infernal machine

Noun

infernal machine (plural infernal machines)

1. (dated) A bespoke machine comprising a large bomb and an unmanned vessel or carriage carrying it to a target
   • The Prince of Orange likewise had recourse to the destructive effects of an infernal machine, in order to bombard Havre-de-Grace, and to set it on fire.1810, Charles James, “Machines, Infernal”, in A New and Enlarged Military Dictionary, in French and English, 3rd edition, volume I, London: T. Egerton
   • The vessel against which the infernal machine had been moored had been blown to atoms.1871, William Stephens Hayward, “LIII : The Explosion”, in The Fiery Cross, a Tale of the Great American War, London: Charles H. Clarke, page 345
2. (dated) A booby-trap or improvised explosive device
   • The infernal machines employed generally consisted of a crude kind of hand grenade filled with gunpowder, and lit by means of a piece of ordinary fuze. The effect of these bombs appears, in most instances, to have been of a comparatively harmless character, doing very little damage to buildings...1894, Her Majesty's Inspectors of Explosives, Eighteenth Annual Report, for the Year 1893 (Command papers), volume C. 7417, London: HMSO, page 68
   • When a serious attempt was made upon Bonaparte's life by the explosion of an infernal machine, Fouché knew that the plot had been hatched and carried out by royalists […]1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 105