It's a-screwin'...and a-movin'out...

[Leatherhead]

So, we've got these cylinders, which are about 30 meters across. Any ideas on how the Martians actually got a 30 meter lid off? They could not have used their tenticles. The fighting machines had not yet been assembled, and I don't think that the handling machines could do it. Any thought?

[Topaz]

It's an interesting question. The Narrator implies that the 'lid', for want of a better term, simply falls off once it's unscrewed. Obviously that wouldn't happen if the long axis of the cylinder is largely vertical in the ground. If it's angled over more (say, 30° from the vertical or more), then I suppose it would fall free of its own accord.

He certainly doesn't describe a mechanism to do this work and you're right - the Martians couldn't do it by muscle power.

I'm not sure Wells really had this entire scene visualized in detail when he wrote it. There are some contradictions.

In re-reading those passages, I'm inclined to think that the cylinder was 'leaning' off the vertical. Perhaps not as much as has been usually rendered by artists, but perhaps in the 30°-60° range.

[Gerkinman]

i thought that the lid was designed so that it could come off when ever the martians needed it off, like it was a detachable part of the cylinder that had a mechanism to unscrew it built into the cylinder

[quaderni]

The Martians have machines like the automated 'digger', and the Narrator mentions also sorts of machinery around the London pit, though he does not elaborate. In the initial chapters, though, Wells discusses how Ogilvy et al. could hear faint noises in the first cylinder that suggest great commotion going on inside.

[Curate]

I always figured that the cylinder, much like the fighting machines, was yet another manner of 'body' for the Martian occupants. The unscrewing could have been a simple mechanical action powered by brain wave impulses. If you look at the animated intro to the Martian disc of the PC game, you see the Martian point it's tentacles at the screw just before it begins to move.
I never considered the unscrewing to be the result of some "heave ho!" on the Martians part!

[lanceradvanced]

Leatherhead said:

So, we've got these cylinders, which are about 30 meters across. Any ideas on how the Martians actually got a 30 meter lid off? They could not have used their tenticles. The fighting machines had not yet been assembled, and I don't think that the handling machines could do it. Any thought?

If the Martians stored their psudo muscular actuators for the Fighting machines and handling machines in, or just under the lid, they could have used them to pull the screwtop around, and off, before putting them to use on the machines.

[Topaz]

Here's the appropriate passage:

"The end of the cylinder was being screwed out from within. Nearly two feet of shining screw projected. Somebody blundered against me, and I narrowly missed being pitched onto the top of the screw. I turned, and as I did so the screw must have come out, for the lid of the cylinder fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion. I stuck my elbow into the person behind me, and turned my head towards the Thing again. For a moment that circular cavity seemed perfectly black. I had the sunset in my eyes."

"... fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion."

Sounds like it simply fell over, or out of the cylinder. I suppose that some mechanism could have 'flung' it open and off the end of the cylinder once the screw was unthreaded, but that mechanism must've retracted very quickly for the Narrator to miss it in the brief moment he was looking away.

And it also sounds as if the thing really was the entire end of the cylinder, rather than a smaller segment of it.

[I own a cylinder]

Check this out.



Its based on my 90ft peanut but look at how

'...the screw must have come out completely, and the lid of the cylinder fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion.'

The lid of the cylinder is screwed/ bolted onto the cylinder body. Just speculation

[BrutalDeluxe]

The book describes a "perculiar humming sound" resonating from the pit just before the end is unscrewed. Perhaps the Martians were firing up the mechanism they used for unscrewing the end, like an electro-magnet to repulse the lid? Who knows.
The kid who made the quote about the lid "a-screwing" had the right idea, get the hell outta there!

[I own a cylinder]

BrutalDeluxe said:

The book describes a "perculiar humming sound" resonating from the pit just before the end is unscrewed. Perhaps the Martians were firing up the mechanism they used for unscrewing the end, like an electro-magnet to repulse the lid? Who knows.
The kid who made the quote about the lid "a-screwing" had the right idea, get the hell outta there!

This is interesting since i'm damn sure Wells discribes the Martians use of electromagnets in one of the chapters.

(When they are stuck in the house.)

[Bayne]

[glow=red,2,300]Perhaps their were mechanical arms, such as those from a handling machine, attached to the inside of the cylinder to unscrew it, afterwards these arms could be dismantled to become part of tripods/handling machines?

It's a weird mental image, martians waiting patiently while radialy set mechanical arms grab handholds on the inside of the lid, heave away a bit, grab new handholds etc.
[/glow]

[Topaz]

Neat idea, 'I own a cylinder'.

I've seen a couple of renderings that are really meteorite-like, as is yours, and I've always wondered how something like that would be launched out of the gun. Some kind of big sabot?

[I own a cylinder]

thanx ;D

[Leatherhead]

So, this lid I always understood to be the entire top of the cylinder. You know 30 meters across? In the above diagram of the asteroid/cylinder we've got a lid off to the side. Am I wrong in my understanding the location and dimensions of the lid?

[Topaz]

The book seems to describe the thing pretty much as you say - one flat, 'table-like' end of the cylinder, which screws off to reveal the insides. The length of the screw is at least two feet thick, but probably not a lot more. It all depends on how literally you want to take the description.

"I own..."'s design is a neat solution, even if it strays slightly from the book.

[Thunder Child]

Agreed.

Johan

[Leatherhead]

i am inclined to believe that the seal is air tight..(well, obviously)...but once the air tight seal is broken they may have used magnetic pulses on the lid, moving slowly outward.