Step 1 : Introduction to the question "2. USA, Boston, 1919: A storage tank burst releasing its contents in a huge 35 mph wave up to 15 ft high, destroying houses, killing 21 people, injuring 150 more, and leaving Boston stuck waist deep in what substance?"
...1. Porridge 2. Rum 3. Molasses 4. Gin The storage tank contained the number one sweetener in the US at the time: molasses. Safety regulations had not been adhered to and a heatwave put extra pressure on the tank's welding. Residents reported hearing rumbling noises for a time and then suddenly: "Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form - whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared." - from: "Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919" by Stephen Puleo. The initial clean-up took weeks and turned the harbour brown for the next few months as hoses ran constantly to wash the sticky molasses from cobblestones and walls. For the next few decades at least, on a hot summer's day the smell of molasses wafted across the city. Some say you can still can smell it! Question supplied by Chavs.
