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The noun flour bomb designates a paper bag, balloon, etc., filled with flour and thrown or dropped such that it bursts and disperses its contents over the target on impact, usually as a prank or as part of a protest or public demonstration.
This noun occurs, for example, in the following from the Mid Sussex Times (Haywards Heath, Sussex, England) of Thursday 4th November 2004 [page 10, column 5]:
Two sides of Halloween
Mid Sussex saw the two sides of Halloween over the weekend.
Many youngsters enjoyed innocent fun but others used the occasion to carry out acts of hooliganism.
Cars were attacked in both Burgess Hill and Haywards Hill by eggs and flour bombs.
Vandals left a trail about 300 yards long along Junction Road and Gordon Road, Burgess Hill, with some of the flour still stuck to windscreens.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun flour bomb that I have found:
1-: From Spalding.—School Board Contest, published in The Lincoln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury (Stamford, Lincolnshire, England) of Friday 24th February 1871 [page 4, column 3]:
In front of the Corn-exchange a number of boys, a few idlers, and two or three policemen made what a shilling novelist might designate “a surging crowd of excited humanity.” Of course the boys indulged in a good deal of fun, and cheered anybody and everybody who happened for the hour to hold a conspicuous position: now and then an objectionable placard was signalled out for attack, and the board upon which it was carried demolished. A few flour bombs and tender oranges were discharged at reverend and plebeian heads without disturbing the equilibrium of either.
2-: From The Wanganui Herald (Whanganui, Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand) of Saturday 6th September 1879 [page 2, column 4]:
There was a considerable amount of rough play amongst the crowd yesterday, while waiting for the declaration of the poll. Several individuals, enthusiastic for both sides of the House, insisted upon delivering harangues, and were more or less irreverently listened to; many rhetorical flourishes getting “full stops” inserted in the wrong place by listeners who thought they understood punctuation better than the speakers. These “full stops,” taking the form of small flour bags, produced in most cases a sudden “transformation scene,” for which the principal performers were hardly prepared, and being not only well floured, but very much “baked” by the crowd, it is not surprising that the individuals operated upon became rather “crusty.” Wherever a knot of people collected flour bombs were exploded, causing as great a stampede as though they had been charged with powder. Then the electors out in the rain got envious of those sheltered by the Court House verandah, on which a general attack was made, and a bombardment opened which cleared the decks in a twinkling. This was repeated three or four times. To see the many whitened coats one would have thought that the old play of “The Miller and his Men” was about to be performed. Anyway, there were not only “millers,” but two or three “mills” also at work, but the gentlemen who started these speculations came to unmitigated grief. Though a trifle rough, these frolics were mostly good humoured.
3-: From The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Friday 12th June 1891 [page 8, column 3]:
THE FREETRADE CANDIDATES.
The freetraders were unfortunate in their meeting last night, which was held at the corner of Eveleigh and Vine streets, Redfern, for they were at the outset accosted by a crowd of roughs, whose only motive for being present seemed to be that of maintaining the reputation of the Sydney larrikin. A large number of minors there were also in the crowd, who armed themselves with flour bombs, which they freely threw among the crowd and at the speakers. The candidates, however, persevered, and although nothing could be heard from the street, the repeated cheers from their supporters on the hotel balcony, announced some favourable expression of views. As the meeting dragged on, the coarser element of the larrikins predominated, and Mr. Manuell was struck by a clay-ball in the face. All the candidates were present—Messrs. Stephen, Beveridge, Anderson, and Manuell, and a vote of confidence in them was unanimously carried on the balcony, and then they beat a hasty retreat before a shower of flour bombs and mud.
4-: From Battle With Flour. Board of Trade Men Celebrate the Close of the Year, published in The Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, Illinois, USA) of Friday 1st January 1892 [page 16, column 3]:
The last day of the old year on the Board of Trade. That was yesterday, and a big time they had of it. Nobody attempted to do much trading, and the day was given over to a heroic sort of sport. Pitched battles without number were fought with sample bags of flour, and by the time the session was over President Baker was the only person who did not look like a snow-man. […]
[…]
“Old Rathbone,” the Flour Inspector, was a most aggressive flour bomb-thrower, and before his fun was over his black suit had the appearance of canton flannel.
5-: From the column To-Day, published in The Evening News (Portsmouth, Hampshire, England) of Thursday 21st April 1892 [page 2, column 3]—John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895) was a Scottish scholar:
Professor Blackie’s golden wedding does not appeal to old Edinburgh University men alone. The Professor is not well-known in Portsmouth, but there is a perennial freshness about his writings and his doings that proves irresistible to many who never came under the spell of his unique and inspiring presence.[…]
With all respect for Professor Blackie it was a freak on the part of the Senate to make him a teacher of youth. The writer was one of his old boys, and in the dim past could say the Lord’s Prayer backwards in Greek. […] The writer’s wish to-day is that he may be forgiven the peas he dexterously shot into the Professor’s water-tumbler, and the flour-bombs he used with such deadly effect during the most solemn periods of class-instruction.
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