You have probably heard of HG Wells’ infamous 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds, where Orson Wells took the book to the radio in such a way that it was a news bulletin, leading countless Americans to believe that aliens were actually invading Earth (New Jersey) to be exact. In addition, absolutely slaughter us in huge quantities. The team behind it had no idea that people would taken by adaptation believing the story was too stupid to make mistakes for the real news and the next day when they were at the center the national news was a bit disappointed.
The previous deception may have gripped the response they might have received and it is such that it will not get the attention it deserves. In 1835, Richard Adams Locke created the Great Moon Hacks, six articles printed in New York that claimed to be practical observations of extraterrestrial activity on the moon. The articles printed in Dr. Andrew Grant’s Weaving Line, describing the “discoveries” of the true astronomer Sir John Herschel from an observer in Cape Town, South Africa.
While these articles were not marked as ironic, it began with a detailed explanation of how Herschel developed telescopes that had a magnifying force of 42,000 bars by applying a microscope to the end of a telescope. It should have been a bit of a red flag, but keep in mind that science studies were not very hot at the time, even the astronomers at the time claimed they saw signs of artificial roads on the moon, so let us not be too judgmental.
The next day a big red flag came when they announced that they had built several pyramids made of plants, wood and crystal, probably by “Lunarians”. Then came g “Small collections of trees of every imaginable kind were scattered throughout the luxurious region; and here our magnifiers, with specimens of conscious existence, have shattered our intense expectations,” the account reads. “In the wild shade to the southeast, we have seen a continuous herd of bison with all the outward features, the brown quadrangle, but smaller than any species of the boss lineage in our natural history.” Animals like bison were the first among many.
The story goes on to say, “The next creature will be classified on earth as a monster.” “It was a blue lead, goat-shaped, with a head and beard like it, and a single horn, tilted slightly from the vertical.” As well as Moon Unicorns, magazine articles told stories of animals ranging from birds to shellfish, wide rivers and lakes, before they fully realized and introduced to bat people like intelligent humans. One article reads, “We were amazed to see four large-winged animals, one after the other, swarming like any other type of bird.”
The incredibly hairy bat person described as walking straight in a dignified way. These species, which they call Vespertilio-Homo (Batman), lived primarily on the fruit of the moon and contained foods such as red cucumbers that gave them juice. After observing all these strange creatures, everyone is living according to the sign of a muscle or a hunter, do not you know it, and the telescope went, burned, and given with it the only evidence that could given.
This work probably marked by ironic people at the time who truly believed that there was plenty of life on the moon. Still, people believed the stories, partly because the papers went far beyond denying the series. They did not retract the story, or make any mention of it being false, just mentioning, “There are unicorns on the moon” in one issue and leaving it.
Herschel, who made these discoveries as an astronomer, was himself trapped. At first, he thought it was quite funny and shed light on how his observations about the moon are nowhere near as funny. However, he was a serious astronomer and eventually became quite annoyed that people kept asking him about his discoveries. It will make you grateful when people are so happy to meet the man who discovers bat people orbiting the moon, all they have to say is that, above all and you have seen a few rocks.
