ply" is the fruit of civilization and of the publicity given to
the discovery of every murderous property in matter. What is it? As
found in the Report of the Commission appointed to investigate the
variety and character of the so-called "infernal machines," so far the
following implements of instantaneous human destruction are already on
hand. The most fashionable of all among the many varieties fabricated
by Mr. Holgate are the "Ticker," the "Eight Day Machine," the "Little
Exterminator," and the "Bottle Machines." The "Ticker" is in appearance
like a piece of lead, a foot long and four inches thick. It contains an
iron or steel tube full of a kind of gunpowder invented by Holgate
himself. That gunpowder, in appearance like any other common stuff of
that name, has, however, an explosive power two hundred times stronger
than common gunpowder; the "Ticker" containing thus a powder which
equals in force two hundred pounds of the common gunpowder. At one end
of the machine is fastened an invisible clock-work meant to regulate the
time of the explosion, which time may be fixed from one minute to
thirty-six hours. The spark is produced by means of a steel needle which
gives a spark at the touch-hole, and communicates thereby the fire to
the whole machine.

The "Eight Day Machine" is considered the most powerful, but at the same
time the most complicated, of all those invented. One must be familiar
with handling it before a full success can be secured. It is owing to
this difficulty that the terrible fate intended for London Bridge and
its neighborhood was turned aside by the instantaneous killing instead
of the two Fenian criminals. The size and appearance of that machine
changes, Proteus-like, according to the necessity of smuggling it in, in
one or another way, unperceived by the victims. It may be concealed in
bread, in a basket of oranges, in a liquid, and so on. The Commission of
Experts is said to have declared that its explosive power is such as to
reduce to atoms instantly the largest edifice in the world.

The "Little Exterminator" is an innocent-looking plain utensil having
the shape of a modest jug. It contains neither dynamite nor powder, but
secretes, nevertheless, a deadly gas, and has a hardly perceptible
clock-work attached to its edge, the needle of which points to the time
when that gas will effect its escape. In a shut-up room this new "vril"
of lethal kind will _smother to death, nearly instantaneously_,