Engineering Ethics: The Great Boston Molasses Flood

Course overview

Boston is home to much history and folklore. And, sometimes the history of the city sounds like folklore. One example is the case of the Great Molasses Flood. To those who have never heard an account of this disaster, it sounds too strange to be true. But, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! On January 15, 1919, following the failure of a storage tank, a wall of molasses 15 feet high flowed through the North End neighborhood of Boston at a speed of up to 35 miles per hour. The force by which the gooey substance moved was enough to sweep away cars and trucks, demolish buildings and even take out one of the supports for the elevated train that moved above the city. The Great Molasses Flood caused the death of 21 people and killed countless animals. In addition, 150 people were injured. Property damage was close to $100 million in today's currency. This ethics course will look at how the pre-World War I environment in Boston's North End resulted in the tank being located in such a densely populated area. We'll see how the project's almost impossible schedule contributed to the disaster. We'll learn about the manager of the project, and how his education and work background left him ill-prepared to take on such a task. We'll see how an unusually high ambient temperature swing contributed to the tank's failure. We'll also discuss how the tragedy impacted the engineering profession, as well as industry as a whole. Finally, we'll discuss lessons to be learned from this incident which are still applicable to executing projects a century later.