Write a 7 pages paper on a real model representing the boston molasses.
Apart from the investigation, the paper also illuminates the impact of the Boston Molasses Disaster on modern day engineering practices.
The occurrence of engineering disasters usually proves fatal just like road carnages. This has triggered several researchers to dig deep into the possible relationship of these disasters to engineering practices. Validating the relationship is an important step in obtaining more details about the past tragedies related to the same. Boston Molasses disaster, which occurred on January 15, 1919 acts as a proper model for validating the relationship argument. The description of the disaster, investigation framework, and the impact of the disaster on the modern-day engineering practices form an integral component in realizing the causal relationship. The completion of the research paper was based on the argument that “the nature of engineering practices acts as one of the major sources of most of the past engineering disasters”.
January 15, 2014, marked the 95th anniversary of the Great Molasses Flood, which happened at the site location of Purity Distilling Company. The original cause of the disaster was the rise in temperature, which had reached above 400F. The storage tanks containing molasses burst on Boston’s waterfront, leading to the discharge of about two million gallons of its content. The fatality of the burst became even worse, as the tank was situated 15 ft high making the molasses race across the North of Boston at a speed of 35mph. The 160 ft-wide waves swept through the own killing 21 with 150 injured. besides, claiming properties worth thousands of dollars (Canale et al, p. 57). There was evidence of rivets dashing from the tank, in the manner of a gun bullet. The wave triggered by the molasses was enough to damage rails on the Boston Elevated Railway’s Atlantic Avenue.
The high capacity of molasses in the tank attributed to the popular use of the substance as a standard sweetener and aider in the fermentation of alcohol, in the US. At the time of the disaster, the stored molasses was to be transported to Cambridge.