Both Uses of
actuate
in
The War of the Worlds
- At first, I say, the handling-machine did not impress me as a machine, but as a crablike creature with a glittering integument, the controlling Martian whose delicate tentacles actuated its movements seeming to be simply the equivalent of the crab's cerebral portion.†
Chpt 2.2 *
- And while upon this matter of detail, it is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature of the disks in an elastic sheath; these disks become polarised and drawn closely and powerfully together when traversed by a current of electricity.†
Chpt 2.2
Definition:
-
(actuate) to make a machine work or cause someone to act