The A-Bomb of 1775
by Ed Dieckmann, JR. Printed in the American magazine Coronet November 1953
ON A BITTER-COLD AFTERNOON in November, 1775, Captain John Manly of the American cruiser Lee looked up from the snow-crusted deck of the British ship Nancy to the secret agent who stood behind him. “It`s a fine prize we took,” he said. “She`s small, but her cargo will never reach Howe`s Redcoats in Boston.” The other shivered and pulled the collar of his greatcoat higher.
“You did well, Captain. General Washington will be very pleased.”
Manly smiled. “Aye! Besides the muskets and powder, we got those … things.” “I`d like to see one of them, ” said the agent. “Faith, after all this intrigue, I`m curious.” Gingerly the two men crossed to a row of shapeless objects shrouded in cancas. The young captain unlashed the lines and drew back the covering of one.
A giant tripod was revealed, supporting a circular frame some six feet in diameter. Embedded in the frame were hundred of tiny mirrors, prisms and reflectors. The thing it self stood a full eight feet high.
“Monsterous!” the agent said. “It`s the work of madmen!”
Captain Manly closed the canvas. “Aye, sir. Yet according to the instructions we captured with them, they work. It`s all there, very thorough and very inhuman”
Manly hesitated, then : “May General Howe sleep well in Boston town tonight,” he said softly, “for tomorrow he`ll not sleep at all. He`ll know we have the Nancy.”
Manly was right. Next day, General Howe dispatched this curious letter to the Lord Privy Seal in London:
“My Lord: By the time you receive this, you will no doubt be aware that the colonial cruiser Lee has captured our supply ship Nancy. The circumstance is unfortunate, as it puts in the enemy`s hands the means of setting the town on fire.” Howe`s letter, with its undertone of panic, lifted the veil on a truly horrendous infernal machine. With diabolical ingenuity, 500 mirrors and prisms had been so mounted as to trap the rays of the sun. Accurately focused, this consentration of “sunfire” could set wooden buildings and ships aflame at a range of two miles – well beyond the reach of return cannon fire.
To this day, no one knows what mind originally conceived the “town burning” machines . But with their capture, the stage was set for the one of the strangest episodes in American history.
Washington`s forces drew the noose tighter and tighter around Boston. Finally, on March 5th the Yankees succeeded in capturing Dorchester Heights commanding the town. On the 17th, unexpectedly and unobtrusively, the British evacuated the city.
Military analysts debated the question: why did Howe surrender Boston without a fight ? Years later, secret archives supplied the answer. Howe knew that just one sun-machine, mounted on Dorchester Heights, not two miles from the city, could reduce Boston to ashes.
But the crowning irony was yet to come, since the American high command a full two months before the evacuation had ordered the weapons dismantled. The very mirrors and prisms which Howe feared would trap his army in an inferno had already become playthings in the hands of children of the Colonies. It may be that even today, an innocent-looking bit of mirror, hanging from a chandelier perhaps, or resting on a New England mantelpiece or corner whatnot and reflecting a home at peace, is part of the secret machine that, though never used, won the city of Boston for the Continental Army.
