Fighting machine (The War of the Worlds) Fighting machine (The War of the Worlds) The Fighting Machine (also known as "Tripod") is one of the fictional machines used by the Martians in H.G. Wells' 1898 classic science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds". It is a fast-moving, three-legged walker, reported to be 100 feet tall, with multiple whip-like tentacles used for grasping, and two lethal weapons: the heat-ray and a gun-like tube used for discharging canisters of a poisonous chemical black smoke that kills humans and animals. It is the primary machine the Martians use when they invade Earth, along with the handling machine, the flying
Fighting machine (The War of the Worlds) free-flowing organic legs described in Wells' novel. They are also described in the prologues of the live stage versions as being modified versions of similar walking machines the Martians use on Mars. This interpretation of the Martian tripods also appears in the 1998 and 1999, video games based on the Jeff Wayne album. In Kevin J. Anderson' "The Martian War" the Martians use two type of tripods, the ones from "The War of the Worlds" and a smaller, "overseer" variant. In "Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds", the fighting machines are described as having legs that can telescope down allowing