The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 38, February, 1894: An Illustrated Monthly — John Shaqi
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 38, February, 1894: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 38, February, 1894: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
_From a photo by Webber, Canterbury._]
Such is Colonel Majendie, the sworn enemy of dynamiters; and it was
in company with him that the writer visited New Scotland Yard and
examined, one by one, the contents of the case already referred to, and
associated them with the various incidents in which they were designed
to play--and, in some instances, succeeded in playing--so prominent a
part.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--EXPLOSION AT DUBLIN CASTLE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--"BABY'S BOTTLE?" FIG. 3.--EXPLOSIVE COAL.]
It may be said that the more serious attempts to devote dynamite to
the very reverse purpose from what it was intended for commenced in
1881, when, on the 14th January of that year, an attempt was made
to blow up the barracks at Salford. Very little damage was done to
the barracks, but a lad was killed and another injured. In all the
subsequent attempts to destroy life and property, only one other
death has occurred. On the Christmas Eve of 1892, an infernal machine
exploded outside the Detective Office in Exchange Court, Dublin Castle,
when a detective officer was killed (Fig. 1). Without including minor
explosions, the numbers of important dynamitic efforts from the year
1881 to 1892 are as follows:--In 1881, 9 attempts; 1882, 5; 1883,
10; 1884, 12; 1885, 8; 1886, 4; 1887, 15; 1888, 2; 1889, 3; 1890, 5;
1891, 6; and in 1892, 7 outrages. It is not necessary to say that the
initial explosion at Salford, in 1881, greatly alarmed the public.
Anything found of a suspicious character was at once associated with
dynamite, and the earliest relic treasured at New Scotland Yard is a
strange-looking object which was found in a tram-car, and owing to
the excited state of the mind of the British public at that time, was
immediately put down as an infernal machine. There is, however, some
reason to believe that it was nothing more than a model for a new idea
in babies' feeding-bottles (Fig. 2). Its inventor never put in a claim
for it, but it still remains at "The Yard" for anybody who can justify
his or her claim to its possession. By its side is an imitation piece
of coal--(Fig. 3)--a most deadly weapon when used, for it is intended
to be filled with explosive and thrown in the stoke-hole of vessels,
in the hope that the stoker may shovel it into the furnace with some
of the other fuel. Another relic of this year is one of four machines
which were found on the 2nd July at Liverpool in the _Bavaria_ (Fig.
4), six other infernal machines having been found in the _Malta_ two
days previously. They were discovered in barrels of cement. They
contained lignin-dynamite, with a very cheap clock arrangement for
firing it. The machines proper were in leaden boxes about nine inches
long by four inches square. A second machine of the 1881 period is of
the clockwork pattern (Fig. 5), and is controlled by a small knife,
which falls at the set time, cutting a string, releasing a spring which
falls on a percussion cap, and so brings about an explosion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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