Black smoke (The War of the Worlds) Black smoke (The War of the Worlds) The black smoke, or black powder, is a fictitious poisonous gas in H. G. Wells' 1898 science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds", used by the Martians to eliminate groups of humans, especially artillery crews, and conveyed by shells fired from a gun-like ""black tube"" carried by the Tripods' whip-like tentacles. Any animal inhaling this deadly smoke is killed almost instantly, but the smoke becomes harmless on contact with water. The Martians would dispel it after each use with jets of steam, leaving only a residual, "cindery" black powder, which reminds the
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