Well I did some learnin' yesterday. I used the term 'infernal machine' in reference to Bilbo's I-pad in the comments. That got me curious about the term 'infernal machine'. (I had to spell check 'infernal' since I don't use it very often.)
The first place I went was the link I have on my sidebar 'Phrase finder'. Phrase finder didn't find anything. I know I've heard this term before. I didn't make it up... did I? Off to the Google!
There it is. Click on Wikipedia. But it has several choices. Lets try THIS ONE. The movie one. Well the movie is about a bomb on a ship. I thought the ship would be the infernal machine. Nope. It's the bomb. WTF.
So I check the dictionary. It says an infernal machine is 'An explosive device designed to harm or destroy, especially with criminal intent'. And the term goes back to 1800. So the book made into a movie (in 1933) was using an old term.
I'm sure the book and the movie are not available anymore but here's some info to track them down.
Movie
Books author
If you find them let me know. (The movie is not on Netflix.)
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Sunday Selections # 715
48 minutes ago
1 comment:
Infernal machine, eh? I use the word "infernal" often, usually in the context of the "Infernal Revenue Service," the agency beloved of all conservatives.
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