Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-01-22
THE BREMERHAVEN EXPLOSION.
How the Internal Machine was Made---A
Painfully Interesting Description of IL.

AhANECsthha DNsNAp1b" VI "'
The Berlin correspondent of the
London Times, writing about the plot
OF Thomas to destroy the Mosel, says:
The clockmaker Fuchs, of Bernburg,
duchy of Anhalt, has come forward of
his own accord. He states that early in
1873, when at the Leipsic fair, friend
told him he had mentioned his name to
an American gentleman who wanted
some peculiar machinery made. Fuchs
accordingly went to No. 2 August street
where he found handsome man, about
thirty years of age, hardly able to ex-
press himself in German. Thomas, for
this was he, at once gave him an order
for an eight-day clock, to work noiseless-
ly, and, at the end of week, to lift q
hammer thirty pounds in weight. But
Fuchs declined to take the order, as
Thomas had not sufficient command of
German to explain necessary details.
On the ninth of March in the same year
Thomas unexpectedly entered Fuchs
shop at Bernburg. Expressing himself
much more fuently this time, like one
who had learned his lesson by heart, he
explained the sort of machinery he re
quired, and, in reply to Mr.. Fuchs
questions, said that he wanted the
mechanism for silk manufactory in
America, and that the hammer was to be
powerful enough to tear off one thou
sand threads at stroke. Fuchs, who
seems to possess skill and reputation,
this time engaged to carry out the order,
agreeing to deliver the clock on the
twentieth of April at the Hotel de
Pologne, in Leipsic. On the appointed
day he went to Leipsic and met Thomas,
who, ascertaining that the einstrument was
correct, declared himself fully satisfied,
and, in consideration of certain extra ex-
penses, paid Fuchs one hundred and
twenty-five thalers, instead of the one
hundred thalers originally agreed upon.
Subsequently, Thomas ordered twenty
more machines of the same sort, none of
which, however, have been as yet de-
livered. Fuchs has in his possession a
model Thomas gave him as an exact
specimen of what he wanted. The
machinery is the same as that of a large
clock, but with peculiarities, which
Fuchs thought were intended to be sup
plemented by some invention or other
of Thomas own. According to what
Fuchs says, the machinery would have
acted with unfailing certainty, and
would have exploded in the vessel ex-
actly ten days after being deposited on
board. But for the cold, which crystal
lized the dynamite and mado it explode
when the chest was violently thrown on
to the quay, the Mosel could not have
escaped an untimely end. Had this
happened, two successive steamers of
the same company would have been lost
within fortnight AS Thomas brought
the dynamite all the way from America,
he seems to have been well acquainted
with the precautions to be used in it's
transport. It was only owing to the
assassin causing the chest to be sent on
board at the very last moment that the
frozen liquid, being thrown from the
wagon and receiving violent concus-
sion, prematurely displayed its muir
derous capacity. The number of those
destroyed is nearly as great as if the
explosion had occurred at sea, but the
ship is but little damaged, and the in
iuries she has sustained can be easily
repaired. - ~ ------- u ~