#boston post

[outofeverythingthisnamewasleft]

Boston Post, Massachusetts July 7, 1921

[mostly-history]

Photos from the Great Boston Molasses Flood (January 15th, 1919):

Firehouse 31, ripped from its foundations by the flood.

A man surveys the damage caused by the molasses flood.

Rescue workers, knee-deep in molasses, struggle to free trapped victims.

A welder works to cut the tank in search of bodies.

The Red Cross, firefighters, and Army and Navy personnel rush to the scene.

A worker uses an acetylene torch to cut through a section of the ruptured tank.

Debris strewn beneath the elevated railway tracks.

At about 12:30pm, a massive holding tank owned by the Purity Distilling Company burst open in the north end of Boston.  A wave of molasses – 2.3 million gallons in volume and weighing 26 million pounds – rolled down Commercial Street at 35 miles (56km) per hour. It killed 21 people, injured 50 more, destroyed houses, knocked a firehouse off its foundations, and warped the girders of the Atlantic Avenue Elevated train tracks.

The molasses had been shipped from Puerto Rico two days earlier, where the temperature was warmer.  It was winter in Boston, and the molasses hadn't had time to completely cool down.  So when the tank burst, the warm molasses flowed out far more quickly than if they had been at a normal temperature.

However, when they hit the cold air, the molasses cooled very quickly, and became thick and sticky.  This slowed it down, but those who were already trapped in the wreckage were now at risk from suffocating or drowning.  The molasses was now four or more times as viscous as before.  According to the Boston Post:

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.  Human beings—men and women—suffered likewise.

At first, an anarchist terror attack was blamed for the disaster. But it soon became apparent that the distilling company was responsible.  The holding tank was 50% too thin to hold such a volume of molasses, and had never been properly inspected.  The company had even changed the colour from blue to brown-red to cover up leaks. After a three-year trial, the Purity Distilling Company was found liable for the disaster.

[providencepubliclibrary]

The Boston Post had an regular “Famous Cats of New England” feature. This is Kiltie, who had an ongoing relationship and a bit of a rivalry with Hindy, the Boston Post office cat, of which much was made. The Boston Post, January 5, 1921.

Strange Company has done a nice roundup of the feature.

[yesterdaysprint]

Boston Post, Massachusetts, October 29, 1916

[providencepubliclibrary]

The Boston Post had an regular “Famous Cats of New England” feature, and Hindy, the Boston post office cat, had an ongoing relationship with another cat of renown, Kiltie, of which much was made. That’s Kiltie on the line. The Boston Post, May 17, 1921.

Strange Company has done a nice roundup of the feature.

[providencepubliclibrary]

The Boston Post had an regular “Famous Cats of New England” feature, with Hindy, the Boston Post office cat, always besting the other cats of renown. The Boston Post, month/day uncredited,1921.

Strange Company has done a nice roundup of the feature.

[chronivore]

[sharonahue]

Cowgirl Hall of Fame: Caroline Lockhart

Cowgirl Hall of Fame: Caroline Lockhart

Caroline Lockhart was a journalist, bestselling Western author, rodeo founder, homesteader, and cattle queen. Her lifelong quest was to live the life of a cowgirl: independent, on horseback, in the beautiful, open country of the West. 

As the first female reporter for the Boston Post, she took wild and dangerous assignments, such as being the first woman to dive in a deep diving suit into…

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