Handling machine (The War of the Worlds) Handling machine (The War of the Worlds) The Handling machine is one of the fictional machines used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds". It is a crawling device used by the Martians to lift and manipulate other objects. It is one of the four types of heavy machine the Martians bring with them when they invade Earth, along with the fighting machine, the flying machine, and the embankment machine. The handling machine is depicted making, moving, and assembling machinery under control of a single Martian. Handling machines are described as having
The War of the Worlds (radio drama) because "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", an unsponsored CBS cultural program with a relatively small audience, ran at the same time as the NBC Red Network's popular "Chase and Sanborn Hour" featuring ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. At the time, many Americans assumed that a significant number of "Chase and Sanborn" listeners changed stations when the first comic sketch ended and a musical number by Nelson Eddy began and then tuned in "The War of the Worlds" after the opening announcements, but historian A. Brad Schwartz, after studying hundreds of letters from people who heard "The War of the Worlds", as