Quotation from: The Secret Agent

Written by: Joseph Conrad

"What do you think has happened?" he interrupted.

"Can't tell. Screwed the top on tight, which would make the connection,
and then forgot the time. It was set for twenty minutes. On the other
hand, the time contact being made, a sharp shock would bring about the
explosion at once. He either ran the time too close, or simply let the
thing fall. The contact was made all right--that's clear to me at any
rate. The system's worked perfectly. And yet you would think that a
common fool in a hurry would be much more likely to forget to make the
contact altogether. I was worrying myself about that sort of failure
mostly. But there are more kinds of fools than one can guard against.
You can't expect a detonator to be absolutely fool-proof."