Can You Swim In Molasses?

Can you swim in molasses? Viscosity is affected by temperature: things become slurpier at higher temperatures and stiffer at lower, which is why “slower than molasses in January” means painfully poky. Caught in a molasses flood, could you swim in the stuff?

Probably not

, according to an article in Scientific American.

Can you drown in molasses?

About 150 people were injured, and 21 people and several horses were killed.

Some were crushed and drowned by the molasses or by the debris that it carried within

. The wounded included people, horses, and dogs; coughing fits became one of the most common ailments after the initial blast.

What was molasses used for in 1919?

Its sugary-sweet contents were the property of United States Industrial Alcohol, which took regular shipments of molasses from the Caribbean and used them

to produce alcohol for liquor and munitions manufacturing

.

How did they clean up the molasses flood?

What type of fluid is molasses?

Molasses is a

non-Newtonian fluid

, which means that its viscosity depends on the forces applied to it, as measured by shear rate. Consider non-Newtonian fluids such as toothpaste, ketchup and whipped cream.

Why did the molasses tank explode?

Structural defects in the tank combined with unseasonably warm temperatures

contributed to the disaster. Local legend has it that on particularly warm days, you can still smell the faint aroma of molasses seeping up from the streets of the old North End.

Who died in the molasses flood?

Although help arrived quickly, the hardening molasses made rescue efforts difficult. In the end,

21 people

were killed, many of whom were suffocated by the syrup, and approximately 150 were injured.

Can you drown in maple syrup?

Most of the cases can be attributed to fresh or salt water drowning

. We report an unusual case of acute respiratory distress syndrome in a one year old child following drowning in concentrated sugar syrup, in whom timely intervention and early supportive therapy resulted in a favorable outcome.

How was molasses used in bombs?

Tbe sticky brown syrup was being put to a new and perbaps surprising use: to make bombs.

Heated up in a process called distillation, molasses can be turned into a liquid called industrial alcobol

. In tbis form, molasses became a key ingredient in tbe explosives used in tbe war against Germany.

How hot was the molasses flood?

The air temperature on the day of the disaster was about

40°F

. Its brittleness might have been a final straw.

Can you still smell the molasses in Boston?

It really did smell like molasses in the North End—for decades

. Although it’s been exaggerated a bit in folklore, it’s not an urban legend. The sweet smell of molasses lingered in parts of the North End for years after the tragedy.

Was the Great Molasses Flood hot?

Fiery hot

molasses floods the streets of Boston on January 15, 1919, killing 21 people and injuring scores of others.

Does molasses dissolve in water?

RAW – Cane Molasses –

100% Water Soluble

.

What was molasses used for in the 1800s?

In the 1800s, however, molasses was

North Carolina’s sweetener of choice

. It took the bitter edge off collards, made grits, cornbread and popcorn taste better, and molasses was mandatory for pie, especially molasses pie, the ancestor of pecan pie.

Is molasses flammable?

Molasses is

not considered to be flammable

and will not ignite until it reaches 999 degrees Fahrenheit.

How long did the Great Molasses Flood last?

A wave of molasses, estimated by some to be as high as 15 feet, and moving at a speed of approximately 35 miles per hour, swept through the area. The flood was over in

less than five minutes

and rescuers, including over a hundred sailors from the USS Nantucket, quickly arrived on the scene.

What was the molasses tank made of?

In 1915, the Purity Distilling Company built a tank in Boston’s North End to store molasses imported from the Caribbean. This enormous

steel

tank measured 50 by 90 feet and had the capacity to hold 2-1/2 million gallons of molasses, enough to fill 3-1/2 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

How big are Boston molasses tanks?

*Coverage of the Great Molasses Flood from The Boston Post. (Wikipedia). The molasses tank, located at the Purity Distilling Company facility, was

50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter

and was designed to hold 2.5 million gallons of liquid.

How much damage did the Great Molasses Flood cause?

This bizarre and terrifying event, known as the Great Molasses Flood, claimed 21 lives, with victims ranging in age from 10 to 78. Some 150 persons were injured, and the damage to property — much of which had cascaded into nearby Boston Harbor — amounted to

about $100 million

in today’s money.

Can you swim as fast in syrup as in water?

You can swim just as fast in a pool of gloop

. It’s a question that has taxed generations of the finest minds in physics: do humans swim slower in syrup than in water? And since you ask, the answer’s no. Scientists have filled a swimming pool with a syrupy mixture and proved it.

Is it possible to swim in syrup?

It is possible to swim as fast through syrup as through water

. Adam and Jamie began by digging two long trenches and lining them with plastic sheeting to serve as swimming pools.

Can you float in maple syrup?

Some liquids, like oil, create less buoyancy than water, so objects that float in water will sink in oil. Other liquids, like syrup, create more buoyancy than water, so

objects that sink in water will float in syrup

.

What is a molasses tank?

On January 15, 1919

a steel tank used for storing molasses

burst killing 19 people, injuring 40 people, and destroying nearby houses and businesses. The tank, which was located near Boston Harbor, measured 90 feet in diameter and 50 feet tall.

What was molasses used for?

The lighter grades of molasses made from sugarcane are edible and are used in

baking and candy-making and to make rum

. Blackstrap and other low grades of cane molasses are used in mixed animal feed and in the industrial production of vinegar, citric acid, and other products.

Does molasses expand when heated?

When exposed to warm temperatures these elements may react with each other and release carbon dioxide thus increasing internal pressure causing the molasses container to bulge slightly

. Despite this reaction, your bottle of molasses is both edible and safe to enjoy.

How fast is the speed of molasses?

CO: So let’s talk about this wave of molasses that left the tank that day in 1919. How quickly was the molasses travelling, as far as your calculations show? NS: According to historical accounts, the molasses moved at a speed of

35 miles per hour

, which is about 15.5 metres per second, which is really quite fast.

Where did the saying slow as molasses come from?

Due to the high viscosity of commonly available molasses at room temperature, the liquid pours quite slowly.

In the 1941 movie Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara chides Prissy for being as “slow as molasses in January.”

Why is molasses so viscous?

Ketchup, maple syrup, molasses, and corn syrup are all examples of liquids with high viscosities. Molasses has a high viscosity – it is very thick.

The particles in molasses flow very slowly and don’t pass by each other easily – they stick together

.

What does Boston smell like?

Can bacteria grow in molasses?

While

microbes thrive on the sugars in molasses

, ingesting molasses for an insect is imminent death (Excluding Sugar Ants and Bees). Not all molasses is the same, however. Some are made to a lesser quality, and may contain preservatives and other chemical additives that are unwanted in the garden.

What is the pH of molasses?

How do you mix molasses in water?

How was molasses connected to slavery?

Molasses was important in triangular trade. In the triangular trade,

slave traders from New England would bring rum to Africa, and in return, they would purchase enslaved Africans

. The enslaved cargo was then brought to the West Indies and sold to sugarcane plantations to harvest the sugar for molasses.

Does molasses have alcohol in it?

Another common source of alcohol is molasses

. Molasses is the uncrystallizable syrup which constitutes the residiuum of the manufacture and refining of cane and beet sugar.

Why is molasses called molasses?

Molasses History

The English term molasses comes from the Portuguese melaço which in turn is derived from the Latin mel, meaning honey

. Melasus (sic) was first seen in print in 1582 in a Portuguese book heralding the conquest of the West Indies. Molasses was exported to the U.S. from the West Indies to make rum.

Can you drown in anything besides water?

Water might be the most common substance that people drown in, but it certainly isn’t the only one.

A person can drown in any liquid

. Below are ten unusual drowning cases that were not caused by water. Some of these substances must have made a horrible way to die that much worse.