What is the Black Smoke

[Dinsley]

What is the Black smoke, am really curious about this.

[theheatray]

We are never told what the black smoke is just that it is deadly to all that breath, its a heavy fog like substance that creeps around the place killing everthing in its path until the martians come along and shoot steam at it, turning it into powder, oh and they shoot it out of tubes to distant targets...

It was also a good reason for having the tripods, so they could walk about in the smoke without being choked themselves. H G Wells invented chemical warfair.

[Dinsley]

really, why do they make it into powder?

[jeffwaynefan]

The 'Black Smoke' is a inky black vapour like substance that the Martians use with deadly force. It is discharged through the means of cannisters fired from a gun that the Fighting Machines are issued with. As this 'projectile' or cannister (which can travel a great distance) makes contact with the ground or object fired at, it breaks apart releasing the Black Smoke. Has H.G describes 'death to all that breath'. The Martians then wade into it directing steam upon it which for reasons unknown it turns into a dust.

H_C

[theheatray]

Dinsley said:

really, why do they make it into powder?

So it wont choke them, it just renders the smoke innert, its entirely water soluable, genius.

[EvilNerfherder]

The black smoke is a noxious gassy substance, the make up of which is never discovered. Wells says it almost certainly contains an 'unknown element' that may combine with argon to somehow 'act on a constituant in the blood.
I'm guessing that using steam to turn the smoke into powder somehow 'deactivates it' making it no longer noxious once it's done it's job. After all the Martian's aim was mainly to pacify us not wipe us out completely. Our blood is too valuable to them.

[Dinsley]

smart buggers!

[Thorgrimm]

Dinsley said:

smart buggers!

Except when the Humans find out all it takes to deactivate the Black smoke is steam, then that turns into a liability. After all this was the era of STEAM!

As now every human nation knows how to deactivate it. ;D So after a while it becomes a minor threat.

As the Black Smoke has two major drawbacks when the enemy finally figures out how to combat it.
1. It is heavier than air, so it sinks to the low places and being high, you will not be affected.
2. Ease of deactivation.
With these two drawbacks, the Martian Black Smoke is rendered a minor threat. As anybody can hide in a church steeple, or on a high hill and then activate any steam producing item and bam, Black Smoke rendered inert.

One more way HG Showed that arrogance and over confidence can ruin even the most highly advanced forces.
As i am sure the British Army can remember Isandlawhana, the French Mexico and the Italians Adowa.


Cheers Thorgrimm

[theheatray]

I dont think I would consider it a minor threat if it was coming through my kitchen window and my kettle was broke!

[malfunkshun]

i never got the impression that the black smoke was rendered inert by steam. i always thought that the moisture of the steam, when combined with the smoke, just caused it to become very heavy, and accellerated the process of it falling to the ground and turning into dust. i'd bet that the black dust, if ingested or inhaled, would be just as deadly as the black smoke.

[Thorgrimm]

malfunkshun said:

i never got the impression that the black smoke was rendered inert by steam. i always thought that the moisture of the steam, when combined with the smoke, just caused it to become very heavy, and accellerated the process of it falling to the ground and turning into dust. i'd bet that the black dust, if ingested or inhaled, would be just as deadly as the black smoke.

Mal, if i remember correctly, HG also said that when the Black Smoke came in contact with the water, it also deactivated. And he said that once it was inert, it did no harm. I can see that also, as once an area is pacified, the Marises would want to know that the chems could be quicky gotten rid of. So their 'food' does not go to waste..

[Topaz]

Strictly speaking, he says that the "water from which it had been strained" could be ingested safely.

However, since Wells doesn't really say one way or the other, I'd guess the stuff becomes largely non-toxic after contact with water/steam.

As you say, they weren't trying to kill off everything on the planet, and leaving toxic powder lying around everywhere wouldn't be such a great idea given their intention to colonize.

[NEC]

Out of interest, how do the Martians know that the black gas would kill us?

[Demon Angel]

Smoke... That is black

[EvilNerfherder]

NEC said:

Out of interest, how do the Martians know that the black gas would kill us?

Damn you and your very interesting (and pertinent) questions..
They must have come up with a smoke that would be noxious to ANY form of life..
How they tested it is a testament to their superior intellect..
*Ahem*

[Topaz]

EvilNerfherder said:

Damn you and your very interesting (and pertinent) questions..
They must have come up with a smoke that would be noxious to ANY form of life..
How they tested it is a testament to their superior intellect..
*Ahem*

It's a very good question.

Wells says the Martians were "looking across space with instruments,and intelligences such as we have scarcely dreamed of...."

I guess we always assume that to mean some form of telescope, because that's what the Victorians had. But "looking across space" does not necessarily mean the instrument was on Mars.

The Martians have spaceflight and automation (remember the digging machine). Why couldn't they have sent a probe first? Land it in some really out-of-the-way area and check out how things really are before they commit the troops? Given the state of world-wide communications, especially in the 'frontier territories,' it's hardly likely to give away the element of surprise.

And it's a good way to test out the gun before they stuff their little brown bodies... er, heads, into it.

It's what we would do.

[theheatray]

'They're already here...............?'

[Lensman]

NEC said:

Out of interest, how do the Martians know that the black gas would kill us?

If the Martians are able to feed on our blood and are susceptible to our disease germs, then clearly Martian life is very closely related to Earth life. Presumably life spread from one planet to the other via microbes carried by meteorites.

Presumably Black Gas--whatever it is--is deadly to all oxygen-breathing life. Even if it isn't, if Martian and Earth life are that closely related, it's not hard to believe they could have developed something deadly to both.

My impression was that the reason they went around neutralizing the Black Gas with water (in the form of steam) was that it was toxic to them as well as us. I don't think they would be all that concerned about it poisoning more humans--from their point of view, there are more than enough left to feed on.

[Lensman]

Topaz said:

The Martians have spaceflight and automation (remember the digging machine). Why couldn't they have sent a probe first?

By "digging machine," I would guess you mean the description of the handling machine as it digs and processes the aluminum (or aluminium, since it's happening in Britain) bars, in Book two, Chapter 3. That passage does appear to modern eyes as though the machine were automated, and yet earlier in the book, the description of the handling machine clearly states there is a Martian controlling it.

Of course one could argue that in the earlier scene the handling machine was being controlled directly, while in the latter scene it had been programmed to perform a repetitive task. However, I question that's what Wells had in mind. Wells states the Martians "wore" different machines like different bodies, and I think that's what he had in mind for the handling machines, as well as the Tripods.