Capt. John Maxwell

[John Fazio]

(05-09-2016 12:30 AM)SSlater Wrote:  Does anyone know Capt. John Maxwell? He's the Confederate Explosive Expert that blew-up "City Point" on 9 Aug 1864. It is said he used a "Holological Torpedo", which is a Time -clock.
I'm wondering if this was another of Harney's inventions.

There is the "Ottawa Treaty" that exists, to stop the use of "Torpedoes". ( They call'em IED's.) (Improvised Explosive Devices) The signees agree "not to use, produce, stockpile, transfer, anti personnel mines." As of 2016, 162 countries have joined. 36 countries have not. Not signed: China, Russia, United States.

Hi:

I know of him, but nothing about him. He was assisted in his bombing at City Point by one R. K. Dillard. A horological torpedo is more accurately described as a time-bomb rather than a time-clock. It may have been invented by Harney, an explosives expert about whom it was said that wherever he went, Union casualties were sure to follow, but anyone in the Torpedo Bureau of the Confederate Secret Service may have invented it. The Bureau, which was a division of the Confederate Secret Service, was under the command of Gabriel Rains. Maybe he invented it. Another possibility is that it was already in existence prior to the war, having been invented at an earlier time in connection with a different war, domestic or foreign.

John