Time bomb

Aftermath of the Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton (1984) which was targeted at British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the result of a time bomb which had been placed in the hotel nearly a month before it detonated. Mrs. Thatcher escaped harm, though 5 others perished and 31 were injured.

A time bomb (or a timebomb, time-bomb) is a bomb whose detonation is triggered by a timer. The use (or attempted use) of time bombs has been for various purposes including insurance fraud, terrorism, assassination, sabotage and warfare. They are a popular feature in fictional thriller and action films as they offer a way of imparting a dramatic sense of urgency.

Construction

Diagram of a simple time bomb in the form of a pipe bomb

The explosive charge is the main component of any bomb, and makes up most of the size and weight of it. It is the damaging element of the bomb (along with any fragments or shrapnel the deflagration might produce with its container or neighboring objects). The explosive charge is detonated by a detonator.

A time bomb's timing mechanism may be professionally manufactured, either separately or as part of the device, or it may be improvised from an ordinary household timer such as a wind-up alarm clock, wrist watch, digital kitchen timer, or notebook computer. The timer can be programmed to count up or count down (usually the latter; as the bomb detonates when the time runs out).

Types

Types of time bombs include:

• Delay-action bomb (bombs dropped by aircraft with a delay to increase damage/disruption)
• Improvised explosive device ("home-made" bombs with a delay to allow the person placing the bomb to escape)
• Limpet mine (attached to enemy ships by naval divers)

List of some notable incidents involving time bombs

Year	Event	Location	Perpetrator(s)	Deaths	Injuries	Comments
1864	Confederate sabotage of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s headquarters	City Point, Virginia	John Maxwell of the Confederate Secret Service	43 to 300	125	Maxwell called his device a "clockwork torpedo"; placed on an ammunition barge, it detonated 30,000 artillery shells[1]
1875	Attack on the Mosel (ship)	Bremerhaven	Alexander Keith, Jr.	80 or 83	200	Bomb set for insurance fraud purposes; detonated prematurely
1880	Winter Palace bombing	Saint Petersburg	Narodnaya Volya	11	30	Attempted assassination of Tsar Alexander II
1881-1885	Fenian dynamite campaign	Great Britain	Fenians	3 (bombers who died when bomb went off early)	100	Irish nationalist campaign led by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa
1910	Los Angeles Times bombing	Los Angeles	John J. McNamara and James B. McNamara	21	100	Union-related action
1915	Muenter Attack Spree	Washington DC, New York City	German nationalist Eric Muenter	0	1	Set time bombs in United States Capitol, SS Minnehaha, and shot J. P. Morgan, Jr. against selling arms to Germany's enemies
1916	Preparedness Day Bombing	San Francisco	Labor leaders	10	40	Isolationist political action
1920	Wall Street bombing	New York City	Anarchists (suspected)	38	400	Followed other bombings in 1919
1939	Bürgerbräukeller	Munich	Georg Elser	7	63	Assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler
1942	St Nazaire Raid	St Nazaire, France (wartime)	Royal Navy, British Commandos	590	unkn.	To damage port facilities being used by enemy forces
1944	July Plot	Wolf's Lair, Poland (wartime)	German Resistance	4	?	Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler
1955	United Airlines Flight 629	over Longmont, Colorado, USA	Jack Gilbert Graham	44	0	Murder; insurance fraud
1956	Milk Bar, Place Bugeaud, Cafeteria, Rue Michelet, Air France office (failed to detonate)	Algiers, French Algeria	Djamila Bouhired Zohra Drif Samia Lakhdari	3	50	Reprisal bombings at start of the Algerian War, September 30, 1956[2] Part of the so-called Café Wars
1963-1971	FLQ bombings	Canada	Front de libération du Québec	None	1 (Army officer Walter Leja)	Series of politically motivated bombings (timed and non-timed devices) and other activities
1969-1976	Weatherman bombings	United States	Weather Underground	1 unconfirmed; 3 bombers (premature)	3 confirmed; 1 unconfirmed	Series of politically motivated bombings (timed and non-timed devices) and other activities including jailbreaks and riots
1972	Aldershot Bombing	Aldershot, UK	IRA	7	18	A 280 lb time bomb in a car
1974	M62 Coach Bombing	West Yorkshire	IRA	12	38	Continuing anti-British campaign
1974	Birmingham pub bombings	Birmingham, UK	IRA (suspected)	21	182	Continuing anti-British campaign
1974	Guildford pub bombings	Guildford, UK	IRA	5	65	Targeted against Army personnel
1977	Lucona sinking	Indian Ocean	Udo Proksch	6	0	Attempted insurance fraud
1984	Brighton hotel bombing	Brighton, UK	IRA	5	31	Attempt to assassinate PM Margaret Thatcher
1985	Air India Flight 182 and 1985 Narita International Airport bombing	Atlantic Ocean, Tokyo Narita Airport	Babbar Khalsa Khalistan separatists	331	4	Bombing of two 747 flights with alarm clock and dynamite hidden in radio tuner
1987	Korean Air Flight 858	Andaman Sea	North Korea	115 (all)	0	State terrorism against South Korea
1987	Remembrance Day bombing	Enniskillen, Northern Ireland	IRA	12	63	Continuing anti-British campaign
1988	Pan Am flight 103	Above Lockerbie, Scotland	Libya	270	0	Reprisal against UK & US
1989	Deal barracks bombing	Deal, Kent, UK	IRA	11	21	Targeted against military personnel
1993	World Trade Center bombing	New York City	Ramzi Yousef	6	1,042	Truck bomb used 20 ft fuse for twelve-minute delay, intended to collapse both towers.
1994	Philippine Airlines Flight 434	Between Cebu and Tokyo	Ramzi Yousef	1	10	Blast missed fuel tank, killed one passenger and damaged control systems but pilot was able to land. Yousef bombed World Trade Center in 1993
1996	Centennial Olympic Park bombing	Atlanta, Georgia, USA	Eric Rudolph	1	111	Politically motivated anti-abortionist; occurred during 1996 Summer Olympics.
1998	Omagh bombing	Omagh, Northern Ireland	IRA	29	220	Worst single incident loss of life during the anti-British campaign.
1999	Columbine High School massacre	Columbine, Colorado	Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold	15	24	deadliest mass shooting was originally planned as a bombing including timed bombs [3]
1999	Russian apartment bombings	Buynaksk Moscow Volgodonsk	unkn.	293	651	4 bombs over 4 days; purpose unknown.
2006	Moscow market bombing	Moscow	Racialist organization	13	46	Racially motivated attack

Time bombs in fiction

Time bombs are common plot devices used in action/thriller TV series, cartoons, films and video games, where the hero often escapes the blast area or defuses the bomb at the last second. Many fictional time bombs are improvised, and usually involve a beeping sound with a large prominent countdown timer (on rare occasions, the timer will count up).

Such fictional appearances include:

• Kojak, Knight Rider, MacGyver, Get Smart, Men in Black: The Series, 24, Sonic X, Hogan's Heroes, VR Troopers, and Walker, Texas Ranger on television;
• Goldfinger, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Hindenburg, The Mask, The Peacemaker, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, Battle Royale, Battle Royale 2: Requiem, and New Police Story in film;
• Counter-Strike, Sonic Adventure 2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Red Faction, Halo, F-Zero GX, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Trauma Center: Under The Knife, Trauma Center Second Opinion, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in video games.
• Music artists including The Old 97's, Dave Matthews Band, Chumbawamba, Godsmack, The Format, Rancid, Buckcherry, The Dismemberment Plan, Faber Drive, Beck, and Kylie Minogue have songs titled "Time bomb" or "Timebomb".
• The popular Super NES video game Chrono Trigger takes its name from the timer-detonator assembly of a time bomb, although the game itself has nothing to do with time bombs but with time travel instead.

See also

• Bomb disposal
• Fuse (explosives)
• Ticking time bomb scenario (hypothetical justification of torture)
• Software time bomb

References

1. Grady, John (August 15, 2014). "The Confederate Torpedo". New York Times. New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
2. Gannon, James (2008). Military occupations in the age of self-determination: The history neocons neglected (PDF). Westport CT: Praeger Security International,. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-313-35382-6. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
3. "10 years later, the real story behind Columbine". April 14, 2009.