Calc War of the Worlds (original) - The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one

But still, they come.

War of the Worlds said:

In a telescope it seems far profounder. And invisible to me because it was so remote and small, flying swiftly and steadily towards me across that incredible distance, drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles, came the Thing they were sending us, the Thing that was to bring so much struggle and calamity and death to the earth.

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War of the Worlds said:

And, all unsuspected, those missiles the Martians had fired at us drew earthward, rushing now at a pace of many miles a second through the empty gulf of space, hour by hour and day by day, nearer and nearer.

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The Martians cylinders fly towards the Earth at several thousand miles a minute, and backs this up by confirming that the missiles are traversing many miles a second. It says miles (as in plural), so that should be at least 2000 miles, or 3218.688km.

T = 3218.688km/60s
= 53644.8/340.29
= Mach 157.644362

Let's also get KE. The thickness and diameter is given to us.

War of the Worlds said:

The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge cylinder, caked over and its outline softened by a thick scaly dun-coloured incrustation. It had a diameter of about thirty yards.

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War of the Worlds said:

The end of the cylinder was being screwed out from within. Nearly two feet of shining screw projected. Somebody blundered against me, and I narrowly missed being pitched onto the top of the screw. I turned, and as I did so the screw must have come out, for the lid of the cylinder fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion.

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30 yards (27.43200m) across and 2 feet (60.96cm, or 0.6096m) thick. Volume, obviously, as a cylinder. Assuming at least the same height as diameter (which would make sense).

R = 27.43200m/2
= 13.71600m

V = πr^2h
= π X 13.71600^2 X 27.43200
= 16212.9595m^3

R = 13.71600m - 0.6096m
= 13.1064m

V = πr^2h
= π X 13.1064^2 X 27.43200
= 14803.8331m^3

V = 16212.9595 - 14803.8331
= 1409.1264m^3

The tripods are described as being made as some kind of aluminium...

War of the Worlds said:

‘Giants in armour, sir. Hundred feet high. Three legs and a body like ‘luminium, with a mighty great head in a hood, sir.’

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War of the Worlds said:

In another second it had lifted a bar of white aluminium into sight, untarnished as yet, and shining dazzlingly, and deposited it in a growing stack of bars that stood at the side of the pit. Between sunset and starlight this dexterous machine must have made more than a hundred such bars out of the crude clay, and the mound of bluish dust rose steadily until it topped the side of the pit.

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...So I'll go with the same for the cylinders too. Aluminium weighs 2600kg/m^3.

M = 1409.1264 X 2600
= 3663728.64kg

KE = (0.5) X 3663728.64 X 53644.8^2
= 5.27167423e15 joules
= 1.25996038002 megatons

Final Results
The Martian Cylinders traverse space = Mach 157.644
Martian's launch cylinders = 1.26 megatons