4. The Bat Men of the Moon
As detailed by The Sun in a 17,000 word six-part series, reprinted from The Edinburgh Journal of Science, Sir John Herschel had traveled to the Cape in 1834 to catalog the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. However, he discovered far more than stars with his powerful telescope when he turned it to the Moon. First, were hints of vegetation, a body of water, a beach, and a string of pyramids. As the focus was adjusted for sharper detail, herds of bison-like animals were seen. Next came blue goats that looked like unicorns. Yet more animals, such as walking beavers, were described in the third installment. The fourth installment produced the biggest shock: the discovery of hominids, about four feet tall, who flew with bat wings.
As the article put it: “We scientifically denominated them as Vespertilio-homo, or man-bat; and they are doubtless innocent and happy creatures“. That was when the mounting excitement reached a fever pitch. That was also when the authors discovered that they had greatly underestimated just how gullible the public could be. The whole thing had been satire, something that the authors and The Sun’s editors thought was obvious. Instead, satire was taken as gospel truth. The authors eventually wound down the story with the telescope’s accidental destruction. It had been left exposed to the Sun, whose rays caused its lens to act as a burning glass, which started a fire that destroyed the telescope and the observatory. Needless to say, Sir John Herschel had never claimed the astronomical discoveries attributed to him, nor had he made any such lunar observations.
