On January 15, 1919, Boston suffered one of the history’s strangest disasters: a devastating flood of molasses. The “Great Molasses Flood” tore through the city’s North End and deposited so much gooey residue that locals claimed they could still smell the molasses on warm days decades later. Let’s take a look at this odd, tragic story. While most of us probably think of molasses as a tasty ingredient in treats like gingerbread, the sticky stuff has quite a few other uses. With a little know-how, one can turn molasses into rumor industrial alcohol fairly easily, and the Purity Distilling Company had … Continue reading The Horrific Molasses Flood of 1919