The Great Moon Hoax

 

Long before Percival Lowell claimed to have discovered evidence of civilization on Mars, or before Orson Wells frightened the country with a mock Martian invasion, legitimate scientists in the 1830s were concocting extravagant claims of the existence of a civilization on the moon. In response to what he felt were the ridiculous assertions, Brother Richard A. Locke (Benevolent Lodge 28, New York) fabricated a story about the discovery of lunar inhabitants so plausible many scientists of the day endorsed it. Using the byline "Dr. Andrew Grant," In 1835, Locke published the "discovery" in a series of articles in the New York Sun (where he was a reporter), causing a national sensation.

Locke portrayed Dr. Grant as an associate of Sir John Herschel, a noted and well-respected astronomer of the era credited with many important inventions and discoveries. Herschel, in fact, named the four known moons of Uranus and built a ten-inch reflecting telescope, one of the largest at the time. Locke attributed quotes and claims in his article to Herschel, an act that in our litigious society would at the very least generate lawsuits of (pun intended) astronomical proportions.

In his articles, Locke claimed Herschel had developed a new kind of telescope so powerful that looking through it was like, in his words, "walking on the moon." With that impressive tool, Locke's fictional Herschel described a moon replete with lush vegetation, running rivers, mountains and chasms rivaling the Grand Canyon. He also discovered two-legged beavers, unicorns and, most impressive of all, flying humanoid bat creatures.

Locke or Grant – take your pick – published six articles in all, claiming they were reprints from the prestigious but long defunct Edinburgh Journal of Science. The public devoured them until Brother Locke finally let the moon-cat out of the bag and revealed the story was fiction.

Hell hath no fury like a duped public, which turned on Locke claiming his motive was to increase the New York Sun's circulation, which indeed, happened. The incorrigible Locke made a couple more attempts at publishing satire-cloaked hoaxes but accomplished nothing so spectacular. He died in 1871 at the age of 70, forever branded as the perpetrator of the Great Moon Hoax of 1835.