It was August 25, 1835, that the New York Sun newspaper published one of the greatest stories ever — certainly their biggest scoop in history. The greatest astronomer of the time was Sir William Herschel, and he had made some astonishing observations from his “immense telescope of an entirely new principle,” built in South Africa.
Unfortunately the telescope was destroyed when it was accidentally aimed too close to the sun, causing its focal point to start a fire and destroy the observatory. But luckily Herschel’s companion Dr. Andrew Grant had made extensive notes about Herschel’s observations. It was thanks to Grant that the Sun (the newspaper) was able to bring the momentous news to New Yorkers.
Herschel had aimed his immense telescope of an entirely new principle at the Moon, and had been astonished to see trees, oceans, beaches, and even animals. Many of the animals resembled earth creatures, including bison and goats. There were beavers, except they walked on two legs and didn’t have tails (the intrepid Herschel had no trouble identifying them though, possibly by their front teeth). Most exciting, the Moon was home to actual unicorns, as well as strange inhabitants that were humanoid in form, but flew with bat-like wings.
While some readers expressed a natural skepticism, others were quick to point out that these observations, reported by Dr. Grant, had been made by Sir John Herschel, a man of unassailable reputation.
The article published on August 25th was only the first in a series of six that ran on subsequent days. Readers astute enough to also read the “Southern Literary Messenger” were less astonished than others, because two months before, that periodical had published “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaal.” Pfaal had done Herschel one better; actually traveling to the Moon (in a hot-air balloon, no less) and living among the people there for five years. One of the Lunar inhabitants even returned to Earth with Pfaal.
However, the audience of the “Southern Literary Messenger” hadn’t really been turning to the publication for the latest news; it wasn’t a newspaper. So they weren’t surprised to noticed that Herr Pfaal’s adventures had been recounted by Edgar Allan Poe.
When Poe read the stories in the NY Sun, he was a bit piqued, thinking that there might be a touch of plagiarism going on. He pointed out that the reporter credited with the Herschel story was Richard Adams Locke. Poe knew Locke, who had been the editor for his story about Pfaal.
Other reporters, wanting, of course, to confirm such an historic tale, rushed to interview Herschel himself and his companion Dr. Grant. To their disappointment, Grant proved very difficult to find. Herschel explained that this was due, at least in part, to the fact that there was no Dr. Andrew Grant. Nor had he built a telescope in South Africa, new principle or not.
It actually took several weeks for the story to be revealed as a hoax. But the New York Sun’s circulation had been substantially increased, and the paper never printed a retraction. So at least from that point of view, the story was successful.
In the early 1800s, the idea that the Moon was inhabited wasn’t considered quite as outlandish as it would be today. A serious astronomer, Franz Gruithuisen, had published a scientific paper in 1824 claiming to have observed traces of cities and roads up there. And then there was the Reverent Thomas Dick, an adherent of “cosmic pluralism.” That’s a philosophy dating back to Ancient Greece that holds that there are many worlds in the universe, they’re all basically the same as Earth, and so of course they must be inhabited (no need for actual observations; you can just figure it out)!
In his book “Celestial Scenery, or, The Wonders of the Planetary System Displayed,” Rev. Dick even calculated the population of the whole solar system. It was easier than you’d think — the relative sizes of the planets were known, at least to a reasonable approximation. And the population density of England was known as well. So he just assumed that every planet in the Solar System was populated at about the same rate as England, and arrived at a figure of about 21 trillion inhabitants.
His books were hugely popular and even influential — David Livingstone (the one from “Dr. Livingstone, I presume”) declared one of Dick’s books his second most important influence. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a fan as well.
But if August 25, 1835 started a hoax about the solar system, August 25, 1981, 1985, and 2012 all provided some real astronomical news. Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn in 1981 and to Neptune in 1989. And today is the anniversary of Voyager 1 finally leaving the solar system altogether and entering interstellar space.
No newspapers increasing their circulation by publishing hoaxes about the Voyager probes. But there does seem to be certain amount of that kind of thing still going on. It’s not that they’re bad guys, exactly — it’s more like “we have met the enemy, and he is us.” That’s from Pogo, the character created by Walt Kelly (who was born on August 25, 1913).
