Infernal Machines,

Infernal Machines, contrivances made to resemble ordinary harmless objects, but charged with some dangerous explosive. An innocent-looking box or similar receptacle is partly filled with dynamite or other explosive, the rest of the space being occupied by some mechanical arrangement, mostly clockwork, which moves inaudibly, and is generally so contrived that, when it has run down at the end of a predetermined number of hours or days, it shall cause the explosive substance to explode. For a statement of the uses to which this class of infernal machines has been put by the anarchist parties, see DYNAMITE. Fire-ships (q.v.) were employed in former times; and modern nations apply a similar principle in their torpedo boats (see TORPEDOES). Bombs or hand-grenades, in so far as they have been employed for the felonious destruction of human life, must also be accounted infernal machines. The most notorious instances have been the unsuccessful attempt on Napoleon III. by Orsini (q.v.) in 1858 and the killing of Alexander II. of Russia in 1881. See also CHICAGO, ANARCHISTS.