Good day to all.
Today there will be a story about one fantastic fiction, which stirred people in the XIX century.
We all consider ourselves to be reasonable people, sensible, it is difficult to deceive and lead us, as the people of New York probably thought in the distant 1835, but if people present something under the guise of a scientific discovery, accompany them with scientific phrases and refer to respected scientists, then the majority will be able to believe in the most fantastic things.
In August 1835, the American newspaper "SUN" released six articles with pictures, which stated that these drawings were made by a respected scientist and famous astronomer John Herschel. The articles said that the scientist managed to make a powerful telescope through which he saw what was happening on the Moon and sketched it with his own hands.
There are suggestions that the idea of these notes came to the head of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and he instructed to create a cycle of fictional stories to the regular journalist of his newspaper, all this was done to increase the circulation of the newspaper.
The journalist was called Richard Locke, although he then denied all his life his authorship, his fellow journalists were sure that the notes were the work of his hands.
What did the newspaper notes tell the American reader? First of all, about a unique telescope, which consisted of a powerful lens made of silver weighing 7 tons. This lens was able to increase the objects by 42,000 times.
Now about what we managed to find on the Moon.
According to scientists, the atmosphere on the Moon is similar to the terrestrial, there is vegetation and life.
The surface of the Moon consists of seas with sandy beaches, lakes, forests and fields, where unprecedented plants grow. Separately worth mentioning the mountains, according to the author, they consisted of amethysts, sapphires, and entirely from one giant sapphire and amethyst, and flowed in different colors.
The animals of the Moon consisted of sheep, there were beavers building good houses, strange animals of blue color, looking like a goat with one horn and different birds.
Lunar people were even more interesting and freakish animals, the author's imagination played out in all its might.
The lunatics had wings, their growth was about 1m 20cm, their body was covered with red hair, their face was also yellow and resembled the face of a large orangutan, only with a more meaningful expression. They behaved like intelligent people, communicated among themselves and even went to the temple , discovered by the author.
The author in his notes reached the description of the hierarchy of mice, the lighter was their skin, the higher position they occupied in society.
All free time mice perform in entertainment and entertainment, talked, eaten fruit, swam, in general paradise on the moon.
On the description of this paradise on the moon, notes end, but the author said that there are 40 more pages with illustrations and formulas describing life on the moon.
After these notes, the circulation of the newspaper jumped to 60,000 copies. Within a few weeks, the information about the incredible discovery went abroad and reached Europe.
Newspapers in the United States differed in assessing the sensation, someone doubted, someone was arguing about the consequences of these great discoveries. On the wave of this rush, Sun sold 20,000 copies of the newspaper a day. The owners of the newspaper decided to play on an interest in outer space and extraterrestrial civilizations and they buried their hands well on this.
A few weeks later, the newspaper "Sun" in a small material accused the British press of authorship of this fiction. Finally, everything was put into place by the astronomer John Herschel himself, he conducted research in Africa and did not hear anything about the mice and telescope.
It would seem that everything is clear, the astronomer dispelled all doubts about the invention, but lovers of conspiracy and secret conspiracies simply can not be fooled, and they firmly decided that the truth from them was specially concealed and the mousetraps exist, as well as the paradise gardens on the Moon.
This was one of the first cases of mass deception with the help of the media, so do not trust everything that is written in newspapers and other media.
Pictures from here: https://affotd.files.wordpress.com
Thank you.