Power switch pulled by a timing device with 時限装置
Kanji Explanation: Boundaries and limits with 限
Two murders on a yacht leave the passengers on edge. A blackout occurs followed by another attempted murder. This should narrow down the list of suspects to those who weren’t gathered in the dining room. However, Detective Kogoro finds the power switch had a weight tied to it by rope, with a candle having burned the rope to drop the weight. This allowed the power to be turned off unattended.
- 小五郎:
- 「一種の時限装置です」
- “It's a timing device of sorts.”
Key Points
-
時限装置 = a device triggered by a preset time
-
時限装置 literally combines 時限 + 装置, so it means a mechanism that operates after a fixed time has been set
-
Here it refers to the candle-and-rope setup that turns off the power later without someone standing there to do it manually
-
-
時限 = a built-in time limit or timer setting
-
In compounds, 時限 does not just mean “time” in general; it suggests a preset time boundary or trigger point
-
That is why 時限装置 is naturally understood as a timed mechanism rather than just “a time-related device”
-
-
一種の = “a kind of / of sorts”
-
一種の softens the classification: Kogoro is saying it is like a timed device, even if it is a simple improvised one
-
This matches the English “of sorts”, which signals an approximate label rather than a strict technical term
-
-
Polite explanatory tone: 時限装置です
-
The sentence is a straightforward noun-predicate statement: “It is a timing device of sorts.”
-
The subject is omitted but understood from context as これは / こいつは, the mechanism he has just figured out
-