Post by Topaz on Feb 7, 2005 23:06:45 GMT
Flynn77 said:
Right, here we go. The early heatray is a generator/mirror on a stick combo. The Martians can’t lift the generator yet with an FM tentacle(not built yet). Now, follow close here; the martians can’t wave the heat ray generator about, so they extend a parabolic mirror(looks a bit like a spinning mirrored sat dish) on a rod. They then fire the heatray beam vertical or at a slight angle and bounce it off the disc. This reflects the beam to hit the crowd. The reason why some people don’t get hit is because the mirror hasn’t been raised high enough to hit the high points of the common. Phew, that is what the book means, trust me. It makes perfect sense. Of course, they could also use the mirror to look for targets, and to reflect light off for the rotating search light. Flynn, I'm with you on everything except the disk/mirror on the tall jointed rod being the 'parabolic mirror' spoken of in terms of the first heat-ray. It just doesn't work with the text. The tall 'mirror on a stick,' as you aptly term it, can be seen almost all the way back to Woking, so there's no sense in the idea that it can't angle down to sweep the immediate vicinity in the Common. I suppose the couple of guys in this group who actually live in Woking would be the best to speak to that.
Put a separate mirror down in the 'humped shape' and you get a beam director (see my earlier post in this thread on the subject) which not only makes the most sense from an engineering standpoint, but is low enough to match the aiming problems mentioned in the text.
I'm with you on firing the Heat-Ray vertically into an aiming mirror and the reasons for doing so. That all makes perfect sense. I'm just of a different mind on which mirror is used for directing the beam.
HailTheTripod covers the material better than I have, a few posts back, pointing out the relevant quotes from the text. I think he's got it nailed down with very, very, little room for doubt.
