Red Sox Superstition

I read about this once before, but I still find it fascinating. The whole story can be found Here. Below contains excerpts.

The Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

...the sticky liquid was stored in a massive dockside tank in Boston's crowded North End. Ninety feet in diameter with a capacity of 2.3 million gallons, the tank had been hastily constructed in 1915 by a subsidiary of the United States Industrial Alcohol Company. The firm shipped molasses, a by-product of sugar refining, from Caribbean ports to plants in the U.S., where it was distilled into alcohol, used back then in the manufacture of gunpowder and other munitions. Demand had increased sharply with the outbreak of war in Europe, and USIA hoped to cash in.

Construction of the tank had been overseen, or more accurately gazed stupidly at, by Arthur Jell, a bean counter with no technical background who was unable even to read blueprints. Anxious to complete the tank in time for the arrival of the first molasses shipment, Jell forwent the elementary precaution of filling it first with water to test for leaks. Once molasses was pumped in, the tank leaked so copiously at the seams that neighborhood kids collected the drippings in cans. When an alarmed employee complained, Jell's response was to have the tank painted brown so the leaks wouldn't be so noticeable.

With the war ending and demand for industrial alcohol plummeting, USIA decided to distill molasses into grain alcohol for liquor before Prohibition killed the market for good. On January 12 and 13, 1919, a tanker filled the huge vessel almost to the brim. Two days later, at about half past noon, the tank gave way with a roar, sending a wave of molasses variously estimated at 8 to 15 feet high in all directions. Many nearby were drowned or crushed when buildings fell on them. A massive hunk of the steel tank was flung into an elevated rail line, collapsing the tracks only seconds after a train had passed. Rescuers were hampered by the knee-high tide of congealing goo; the last victim, a deliveryman, wasn't found for 11 days--he and his truck had been swept into the harbor. For decades afterward it was claimed that central Boston smelled like molasses.

How fast did the initial surge of molasses travel? Experts and eyewitnesses agreed on 35 mph, but we needn't take their word for it. I consulted with Gareth McKinley, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and established that the theoretical maximum rate of flow for a (roughly) 50-foot column of liquid, ignoring density and viscosity, was 38 mph...

The article superstitiously notes that only a month prior the Boston Red Sox won the World Series...much like 2004.