The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. - Printable Version +- Rogue-Nation3 (https://rogue-nation3.com) +-- Forum: The Conspiracy Corner (https://rogue-nation3.com/forum-35.html) +--- Forum: JFK, the Moon and the Truth out There (https://rogue-nation3.com/forum-36.html) +--- Thread: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. (/thread-4625.html) |
The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. - BIAD - 06-20-2019 These days, the trust that the public have in the mainstream media is so low that a graph would show such conviction equalling that of confidence in a clumsy child handling a rattlesnake. But back when US President Andrew Jackson was staring at the misfired pistol belonging to an unemployed house painter from England, it seemed we'd doubt that the regular Press -who were seen as trustworthy, would sully themselves with the base act of deception. ................................................................... The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 At twenty years-old, Benjamin Day of Springfield -Massachusetts, decided to take his trade as a printer to the hustle and bustle of New York. He had saved enough money to start his own printing press and yet Mr. Day's company soon evolved into newspaper publication when a city-wide panic from the cholera epidemic of 1832 threatened to destroy his business. Launching his newspaper titled 'The Sun' on September 3, 1833, Day knew that most of the city's mediums sold for six cents and realising that working-class New Yorkers -including newly arrived immigrants, would read any newspaper if they could afford it, Benjamin Day decided to sell each of his paper for one cent. Benjamin Day also came up with the idea of repackaging the news from out of town newspapers for the city residents, an act that still exists today. To stay competitive he also hired a reporter, George Wisner, who ferreted out news and wrote articles and paid newsboys to hawk his newspaper on street corners. Enjoying the benefits from his competitive creation, Day had inadvertently caused the era of newspaper competition to commence, with James Gordon Bennett's Herald and later, Horace Greeley's New York Tribune also lowering their respective price to one cent. But Benjamin Day's sun hadn't set with just his marketing practices, something that occurred in the summer of 1835 set into motion a venture that still endures to this day and this quick-thinking North-Easterner could be deemed the originator. Fake news. During the coverage of a sensational courtroom trial, Ben Day met Richard Adams Locke, who claimed to be a Cambridge educated reporter. Locke was working for another penny paper -possibly The New World, when Day approached him to cover the same trial for him. The ambitious Reporter agreed to provide The Sun a series of articles, as long as his name wouldn’t appear as their author since he was still employed elsewhere. Public interest in Locke’s articles on the trial were so popular with Sun readers that Benjamin Day published them in a pamphlet which sold thousands of copies. Realizing he could make good money from long sectional stories re-published in pamphlets, Day urged Locke to write more serial articles and took on Locke as co-editor of The Sun. Sadly, judging the readers' hunger for intriguing hyperbole, Locke brainstormed the concept of an astronomical spoof proclaiming that life had been found on the moon! On August 25, 1835, The Sun published the first of six articles titled “Great Astronomical Discoveries" and declared that a renowned British astronomer Sir John Herschel was the luminary of the startling findings. Herschel was reported in the article to have made his discovery through the use of a super telescope, a at-the-time modern device that had assisted the stargazing Baronet to re-calculate orbits of planets within certain solar systems and affirm the claim that he had solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy. In a trick also used today, Locke's article ambiguously proclaimed that Herschel had discovered life on the moon and left the rest to the imagination of the reader. Of course, to enhance the vaguely-explained mentioning of living beings on the moon, the information-hungry readers would have to invest a penny in tomorrow's edition for their antiphon. By the way, Sir John Herschel wouldn’t know about the article until much later -as at the time, he was the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa recording information of the stars, nebulae, and other objects of the southern skies. Using purported excerpts from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, Richard Adams Locke's articles built the story around the scientists’ creation of a new telescope so powerful it could study insects on the moon. Purchasing the ongoing series, avid readers were led through many fanciful accounts, of lunar of trees, oceans, and beaches. To add to the fascinating explanation, the alleged Reporter wrote of Herschel's discoveries of other life on the moon, like Bison, goats, and even bat-like winged humanoids who built temples. The author credited for the articles was a fictitious Dr. Andrew Grant, who was alleged to be a former student of Sir William Herschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus, and John Herschel’s father. Adding that Grant was also the travelling companion of John Herschel, The Sun articles offered that the series was in conjunction with a more scientific account submitted by Herschel to the Royal Society and ergo, the readers were also fooled into believing they were in on the breaking academic news. Alleged Herschel quotes: Quote:"[Dr Herschel] classified nine species of mammalia and five of ovipara. Quote:"The wings seemed completely under the command of volition, for those of the creatures whom we saw With this latest reveal being the talk-of-the-town, other competitive newspapers and magazines were quick to offer their audiences extensive coverage. The proceeds from this deception continued to pour in for The Sun newspaper through the immediate selling of the series in pamphlet-form along with various lithographic prints showing artists depictions of the lunar scenes. The prints -commissioned from Wall Street lithographers Norris & Baker, were purported to decorate the 60,000 pamphlets sold. Alas, only sixteen of them exist today as collectors items. But as we know, such fakery must come to an end and with a multitude of skeptics in the media, the competing newspaper companies delved into the backgrounds of the characters and took The Sun's articles to task. But just as we saw with the 'Trump-Russia' conspiracy, Benjamin Day's editorial crew doubled-down on the calls for it all being a hoax and continued its successful publishing until 1950. Benjamin Day, Richard Adams Locke and Sir John Herschel. During this media inquisition, it was debated who the true author of the series should be credited too, as Locke initially denied writing it. Of course, it didn't help that Locke’s claims of attending Cambridge were also false. In 1836, Locke left The Sun and started working for the latest penny paper, The New Era and shortly after joining the publication he added “Author of the Moon Hoax” to his byline. During his time at the Era, Locke allowed -through his writings, that the outlandish lunar narrative was really just satire, designed to be against the unchecked influence of religion upon science. When Richard Adams Locke died in 1871, his obituary ran on the front page of The Sun, which said in part: Quote:"Richard Adams Locke died on Staten Island on Thursday, in his 71st year. There's a lesson for all of us here as Messrs. Day and Locke can attest to. Don't just automatically believe what you read. RE: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. - Ninurta - 06-28-2019 I remember this hoax. Not from the original printing, of course, but from about 120 or 130 years later. It fascinated me. In the days when I was made aware of it, UFOs were all the rage. They were hiding under practically every bed. The universe was, therefore, obviously teeming with life. Aliens were coming from every corner of it. Beautiful (and naked) Venusian women were accosting Antonio Villa-Boas in Brazil, and impregnating themselves thereby. George Adamski was also having amorous encounters with Venusians - who could say, for sure, that just because the moon was devoid of air, it couldn't also harbor life? Everywhere else in the universe apparently did. Just a few years later, Billy Meier would have "encounters" with his own blonde-haired, big tittied aliens from the Pleiades (after it was discovered that Venus could not, after all, have blonde aliens with big titties because any such aliens would have burst into flames and melted, titties included). Why, those moon-bats (modern term for something else entirely, retroactively misapplied by me) were ALSO naked - it was right there in the engravings! The US (and the USSR too) had their beady little eyes on a moon expedition, which had not yet occurred, but would occur just a few years hence... I was pretty sure they were only going there - if they ever got it done - to find naked Moon Bats with hooters. Why else? Ah, those halcyon days! Nowadays, aliens no longer go about naked, seeking Earthling sex partners. It's probably a good thing on balance. Now, they'd all be short, and gray, and wrinkly, and bug-eyed ugly, with no alien-titties... but with big ass claws instead (although Whitley Streiber seems to have had an oral encounter with such in the days following "Deep Throat"). Back then, buggery had not yet been invented by pillow-biting San Francisco poofters, and so the aliens were kinder, gentler, more hetero-sexually-oriented, and had no thoughts of those evil anal probes they are so enamoured of these days, thanks to the San-Fran-Fags. Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how aliens tend to conform to the human sexual practices du jour? God, I'm old! But not old enough to recall the original printing of this story. Maybe. . RE: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. - BIAD - 06-28-2019 @Ninurta. Bravo...! I enjoyed that! RE: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. - guohua - 06-28-2019 @"Ninurta" Mr."G" here. I have to wonder,,, why don't aliens have big Titties? Is it because most are described as Reptile looking? I have not seen any Lizards or Snakes in Arizona with Titties. I guess the shape shifter types can have Titties for awhile as they assume the form of that Old Hag Hillary. Those little grayish big headed and big eyed things,,,,,, who in the Hell knows what sex they are? I too miss the days of sexy Blonde Aliens with long hair and big titties and nice round asses But, I Am Very Old and I don't think I cold give them what they wanted today,,,,,,, :smallundecided: Those little naked Devilish Bastards can just stay on the Moon, they are nothing but Trouble. |