The Manna Machine is an ancient astronaut book by George Sassoon

George Sassoon

George Thornycroft Sassoon was a British scientist, electronic engineer, linguist, translator and author.-Early life:...

 and Rodney Dale

Rodney Dale

Rodney Dale , from Haddenham in Cambridgeshire, is an English writer and owner of the publishing company Fern House Publishing.Dale usually writes books about science and engineering but also about urban legends, jazz and Louis Wain.-Works:...

 which concludes that a machine device was given to the Israelite

Israelite

According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...

s, when they went on their 40 year journey in the Sinai Desert. The device was said to create manna

Manna

Manna or Manna wa Salwa , sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is the name of an edible substance that God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert according to the Bible.It was said to be sweet to the taste, like honey....

, a type of algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

. It explains how the Israelites survived their 40 year wandering in the Sinai Desert. It is said by Sassoon and Dale that the manna machine was stored in the Ark of the Covenant

Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...

. The Ark was supposed to have powered the machine to run continuously, producing manna for six days. On the 7th day it would be taken apart for cleaning so it could run the following week. This is where Sabbath

Biblical Sabbath

Sabbath in the Bible is usually a weekly day of rest and time of worship. The Sabbath is first mentioned in the Genesis creation narrative. The seventh day is there set aside as a day of rest—the Sabbath. It is observed differently in Judaism and Christianity and informs a similar occasion in...

is thought to come from.