Heat-Ray vs. Black Smoke

[Rocka]

I always thought the black smoke was like the Martians' Ant Powder - just wipes out pests so you can forget about 'em and move on with yer day.
Still rather take my chances with that than a heat ray, though...

[steann]

black smoke is what you get AFTER you use the heat ray

[David Faltskog]

steann said:

black smoke is what you get AFTER you use the heat ray

HeeHee ;D

D.F.

[Lensman]

As has been said, the Black Smoke was not deployed immediately. Only when the Tripods encountered unexpected resistance did the Tripods retreat and regroup, and deploy the Black Smoke launchers. As has also been said, there may have been a limited number of Black Smoke cannisters, whereas apparently the Heat Ray could be used anytime, at will.

It's true the Black Smoke was not effective against the Thunder Child, whereas the Heat Ray was; but that had nothing to do with the Martians' advance plans. It seems clear the Martians were confused by deep water and ships, and didn't even understand the warship was a danger until it had advanced quite close to some Tripods.

[Reppu]

lensman said:

It's true the Black Smoke was not effective against the Thunder Child, whereas the Heat Ray was; but that had nothing to do with the Martians' advance plans. It seems clear the Martians were confused by deep water and ships, and didn't even understand the warship was a danger until it had destroyed a Tripod.

That raises questions regarding how "slowly and surely" were the plans drawn.....

[Luperis]

reppu said:

lensman said:

It's true the Black Smoke was not effective against the Thunder Child, whereas the Heat Ray was; but that had nothing to do with the Martians' advance plans. It seems clear the Martians were confused by deep water and ships, and didn't even understand the warship was a danger until it had destroyed a Tripod.

That raises questions regarding how "slowly and surely" were the plans drawn.....

During the research period, when the Martian scientists were asked to study the ocean and ships, they all got distracted by a squirrel and started watching that instead. Thus, their report on Ironclads was less than adequate.

[Lensman]

reppu said:

That raises questions regarding how "slowly and surely" were the plans drawn.....

That's a point I don't think was ever discussed on the old board, at least not that I ever saw.

Just how "keenly and closely" were the Martians able to watch us? Did their telescopes actually allow them to see us individually, indeed as "infusoria under the microscope", as the Narrator suggests? Or were they only able to see the result of our handiwork: the patchwork quilt of farm fields, the grid pattern of large cities?

If they were able to study us in minute detail over a long period of time, then it does seem remarkable they never observed a naval battle, which certainly should have alerted them to the existence of warships.

My interpretation is that Wells was showing us how alien the Martians' thinking was. Raised on a desert planet, with canals as the largest bodies of water, it simply never occurred to them that floating vessels might be powerful machines of war.

In my opinion, what this really implies is that the Martians weren't nearly as super-intelligent as the Narrator implies. Modern, trained professional soldiers with modern weapons, sent in to fight natives equipped only with pre-gunpowder weapons, would be equally as devastating and effective in winning skirmishes and battles. But that doesn't mean the average modern soldier is inherently more "intelligent" than the uneducated native.

At least twice in the novel, the Martians encountered unexpected resistance from humans. If they were really super-intelligent, they should have anticipated those difficulties.

All just my opinion, of course.

[Scifishocks]

No, the Martians were NOT perfect. Maybe that's the point?

[rusti]

poyks said:

I think of the heat-ray as the immediate battle weapon, whereas the the black smoke is a much more sinister, and planned attack method designed for the destruction of life within the martians designated path.

The heat ray i suppose is like a precicion weapon, like a guided bomb. Where the black smoke is like carpet bombing minus the collateral damage to buildings.

[Rob]

Black smoke is awesome, I can imagine at the time of the novel writing that the concept of such a mass weapon was horifying.

[ulla]

I think that Wells just wanted two terrible wapons in his story, and the heat-ray is THE wapon against gunpowder driven things, they explode lovely. He invented the black smoke, a battle gas before WW I....
The heat-ray I suggest he got from the idea of burning ants with a magnifyining glass. Note that there is NO VISIBLE RAY! Just a moving heat spot is visible and the "exhaust" of the wapon itself. Wells describes it as: "unseen shaft", "invisible, inevitable sword of heat", "invisible yet intensely heated finger". Only before the heat-ray they use a visible searchlight sometimes to find the target. Note that in all pictures and movies the heat-ray is thus ALWAYS pictured wrongfully...

[Scifishocks]

Absolutely. I think (as I may have said before) that the films tend to have visible heat rays because they think that having things just seeming to explode is too confusing for the viewer.

[ulla]

I must agree to that. Strange how we got used to ray-beam guns and feel they are an existing thing! Funny fact is, that a laserbeam is also invisible, at least in clear air... And in movies also the laserbeam is visible (Goldfinger!)

[bayne]

[glow=red,2,300]I think the martians were doing quite well in a quite alien environment. A couple of mistakes but they adapted to them quickly and effectively so the small victory couldn't be turned into a reliable tactic.

If the crystal eggs were the martian telescope, perhaps none landed near a shipyard?

And we only have the narrators description for the martians dillema in fighting the thunderchild.. wading in water is hard work.. I expect they lost a lot of manouverability.

Also by that stage of the invasion a number of martians would be suffering quite badly from disease.. likely slowing reaction time and interfering with cognition.
[/glow]

[Reppu]

All good points. And yes, we only have a whitness description.

I wish someone attempted to write about the invasion, as seen on the martian side. If done well, that would rock.