00:06:00,690 Speaker 1: of this, um, horror and carnage of people and animals, 117 00:06:00,750 --> 00:06:03,400 Speaker 1: like a lot of horses were killed too, because they were, 118 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,980 Speaker 1: this is a really like, um, working class area. So 119 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,140 Speaker 1: there was a lot of horses like pulling carts and 120 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:11,359 Speaker 1: wagons and stuff at the time that were stuck in 121 00:06:11,380 --> 00:06:14,810 Speaker 1: this stuff or drowned in it as well. Um, but 122 00:06:14,870 --> 00:06:19,089 Speaker 1: in addition to that, all that destruction, um, What made 123 00:06:19,130 --> 00:06:21,890 Speaker 1: it even worse is that it was covered in molasses 124 00:06:21,950 --> 00:06:26,690 Speaker 1: that had solidified, which made it really hard to clean up, 125 00:06:26,930 --> 00:06:30,100 Speaker 1: like to just get like these pieces of L-train or 126 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: pieces of building or whatever out of the neighborhood. You 127 00:06:35,860 --> 00:06:39,140 Speaker 1: couldn't even do it because it was stuck in just 128 00:06:39,260 --> 00:06:40,900 Speaker 1: a ton of molasses. 129 00:06:41,740 --> 00:06:45,020 Speaker 2: That's right. But they had a solution. And we'll talk 130 00:06:45,050 --> 00:07:11,540 Speaker 2: about that right after this. We're back, everybody. I do 131 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:14,380 Speaker 2: want to point something out. I mentioned earlier that most 132 00:07:14,420 --> 00:07:17,120 Speaker 2: of the people who perished were laborers and drivers and 133 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 2: stuff for the North End paving yard. Uh, that, that 134 00:07:20,420 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 2: is not, and then we, you know, highlighted a few, 135 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 2: you know, a couple of kids and a firefighter. Uh, 136 00:07:25,260 --> 00:07:29,150 Speaker 2: I hope that didn't sound like we were just saying 137 00:07:29,170 --> 00:07:31,890 Speaker 2: like their lives didn't matter because they were lowly laborers. 138 00:07:31,930 --> 00:07:33,770 Speaker 2: And let's talk about this firefighter and kids. We just 139 00:07:33,790 --> 00:07:37,670 Speaker 2: wanted to highlight some real names. Yeah. Yeah. 140 00:07:37,710 --> 00:07:40,430 Speaker 1: Well put. Hopefully most people got that, but then you 141 00:07:40,470 --> 00:07:43,450 Speaker 1: just stopped like a couple of bad reviews on, on Apple. 142 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:46,310 Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I just want to clear that up. Like 143 00:07:46,330 --> 00:07:48,790 Speaker 2: they wanted to clear up the North end and we 144 00:07:48,830 --> 00:07:51,340 Speaker 2: promised talk of a solution and the solution was saltwater. 145 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,300 Speaker 2: It breaks down molasses. So they were like, all right, 146 00:07:54,340 --> 00:07:57,420 Speaker 2: we've got the idea here now. We're going to pump 147 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 2: water from the harbor, that engine 31, which is the 148 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:05,150 Speaker 2: firehouse that was consumed where the firefighter died. They used 149 00:08:05,190 --> 00:08:11,390 Speaker 2: their fireboat and it worked pretty well. They very sadly 150 00:08:11,430 --> 00:08:13,810 Speaker 2: were still pulling bodies. I think that the last body 151 00:08:13,830 --> 00:08:16,560 Speaker 2: they found four months later. So it was a pretty 152 00:08:16,700 --> 00:08:17,620 Speaker 2: slow process still. 153 00:08:18,220 --> 00:08:21,990 Speaker 1: So, um, initially people were like, well, what happened? And 154 00:08:22,150 --> 00:08:27,970 Speaker 1: purity distilling company said anarchists and anarchists clearly bombed our, um, companies, 155 00:08:28,430 --> 00:08:31,430 Speaker 1: you know, tank holding tank. And that was what did 156 00:08:31,470 --> 00:08:34,790 Speaker 1: it wasn't us. And they beat that drum like the 157 00:08:34,830 --> 00:08:38,270 Speaker 1: whole time. But I guess once somebody started looking into it, 158 00:08:38,290 --> 00:08:41,050 Speaker 1: there was a world war one, the decorated veteran named 159 00:08:41,140 --> 00:08:45,679 Speaker 1: Hugh Ogden, who was tasked with, um, acting as auditor 160 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:48,780 Speaker 1: to basically get to the bottom of this and uh 161 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,679 Speaker 1: he found out pretty quickly uh that that it was 162 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:58,180 Speaker 1: like you said a hundred percent that company's fault and responsibility. 163 00:08:58,020 --> 00:09:00,949 Speaker 2: Yeah i think this is still known in a lot 164 00:09:00,990 --> 00:09:04,429 Speaker 2: of circles as like an explosion that like blew this 165 00:09:04,450 --> 00:09:07,590 Speaker 2: tank open and that's just not true uh i guess 166 00:09:07,650 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 2: the sound they heard was just this thing uh You know, 167 00:09:12,140 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 2: I mean, I want to say exploding, but it wasn't 168 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 2: an explosion. But this tank failing was what they heard. 169 00:09:16,820 --> 00:09:19,179 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure it made its way out of that 170 00:09:19,260 --> 00:09:22,550 Speaker 1: tank once the tank failed pretty quickly, probably close to 171 00:09:22,610 --> 00:09:25,089 Speaker 1: what would have seemed like an explosion initially. I could 172 00:09:25,130 --> 00:09:26,550 Speaker 1: see people mistaking that. 173 00:09:26,590 --> 00:09:26,790 Speaker 2: Right. 174 00:09:27,390 --> 00:09:27,630 Speaker 1: Yeah. 175 00:09:28,250 --> 00:09:30,170 Speaker 2: But, you know, there was no regulation at the time. 176 00:09:30,190 --> 00:09:32,780 Speaker 2: That's not to say they weren't responsible, but there was 177 00:09:32,820 --> 00:09:35,420 Speaker 2: no like oversight for this kind of thing back then 178 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,400 Speaker 2: in 1919. But you can bet there was afterward. 179 00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, they changed the rules for something like a 180 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:45,220 Speaker 1: holding tank. I mean, like if they had made a bridge, 181 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:49,000 Speaker 1: some agency or other would have had to check off 182 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:50,990 Speaker 1: on it. But there was nothing like that for that 183 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:53,650 Speaker 1: kind of thing. Then there was afterward, you had to 184 00:09:53,710 --> 00:09:57,030 Speaker 1: have an architect and an engineer on file, look at 185 00:09:57,070 --> 00:09:59,910 Speaker 1: your plans and say, this is structurally sound, this is 186 00:09:59,980 --> 00:10:01,500 Speaker 1: going to work. And then you had to file the 187 00:10:01,540 --> 00:10:05,840 Speaker 1: plan with the city of Boston. And very quickly after that, 188 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:08,450 Speaker 1: they kind of ended up setting the pace for other 189 00:10:09,020 --> 00:10:13,710 Speaker 1: cities around the country who required the same thing shortly after. 190 00:10:13,770 --> 00:10:16,030 Speaker 1: So there was a silver lining to it in that 191 00:10:16,090 --> 00:10:18,410 Speaker 1: sense that they went in and made sure that something 192 00:10:18,429 --> 00:10:20,850 Speaker 1: like this wouldn't happen again. But you know, that didn't 193 00:10:20,890 --> 00:10:23,110 Speaker 1: bring the people back or the horses. 194 00:10:23,870 --> 00:10:25,390 Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, this is one of those things like 195 00:10:25,450 --> 00:10:27,850 Speaker 2: with the hotel fire. And I feel like we've covered 196 00:10:27,870 --> 00:10:30,069 Speaker 2: quite a few tragedies where they had this kind of 197 00:10:30,090 --> 00:10:32,209 Speaker 2: same kind of silver lining that things changed for the 198 00:10:32,250 --> 00:10:37,890 Speaker 2: better afterward. Yeah. The U.S. industrial alcohol business, the company 199 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:41,080 Speaker 2: that parent company of Purity Distillery was forced to pay 200 00:10:41,100 --> 00:10:44,880 Speaker 2: about a million nineteen nineteen dollars or nineteen twenty dollars 201 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,680 Speaker 2: in damages. And I looked up, I was, you know, 202 00:10:48,340 --> 00:10:50,080 Speaker 2: Wanted to know what happened to that company, and that 203 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:50,960 Speaker 2: was the end of that company. 204 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Well, that's kind of a silver lining, too, then, 205 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: I guess, because they really should have. I saw, Chuck, 206 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:59,460 Speaker 1: that even for the standards of the day, they used 207 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:04,770 Speaker 1: below-standard materials. So they were cutting corners. With 2.5 million 208 00:11:04,809 --> 00:11:07,850 Speaker 1: gallons capacity of molasses, that's just dumb. 209 00:11:09,070 --> 00:11:10,110 Speaker 2: Does that mean short stuff is out? 210 00:11:10,730 --> 00:11:11,610 Speaker 1: Yeah. 211 00:11:14,470 --> 00:11:17,310 Speaker 2: Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 212 00:11:17,350 --> 00:11:21,460 Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 213 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:23,410 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.