Heat-Ray
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
In H. G. Wells's classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, Heat-Rays are the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians. The Heat-Rays were mounted on Tripods.
The Heat-Ray, which was essentially a directed-energy weapon, was apparently some type of beam projector that incinerated anything it came into contact with. It instantly set ablaze flesh, vegetation and anything else flammable. When the Heat-Ray hit water, it almost instantly turned it into steam. It was also capable of melting metal.
An interesting thing to note is that if an actual energy weapon were to be constructed, it would probably operate much in the style of the heat ray, without any visible "energy bolts" that are present in many science-fiction books and movies involving combat, such as Star Wars.
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The novel
The novel explains the origin of the Heat-Ray as an intense beam of heat generated in a chamber of absolute nonconductivity, which was then projected against a parabolic mirror towards whatever target the Martians wished to incinerate. This explanation is repeated in the 1938 Orson Welles radio version of the story. While the Heat-Ray was photonic in nature, passages in the novel describe the beam as invisible, with the only visible element being a flash emitted from the chamber while the heat-ray is fired. The Heat-Ray in the novel also possessed considerable range, striking targets at distances of at least two miles.
The 1953 film
For the 1953 film version, the Martians used a combination of three rays, one Heat-Ray on top of their ships which fired red sparks, and two disintegrator rays at the side, which are shown as green energy blobs. These two can only be pointed in the direction the ship is facing, while the one at the top can be pointed in any direction. Both types of the Heat-Ray had a less violent effect on its target as most of what they would hit would begin to glow and then vanish, sometimes leaving a stain as a remainder; the heat-ray differs from the disintegrators (also called "skeleton beam") as the former sets the surrounding environment ablaze as well as vaporizing the target. Although, often times, the Heat-Ray did have a simple destructive effect on certain objects; other times, the ray would set objects ablaze or cause them to explode (as shown when the machines reach Los Angeles). In one scene, General Mann states that it is likely the Martians generate radiation without using heavy screening to power their rays. Dr. Clayton Forrester explained how these Heat-Rays worked as such:
"It neutralizes mesons somehow. They're the atomic glue holding matter together. Cut across their lines of magnetic force and any object will simply cease to exist."
The 1988 TV series
The Heat-Ray's use in the War of the Worlds TV series is rather notable. When the war machines are recouped by the aliens in the first episode, the glow-and-disappear effect from the film is replaced with a more destructive force, such as when they turn the main ray on a helicopter that goes up in a ball of flames. The main Heat-Ray of their machines gained more attention in another episode in which the aliens were unable to unearth a buried war machine from a recon mission and were forced to removed the gooseneck device from the ship and strap it atop a hearse. For reasons unknown, the Heat-Ray's effects were similar to those in the 1953 film rather than the more continuity-secure first episode. The aliens' mission in this episode is put to end when the Heat-Ray hits them after being reflected off a makeshift parabolic mirror (a nod to how the Heat-Ray is explained to have worked in the novel and radio play). A note to add is that the only time the Heat-Ray is ever called by name in the series, it is referred to as a "death ray" by one of the alien Advocates.
The 2005 film
In Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds adaptation of Wells' novel, the Heat-Ray is portrayed as bluish-white arcs (not rays) that appear to have a desiccating effect (total removal of water) on living objects such as animals, and a 'disruptive' effect on other objects. For example, when humans are hit by the ray, they are turned into a grey powder, while their clothes remain unaffected, but a bridge in one scene is thrown from its pylons (as if physically struck) when hit by the ray, and in an earlier scene, brick-and-wood buildings are either destroyed or catch on fire. In the middle of the movie, it's also possible to see a video showing an army of tripods destroying a city, and the video shows the Heat-Ray hitting buildings, these collapse when hit, suggesting that they have their supports destroyed.
Curiously, human clothing does not seem to be affected by the ray (though this can be explained by the explosive vaporisation of the human causing the clothing to be blown away from the beam and only lose moisture, rather than catch fire as evidenced by the falling clothes being lighter), although it goes up after the disintegration of its owner, creating a clothing-rain after the massive-extermination. The ray is also able to destroy buildings by weakening their supports and causing them to collapse, to cut an entire steel suspension bridge into relatively small pieces, and to push cars away. It seems to cause desiccation in living tissue (drain it of water) and have a disruptive effect on material objects. The visual and audio effects for the ray would indicate (along with Spielberg's intention) an electrical weapon (electron particle beam). The effect of such a concentrated beam of electrons hitting organic matter would cause instant vaporisation, start fires and have enough momentum to push objects. The blue-green-red colouring would be down to different matter ionising in its path, much like lightning can be varying colours depending on the atmosphere it passes through (lightning has also managed to strike people and make them fly through the air whilst moderately singed). This weapon is somewhat different to the IR laser or maser based weapon from the book.
Other Heat-Rays
The Great Illustrated Classics adaption of The War of the Worlds portrays the Heat-Ray as a massive flamethrower.
A weapon very similar to the Heat-Ray is used in the 1996 film Independence Day. In this film, the ray was fired from the bottom of the aliens' giant ships. The ray usually struck the tallest building in the area, and from there would generate a gigantic wall of flame which would continuously expand with the capabilities of incinerating a whole city.
In Orlando Haus' AndroidOps universe, the cyborg Jonus Aussirisk (also known as Rude) develops a heat ray in the form of an infra-red "laser". Further developments to this Heat Ray technology include the Sonnenspeer used by Second-In-Command Horus, and the "Heat Rifle" favoured by stealth operatives for its invisible heat beam and universal destructive power against all types of target.
Copyright
"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 10, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen Here."
