Embankment machine (The War of the Worlds) Embankment machine (The War of the Worlds) The Embankment machine (also known as the Digging machine) is one of the fictional machines used by the Martians in the H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds". It is an excavator, and is one of the four types of machine the Martians bring with them when they invade Earth, the three others being the fighting machine, the flying machine, and the handling machine. The embankment machine is featured only once in the novel in very little detail. Rather than describe its appearance, Well's mentions it in passing
The War of the Worlds the 20th Century, including first contact and war between planets and their differing species. There were, however, stories of aliens and alien invasion prior to publication of "The War of the Worlds". In 1727 Jonathan Swift published "Gulliver's Travels". The tale included a people who are obsessed with mathematics and more advanced than Europeans scientifically. They populate a floating island fortress called Laputa, 4½ miles in diameter, which uses its shadow to prevent sun and rain from reaching earthly nations over which it travels, ensuring they will pay tribute to the Laputians. Voltaire's "Micromégas" (1752) includes two beings from Saturn