When Molasses Attacks

[mollyringle]

The other night I bought some molasses ("treacle," to some of you) for use in a brown bread recipe. It occurred to me as I chose the bottle that I know next to nothing about molasses, and whether I wanted blackstrap or unsulphured or what exactly. Up here in the Northwest we don't use a lot of molasses. Ask us about salsa, now, or various types of milk foam used in espresso drinks, and we could talk for hours. But I digress.

Fortunately, I chose unsulphured molasses and not blackstrap--since, having now done the Wikipedia research, I learn that blackstrap is bitter and disgusting; it's sugar-cane juice boiled down several times until most of the sugar has crystallized out, leaving behind the minerals in a sticky black goo. Since blackstrap molasses is high in iron and magnesium, people do use it in health-food recipes, so it is available in the store; but for your brown bread and cookies, you want unsulphured, which is the finest type, made from sun-ripened sugar cane. ("Sulphured," incidentally, is a grade in between: made with unripe sugar cane, and then treated with sulphur during the sugar-crystal-extraction process.)

But at the end of their molasses entry, Wikipedia casually mentions, "A famous incident involving molasses was the Boston Molasses Disaster on January 15, 1919, in which a large molasses storage tank burst and flooded a neighborhood of Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150." The hell you say? In the Northwest, again, while we do get the Boston Tea Party in our grade-school history courses, we do not get the Boston Molasses Disaster, so this was news to me.

Naturally I clicked on it, and, wow.
"The molasses flowed out in a wave between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa). Twenty-one people were killed and 150 injured as the hot molasses crushed, asphyxiated, and cooked many of the victims to death."

Good freakin' Lord.

"To this day, people say that molasses left from this disaster still seeps up from some of the streets on a hot day."

OK, I shouldn't laugh.

Anyway, you should click on it. There's a photo of the aftermath and everything. But be careful out there: as the Atkins Diet folks have long been warning us, sugar products can kill.

*munches on brown bread, reading in fascination*

Comments

[trilliah.livejournal.com]

I've got that in a book--"Einstein's Refrigerador and other tales from the flip side of History." It's my brother's book, actually, but it's been in the bathroom for about three months so I figure it's fair game. Bears a striking resemblance to the Darwin Awards, though less frequently involving death.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

And you didn't tell me? Well, next time you hear of a catastrophe involving baking products, you'll be sure to mention it, I hope. It has got to be on the top ten list of "weirdest ways to die I've ever heard of".

[platypus]

Modern Marvels profiled the molasses disaster in one of their "engineering disaster" specials. Creepy.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

So what did cause a tank of a zillion gallons of molasses to explode? Just got way too hot?

[platypus]

If I remember properly, the company that built the giant tank had never built such a huge thing before, didn't have any real engineers involved, and had no idea of the forces that huge quantities of liquid would exert on the tank. It was just entirely too weak, and as it gradually filled up it reached the point where it couldn't hold together anymore.

[laleonaenojada.livejournal.com]

mmm brown bread.

And I've always had a fear of drowning to death in a flood of molasses -- though I don't think the fear ever involved being cooked to death because of it.

~A

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

*lifts eyebrow*
Did you have this fear before hearing of this accident? Because I must admit it would never have occurred to me. And I'm fairly phobic.

[laleonaenojada.livejournal.com]

Definitely have had this fear before hearing of this accident. Probably since I was about 5 years old. In Kindergarten, we would often play a game where we had to act like we were moving around in molasses, and somewhere along the line someone (probably my dad) mentioned something about molasses and tendencies towards asphyxiation ... ? It is an old phobia for me.

~A

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Huh. Well, I would guess it's much less likely that any molasses disasters would happen these days, what with the better engineering and the lower reliance on molasses as a sweetener. Just to console you. :) Also goes to show, should be careful what you suggest to kids...

[dessieoctavia.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is easily the most intriguing thing I've seen on LJ in quite a while.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't they teach this kind of thing in U.S. History? I sure would have stayed awake more often.

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

And what a way to go, eh?

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hehe...so seldom does a "ph3ar the brittle" icon have such relevance to a post. And, yes: totally bizarre way to die. It's almost like the angels of death were messing around with people for kicks that day.

[aoiisora.livejournal.com]

I could say that'd be an ironic way to go for people who love sweet stuff and alcohol (The being told it will kill you one way or another), but that seems a bit off.

Also...errrgh at the being cooked to death in treacle... bleargh. Horrible.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Dude. I mean....dude!!

I realize that I am a bad, bad person for finding this at all humorous, but...I mean...death by molasses!

If you've gotta go, "smothered by sugar" definitely ranks right up there with "read self to death" and "died from complications resulting from a hickey inflicted by Johnny Depp" on the "fun and amusing ways to kick the bucket" chart...

[aoiisora.livejournal.com]

It's like in Theif of Time: A woman kills herself by diving/drowning into a vat of chocolate.

A good way to go.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

"died from complications resulting from a hickey inflicted by Johnny Depp"

LOL
Yes...that really doesn't sound too bad at all.
And, I agree: it's oddly humorous. It totally belongs in a Lemony Snicket book.

[dirae.livejournal.com]

On a similar note, I must take this time to mention the Great Molasses Tidal Wave that occurred in Memphis, Tennessee in 1872. Because of loading dock accident, a cask of molasses burst open and spilled forth an eight-foot tall wave of treacle. It surged down a busy city street towards the Mississippi River. Over a dozen people were injured, though no deaths occurred.

*Giddy* 'Tis not often I get to bring up such a fact up in mixed company.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

So, wait now, molasses has gotten loose and menaced Americans more than once? I find this dreadfully funny. Man, and here I was under the impression molasses was easy to outrun.

True, the topic doesn't often come up, but I'm always up for hearing about foodstuffs rampaging through towns, so feel free to post more such tidbits if you know of any. History seldom gets more interesting than that.

[ainu-laire.livejournal.com]

In my 8th grade history class we talked about that. One of the more... interesting things of life. Sad, but still interesting. And weird.

[ainu-laire.livejournal.com]

My 8th grade teacher taught the funniest, most random things, along with the usual stuff... it was great. I still remember the 'civil war' we had in her class.

Say, what exactly are those chocolate pieces in your icon? I'm reminded of chocolate-covered snails... those aren't chocolate-covered snails, are they?

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Heheh...I don't think they're chocolate-covered snails. I'm working under the assumption they're just regular chocolate truffles. I went out looking for chocolate photos to use in an icon one day, and these were the winners. Don't remember where they were from...

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thank God someone is teaching this in history class! I feel better now. :)

[impetuousnote.livejournal.com]

Whoa! That would have been interesting to hear in school. I also would have probably stayed awake to hear that story.

Geez...I'm just imagining some poor person being hit with this tidal wave of hot sticky molasses and being drowning. Grodie.

[impetuousnote.livejournal.com]

Ahem...scratch the 'being' in the last sentence. Thank you.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

It is indeed a memorable tidbit of American history, huh?
Good to see you 'round!

[modmerseygirl.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness! I'd never heard about that either. Wow.

[bluesound.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the sunday sport was around in 1919

[(Anonymous)]

There were a few deaths here in England about 15 years ago caused by people being hit by vegetables. Some crazy person thought it'd be fun to throw various veg from a fairly fast moving car. I remember a jogger died from a ruptured spleen after he was hit with a marrow. And my mother always told me vegtables were good for you!

[4492.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I found the Mollasses thing scary/facinating/slightly amusing, but this vegetable attrocity just shows that NO FOODSTUFFS ARE SAFE!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES PEOPLE!! (also, excuse the spelling mistakes if you could be so kind...I'm sorry!)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Good Lord. What an undignified way to die. And what IS a marrow, anyway? I'm picturing a big root vegetable, like a turnip.