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In the 1953 adaptation of War of the Worlds, the alien war machines had 3 distinct sounds: what we might assume to be a "scanner" (the hissing or rattlesnake-like sound), a beating/"thrumming" sound (we might assume it to be the weapon preparing to fire), and the actual weapon discharge sound (accompanied by the visual shower of sparks).

How were each of these "otherworldly" sounds created? Were they processed/looped sounds from "ordinary" things, and if so, what were the source sounds and processing steps to achieve the results we hear on film? What equipment was used?

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There’s second hand information about one of the sounds here (emphasis in all quotes added by me):

… the [Star Trek] phaser was derived from the hovering sound of the Martian war machines made for the 1953 version of Paramount’s War of the Worlds. The original was made with tape feedback of an electric guitar and a harp.

The Wikipedia article on the movie cites a print book (hard to verify) as the source for an explanation of another sound:

The distinctive sound effect of the weapon was created by an orchestra performing a written score, mainly with violins and cellos.

Later in the same article:

The machines also fire a pulsing green ray ... Its sound effect (created by striking a high tension cable with a hammer) …

Still later:

The sound effects of the war machines' heat rays firing were created by mixing the sound of three electric guitars being recorded backwards. The Martian's scream in the farmhouse ruins was created by mixing the sound of a microphone scraping along dry ice being combined with a woman's recorded scream and then reversed.

Looks like if you can get your hands on the book cited in the Wikipedia article, you’d have a solid source for all of your questions.

Here are the actual book citations:

  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching The Skies Vol I: 1950–1957. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1982. ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
  • Rubin, Steve. "The War of the Worlds". Cinefantastique magazine, Volume 5, No. 4, 1977. A comprehensive "making of" retrospective and review of the film.
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    That book seems to be referencing an older article from Cinefantastique (Volume 5, number 8) by Steve Rubin.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 14 at 22:00
  • 5
    Foley artists are a special "How about we set fire to a wheel of cheese and hit it with an electric guitar tied to a goat, then reverse it?" kind of mad.
    – Grimm The Opiner
    Commented Jul 16 at 8:37
  • "The [Star Trek] phaser...was made with tape feedback." I knew it!! I knew it!! I remember fooling around one day back in the late 1970s with the tape decks and the console in a radio station studio—setting up tape-delayed feedback loops, and playing with the loop gain—when I accidentally re-created the exact sound of a Star Trek hand phaser. The decks were Scully machines, just like this one. The mixing console looked a lot like a Gates "Executive," (Google that!) but I don't remember for sure.
    – Solomon Slow
    Commented Jul 17 at 19:56

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