| Overview |
In December 1915, United States Industrial Alcohol (USIA) built—without
any formal engineering design—a massive cylindrical steel tank along
Boston’s North End waterfront to store incoming shipments of molasses.
When the tank ruptured three years later, 21 people died. USIA
immediately blamed the rupture on an anarchist bomb attack, but a
three-year legal battle pointed elsewhere. Explore the phenomena of
metal fatigue and brittle fracture and learn what role they played in
the Great Boston Molasses Flood.
|