this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5 How come pipe bombs or bombs in general thru the mail don't go off in the post offices or the truck or being delivered? Like how did the Unabomber get away with so many without going off? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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Not looking for how to make a pipe bomb. But the jostling the movement and everything how would that not set it off?

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[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, but glassware sent through the US Postal System has a tendency to break. And I’ve received both letters and packages from the USPS that were seriously mangled.

Kaczynski was meticulous with the construction of his bombs to make sure they didn’t detonate accidentally. One researcher stated that he had an “obsession with wood”, and the FBI even created a reproduction of one of his bombs for a museum that was housed in a wooden box inside corrugated cardboard to make it look like a more typical cardboard package.