"What was going on at Wagram?" Topic

At link there is the following:

"In order to destroy bridges (Lobau island) Austrian employed a "machine infernale" with a pole and a lighting device (à mât et boite en Boule)."

I don't know what the original sources are for this statement but the description in French ("machine infernale") seems interesting and certainly implies something out of the ordinary. I get 'mât' as pole (mast) but I'm not good enough at French to claim the accuracy of 'boite en Boule' meaning lighting device. A burning barge being floated downstream is unlikely to be described as a "machine infernale".

Any thoughts on what this might be describing? Rockets spring to mind but I've looked over a lot of earlier threads on the topic of Austrian use of Congreve style rockets during the Napoleonic wars and Dave Hollins has stated that while their rocket programme was established in 1808, they were not used until (from memory) 1813.
Cheers,
John

Well the only attempts I've read about by the Austrians to cut the bridges involved floating large objects downstream…boats filled with stones, fireships, etc.
I think if you were a French sapper you might describe a fireship bearing down on you in the murk as pretty 'infernal'!

The Napoleon-series entry is under Austrian Artillery so whoever put it there doesn't think it's a barge. Also, while the French might think that a floating barge was "infernal", I can't imagine them describing it as a "machine"; "un bateau infernal", or "une barge infernale" perhaps, but to me at least, calling a pre-steam barge a machine seems odd.

Cheers,
John

The French had a flame-thrower in Egypt, not sure by what name they knew it.

David F Brown

So a "machine infernale" could be something like a spar torpedo that was thrown/ launched / dropped onto the bridge supports?

I wouldn't be so sure a "machine" wasn't just a barge, pre-steam or otherwise. The Marquis de Sade was contemporary to our era, and in his writings, he refers to his male organ as an "engine", a "machine" and a "device". Wordsworth was a contemporary too and he uses the word "plastic", which certainly did not mean to him 200 years ago what it does to us.

The French masculine noun machin means thingummy or doodad or whatsit, so maybe the feminine noun machine as here just means something approximately similar.

I reckon the clue is "infernal(e)", which probably should be taken in its literal sense of "pertaining to an, or the, inferno". I don't think it had any other meaning at this time. Whenever I've come across it in English its usage is always in the context of flames or fire; an "infernal clatter of musketry", for example, or an "infernal carillon" of artillery fire.

I reckon some sort of fire-vessel or more likely a cobbled-together raft-cum-barge stuffed with explosives, burning pitch, etc.

There is a tradition in this period of referring to large non-ballistic explosive devices as a 'machine infernal,' perhaps the most notorious being the cask of powder and metal scrap concealed in a water cart, used in an attempt to kill First Consul Bonaparte on his way to the theatre on 24th December 1800.

'IED' might be the modern equivalent term, but 'infernal machine' had a wider application than terrorist devices alone.

The term could also be used,as in this instance, for waterborne weapons used as a supplement or alternative to fireships.

What about one of these:

Ship mill

They would just grind down the opposition.

Pretty sure it was a M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank with a flamethrower attachment.

42flanker has it right. Some more details ….

"machine infernale
Sorte d' appareil destiné à produire une explosion meurtrière."
Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Sixième Édition. [ 1835 ]

"Type of apparatus intended to produce a murderous explosion."

The phrase is not found in the just-prior edition of the Dictionnaire in 1798.

However, there is clear usage of the term in the context of naval warfare dating back to at least 1688 (the earliest usage I found). The formation appears to parallel "machine de guerre", the term by which catapults and similar pre-gunpowder "artillery" had been called

Here is a rather full description from1713 :
Cette horrible foudre, ou plutôt cet Arsenal de plusieurs foudres ensemble, étoit d'une nouvelle invention , & surpassoit tout ce que les Artificiaires avoient imaginé jusqu'alors dans l'étude de cet Art plus digne des Enfers que de nôtre Terre : aussi lui donna-t-on le nom de Machine Infernale : c'étoit un Bâtiment fait exprès en forme de Galliotte d'environ trois cents tonneaux. Il y avoit à fond de cale plus de cent barils de poudre couverts de goudron, de souffre, de poix resine, d'étoupes, de paille, de fagots, & d'autres matieres combustibles. On avoit mis dessus trois cents cinquante carcasses. C'étoient des amas de grenades, de boulets de canon, de chaines de fer, d'armes à feu toutes chargées à bale, & de gros morceaux de metal envelopez de toile goudronnée, & d'autres choses aisées à s'enflâmer, dont étoient remplis les mortiers qui contenoient ce terrible mêlange d'Armes meurtrieres à qui on donnoit le nom de Carcasses. Il est aisé d'imaginer quel bruit, quel desordre, quel ravage devoit causer une si épouvantable machine. Elle venoit à pleines voiles au pied des murailles où l'Ingenieur devoit l'attacher, & se retirer après y avoir mis le feu , lors qu'elle fut arrêtée tout-d'un-coup par une roche, contre laquelle le vent la poussa, & où elle alla échouèr. Le Conducteur n'en fut pas le maître, & tout ce qu'il put faire, sentant que le fond commençoit à s'ouvrir, ce fut d'y mettre le feu & d'en sortir promptement. Le Bâtiment sauta en l'air un moment après : mais com- .

See : link

This horrible thunderbolt, or rather this Arsenal of several thunders together, was of a new invention, and surpassed all that the Artificers had imagined hitherto in the study of this Art more worthy of Hell than of our World : an so did they give it the name of "Machine Infernale" : it was given the name Infernal Machine : it was an ship made expressly in the form of a Galliotte of about three hundred tons. There was at the bottom of the hold more than a hundred barrels of powder covered with tar, sulfur, pitch resin, tows, straw, fagots, and other combustible materials. Three hundred and fifty carcasses had been put on it. They were heaps of grenades, cannonballs, iron chains, guns all laden down, and large pieces of metal wrapped in tarred canvas, and other things easy to inflame, the mortars were so also filled, containing that terrible mixture of murderous Weapons to which the name of Carcasses is given. It is easy to imagine what noise, what disorder, what ravage was to be caused by such a terrible machine. She came with full sails at the foot of the walls where the Engineer had to fasten it, and to retire after having set it on fire, when it was stopped all at once by a rock, against which the wind pushed, and where she went aground. The Conductor then was not the master of it, and all he could do, feeling that the bottom was beginning to open, was to set it on fire and get off of it promptly. The ship jumped in the air a moment after.

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" mât as pole (mast) " …. also good, also "spar"

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"mât et boite en Boule" …. it is a typo and should be "mât et boîte de boule"

Here are the originals ….
link
link

I do not think they were fire ships at all, but more like "drift torpedoes" "drift torpedoes" used by the south in the US Civil War : a box of balls filled with powder attached to a long pole arranged so as to ingite the powder if the pole touched something. I think the Austrian land army might have lacked the experience of manning and operating proper fire ships such as would have be used by the Royal Navy or French Navy. It would be a tricky job, as your crew, after jumping off, would be swept downstream into the fires set. So you would need to get them off onto boats or ships.

link

In the C18th there was a dedicated corps of riverine troops on the Danube drawn from the Grenzer districts. I forget their name. I don't know whether the unit survived into the Napoleonic era but if they had, assisted by Engineers they would have had the expertise on the water.

Yes they did survive into the Napoleonic era. They were called Tschaikisten.

Thanks everyone for the very erudite responses. I think the napoleon-series website should have a clarification about this because there is clearly a wealth of information about to clarify that this is a description of one of the incendiary barges that were sent down to disrupt the pontoon bridge.

Cheers,
John

The Tschaikisten (oranized as a battalion of about 1000 men all ranks) was far to the south under Archduke John and Guylai at the time in question.

See :
Erzherzog Johanns "Feldzugserzählung" 1809 : nach den im gräflich Meranschen Archiv erliegenden Originalaufzeichnungen
K.u.k. Kriegsarchivs
Wien : L. W. Seidel, 1909
S. 24 & 178
link