Horsell Common and the Heat Ray

The War of the Worlds Music
An Introduction In 2005
The War Of The Worlds Live 2006
Part 1:
The Eve of the War
Horsell Common and the Heat Ray
The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine
Forever Autumn
The Thunder Child
Part Two:
The Red Weed : Part 1
The Spirit of Man
The Red Weed: Part 2
Brave New World
Dead London
The Epilogue
The Cast
H.G. Wells 1866-1946.
Editions
The Martian Fighting Machine
Worlds Links

Horsell Common and The First Cylinder

It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening as though it were just like any other. From the railway station came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. It all seemed so safe and tranquil.
Next morning a crowd gathered on the common, hypnotized by the unscrewing of the cylinder. Two feet of shining screw projected when suddenly, the lid fell off. Two luminous, disk-like eyes appeared above the rim. A huge rounded bulk, larger than a bear, rose up slowly, glistening like wet leather. Its lipless mouth quivered and slathered, and snakelike tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated.
A few young men crept closer to the pit. A tall funnel rose and an invisible ray of heat leapt from man to man, and there was a bright glare as each was instantly turned to fire. Every tree and bush became a mass of flames at the touch of this savage, unearthly heat.
People clawed their way off the common, and I ran too. I felt I was being toyed with, that when I was on the very verge of safety this mysterious death would leap after me and strike me down. At last I reached Maybury Hill, and in the dim coolness of my home I wrote an account for my newspaper before I sank into a restless, haunted sleep.
I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit and hurried to the railway station to buy the paper. Around me, the daily routine of life, working eating, sleeping, was continuing serenely as it had for countless years. On Horsell Common, the Martians continued hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work on the machines they were making. Now and again a light like the beam of a warship's searchlight would sweep the common, and the heat ray was ready to follow.
In the afternoon, a company of soldiers came through and deployed along the common to form a cordon.
That evening, there was a violent crash and I realized with horror that my home was within reach of the heat ray.
At dawn, a falling star with a trail of green mist landed with a flash like summer lightning. This was the second cylinder.

fighting machine sculpture

related internet links

 Horsell Common
 one of only a handful of
privately owned areas of
common land in England
with public access.

where the first cylinder landed
The Sand Pit, Horsell Common

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