I came across this edition of “Popular Mechanics” from July 1932 with a couple of interesting IED related articles – the first is the invention of a postal x-ray machine for IED detection, and then a longer article on IEDs including some postal IEDs that killed an amateur bomb tech, working with a sharp knife on the end of a 40 ft pole. Also detailed is an IED that was placed in a tub of water in Milwaukee police headquarters – it detonated, killing 14 policemen. On page 110 there’s also interesting reference to biometrics on IEDs, and the exploitation of evidence from them.
The article also makes reference to the famous New York Bomb Disposal expert Owen Eagen who died of natural causes in 1920 after a career where he is said to have dealt with over 7000 IEDs – a good indicator that New York was once a hotbed of anarchists and criminals who very often resorted to IEDs. I’m currently researching Eagen’s efforts as an early bomb tech and will blog on this in the future. Suffice for now to say there were more than 125 IED incidents in New York between January and October 1913.