Franz von Rintelen’s Pencil Fuses

Origin
Franz von Rintelen was a German naval intelligence officer who performed espionage and sabotage acts in the United States during World War I. He arrived in New York City to sabotage American ships carrying supplies and weapons to the Allied powers He set up several dummy companies to buy and destroy gunpowder. Then, a chemist presented him with the pencil bomb, a small time bomb that would create an intense flame when used. Rintelen placed these on outgoing ships and made some supplies unusable.

He also organized strikes within the munitions workers, tried to persuade Mexican president Huerta to fight the US and helped detonate a large amount of wartime explosives in Jersey City. However, most of his activities were known to intelligence agencies due to the cracked code he was using. He was arrested in England and then sent back to the United States, where he was imprisoned.

Collection
Forty-two of the explosives were found hidden in the collection of a wealthy businessman’s arsenal. Although three agents confiscated them all, suspected that more of the detonators existed.

Effects
Each fuse needs to be primed to go off after a certain elapsed time. The flame released will destroy all nearby weapons and ammunition, making them completely unusable. Any of the user’s encoded messages immediately become breakable, reverting the message back to its original text.