infernal machine

plural infernal machines

1. datedA bespoke machine comprising a large bomb and an unmanned vessel or carriage carrying it to a target

   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

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   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

2. datedA booby-trap or improvised explosive deviceFirst known use 19th c.

   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

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   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, and fortunately unattended with loss of life.

   1894, Her Majesty's Inspectors of Explosives, Eighteenth Annual Report, for the Year 1893 (Command papers), volume C. 7417, London: HMSO, page 68