What happened to the cylinders?

[HTT]

[glow=purple,2,300]I was thinking about the martians constructing their machines on arrival, and how they were constructed. This got me on to the cylinders, and what became of them.

Obviously, the components of their machines lined the cylinders, and later mining machines began extracting metal to create more machines, etc. But what happened to the cylinders?

Were they simply left lying in the pit, melted down, converted into some form of machine/factory, or were they actual machine components? For instance, could the cylinder form the body (or part) of, say an FM? [/glow]

[Tripod]

I remember something from the book about the cylinder being dismantled and parts of it were used as plating for the Handling Machine. I don't know any specific details.

Tripod

[lanceradvanced]

HailTheTripod said:

[glow=purple,2,300]Were they simply left lying in the pit, melted down, converted into some form of machine/factory, or were they actual machine components? For instance, could the cylinder form the body (or part) of, say an FM? [/glow]

It's not quite what happened to them in the end, but when the narrator emerges from the ruined house, the cylinder isn't mentioned.. just the blue powder, some bars of metal, and the bodies of the dead...similararly the cylinder isn't mentioned in the pit at primrose hill.

On the other hand, as the narrator takes the train back to Woking at the end of the book, he sees sappers at work around the cylinder in Wimbelton...

So they seem to have dismantled and hauled of at least -some- of the cylinders...

[BrutalDeluxe]

I'm pretty sure the handling machine pulled them apart and used the rods and struts for fighting machines and the like.

[Thunder Child]

I think that, after leaving the ruined house, the narrator tells us that the pit is totaly empty. it's just a big hole in the ground. The cylinder is missing. I'm with Brutal, I think the martians pulled the cylinder apart to use the components. That would be locigal. I think they would build the cylinder in such a matter they could re-use it while on earth.

Johan

[Stormdragon666]

I always thought that the cylinders were being used for shelter or storage by the Martians.

Apart from the ones that are described to be dismantled by the HM,s in the book.

[JonT]

yeah i think the cylinders were more than just transportation for the martians, they probably were used to create extra machines.