Bombing tease

Wow that dinner was delicious and carried me almost the whole way through the month.

Now, to complete the story of the original Gimbel Bros. mailbombs of 1919. In essence, the bomb itself was well designed:

Lifting the end of the box released a spring,

which uncorked a small glass vial of acid,

which poured onto mercury-fulminate blasting caps,

which triggered a stick of dynamite,

which exploded, sending metal slugs in all directions.

Yet the designers didn't take into account all the other variables that need to be controlled to have a successful mail bombing. Like securing the other end, so the recipient has to open the correct side of the box; and like putting enough postage on the package. Most of the packages were held at various post offices because of insufficient postage, and thus were discovered once a general alarm was sounded. One package was actually sent back to Gimbel Brothers- a receptionist opened the box, pulled out the bottle of acid, put it back in, re-taped it, added the correct postage and sent it out again. Luckily her bomb was defective and did not go off- it was also caught by postal inspectors.

WHY, aside from being entertaining, is this bombing significant? Generally, it added to the red scare of the times, which fed the passions around the Sacco Vanzetti case. But more specifically, the bombers were never found, and because of one interesting clue, there is a strong belief that the bombers were anarchists, ones that were affiliated with the Gallianists. Sacco and Vanzetti were Gallianists...