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Day One: Tuesday Morning, August 25, 1835
GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES
Lately Made
BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, L.L.D, F.R.S, &c.
At The Cape of Good Hope.
[From Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science]
In this unusual addition to our Journal, we have the
happiness of making known to the British publick, and thence
to the whole civilized world, recent
discoveries in
Astronomy which will build an imperishable monument to the
age in which we live, and confer upon the present generation
of the human race a proud distinction through all
future
time. It has been poetically said, that the stars of heaven
are the hereditary regalia of man,
as the intellectual
sovereign of the animal creation. He may
now fold the
Zodiack around him with a loftier conscientiousness of his
mental supremacy.
It is impossible to contemplate any great Astronomical
discovery without feelings closely allied to a sensation of
awe, and nearly akin to those with which a departed spirit
may be supposed to discover the realities of a future state.
Bound by the irrevocable laws of nature to
the globe on
which we live, creatures "close shut
up in infinite
expanse," it seems like acquiring a fearful supernatural
power when any remote mysterious works of the Creator yield
tribute to our curiosity. It seems almost a presumptious
assumption of powers denied to us by divine will, when man,
in the pride and confidence of his skill, steps forth, far
beyond the apparently natural boundary of his privileges,
and demands the secrets and familiar fellowship
of other
worlds.
We are assured that when the immortal philosopher to
whom mankind is indebted for the thrilling wonders now first
made known, had at length adjusted his new and stupendous
apparatus with the certainty of success, he solemnly paused
several hours before he commenced his observations, that he
might prepare his own mind for discoveries which he
knew
would fill the minds of myriads of
his fellow-men with
astonishment, and secure his name a
bright, if not
transcendent conjunction with that of his venerable father
to all posterity.
And well he might pause! From the hour the first human
pair opened their eyes to the glories of the blue firmament
above them, there has been no accession to human knowledge
at all comparable in sublime interest to that which he has
been the honored agent in supplying; and we are taught
to
believe that, when a work, already preparing for the press,
in which his discoveries are embodied in detail, shall
be
laid before the public, they will be found of incomparable
importance to some of the grandest operations of civilized
life.
Well might he pause! He was about the become the sole
depository of wondrous secrets which had been hid from the
eyes of all men that had lived since the birth of time. He
was about to crown himself with a diadem of knowledge which
would give him a conscientious pre-eminence
above every
individual of his species who then lives, or who had lived
in the generations that are passed away. He paused ere
he
broke the seal of the casket which contained it.
To render our enthusiasm intelligible, we will state at
once, that by means of a telescope of vast dimensions and en
entirely new principle, the younger
Herschel, at his
observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, has already made the
most extraordinary discoveries in every planet of our solar
system; has discovered planets in other solar systems; has
obtained a distinct view of objects in the moon, fully equal
to that which the naked eye commands of terrestrial objects
at the distance of a hundred yards;
has affirmatively
settled the question whether this satellite be inhabited,
and by what order of things; has firmly established a
new
theory of cometary phenomena; and has solved or corrected
nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy.
For our early and almost exclusive
information
concerning these facts, we are indebted
to the devoted
friendship of Dr. Andrew Grant, the pupil of the elder, and
for several years past the inseparable coadjutor
of the
younger Herschel. The amanuensis of the latter at the Cape
of Good Hope, and the indefatigable superintendent of
his
telescope during the whole period of its construction
and
operation, Dr. Grant has been enabled to
supply us with
intelligence equal, in general interest at least, to
that
which Dr. Herschel himself has transmitted
to the Royal
Society. Indeed our correspondent assures
us that the
voluminous documents now before a
committee of that
institution contain little more
than details and
mathematical illustrations of the facts communicated to us
in his own ample correspondence.
For permission to indulge
his friendship in
communicating this invaluable information to us, Dr. Grant
and ourselves are indebted to the magnanimity
of Dr.
Herschel. who, far above all mercenary considerations, has
thus signally honored and rewarded his fellow-laborer in the
field of science. The engravings of lunar animals and other
objects, and of the phases of the several
planets, are
accurate copies of drawings taken in the observatory
by
Herbert Home, Esq., who accompanied the last powerful series
of reflectors from London to the Cape, and superintended
their erection; and he has thus recorded the proofs of their
triumphant success. The engravings of the belts of Jupiter
is a reduced copy of the imperial folio
drawing by Dr.
Herschel himself, and contains the results of his
latest
observation of that planet. The segment of the inner
ring
of Saturn is from a large drawing by Dr. Grant.
We first avail ourselves of the documents which contain
a description and history of the instrument by which there
stupendous discoveries have been made. A knowledge of
the
one is essential to the credibility of the other.
THE YOUNGER HERSCHEL'S TELESCOPE
It is well known that the great reflecting telescope of
the late elder Herschel, with an object-glass four feet in
diameter, and a tube forty feet in length,
possesses a
magnifying power of more than six thousand times.
But a
small portion of this power was ever advantageously applied
to the nearer astronomical objects; for the deficiency
of
light from objects so highly magnified, rendered them less
distinct than when viewed with a power
of a third or a
fourth of this extent. Accordingly the powers
which he
generally applied when observing the moon or planets,
and
with which he made his most interesting discoveries, ranged
from 220, 460, 750 and 900 times; although, when inspecting
the double and treble fixed stars, and the more
distant
nebulae, he frequently applied the full capacity
of his
instrument. The law of optics, that an object becomes
dim
in proportion as it is magnified,
seemed, from its
exemplification in this powerful telescope, to
form an
insuperable boundary to further discoveries in
our solar
system. Several years, however, prior to the death of this
venerable astronomer, he conceived
it practicable to
construct an improved series of parabolic and
spherical
reflectors, which, by uniting all the meritorious points in
the Gregorian and Newtonian instruments, with the
highly
interesting achromatic discovery of Dolland, would,
to a
great degree, remove the formidable obstruction. His
plan
evinced the most profound research in optical science, and
the most dexterous ingenuity in mechanical contrivance; but
accumulating infirmities, and eventual death, prevented its
experimental application.
His son, the present Sir John Herschel, who had been
nursed and cradled in the observatory, and
a practical
astronomer from his boyhood, was so fully convinced of the
value of the theory, that he determined upon testing it, at
whatever cost. Within two years of his father's
death he
completed his new apparatus, and adapted it to
the old
telescope with nearly perfect success. He found
that the
magnifying power of 6,000 times, when applied to the moon,
which was the severest criterion that could be
selected,
produced, under these new reflectors, a focal object
of
exquisite distinctness, free from
every achromatic
obscurity, and containing the highest degree of light which
the great speculum could collect from that luminary.
The enlargement of the angle of vision which was thus
acquired, is ascertained by dividing the moon's
distance
from the observatory by the magnifying
power of the
instrument; and the former being 240,000
miles, and the
latter 6,000 times, leaves a quotient of 40 miles as
the
apparent distance of that planet from
the eye of the
observer. Now it is well known that no terrestrial objects
can be seen at a greater distance than this, with the naked
eye, even from the most favorable elevations. The rotundity
of the earth prevents a more distant view than this with the
most acute natural vision, and from the highest eminences;
and, generally, objects seen at this distance are themselves
elevated on mountainous ridges. It
is not pretended,
moreover, that this forty miles telescopic view of the moon
presented its objects with equal distinctness, though it did
in equal size to those of this earth, so remotely stationed.
The elder Herschel had nevertheless demonstrated, that
with a power of 1,000 times, he could discern objects
in
this satellite of not more than 122 yards in diameter.
If
therefore the full capability of the instrument
had been
elicited by the new apparatus of reflectors constructed by
his son, it would follow, in mathematical
ratio, that
objects could be discerned of not more than 22
yards in
diameter. Yet in either case they would be
seen as mere
feeble, shapeless points, with no greater conspicuity than
they would exhibit upon earth to the unaided
eye at the
distance of forty miles. But although the rotundity of the
earth presented no obstruction
to a view of these
astronomical objects, we believe Sir John Herschel
never
insisted that he had carried out these extreme powers of the
telescope in so full a ratio.
The deficiency of light, though greatly economized and
concentrated, still maintained some inverse proportion
to
the magnitude of this planet, though
magnificent and
sublime, enabled to confirm some discovered
of former
observers, and to confute those of others. The existence of
volcanoes discovered by his father and by
Schroeter of
Berlin, and the changes observed by
the latter in the
volcano in the Mare Chrisium of
Lucid Lake, were
corroborated and illustrated, as was also the prevalence of
far more extensive volcanic phenomena. The disproportionate
height attributed to the lunar mountains was corrected from
careful admeasurement; whilst the celebrated conical hills,
encircling valleys of vast diameter, and surrounding
the
lofty central hills, were distinctly perceived.
The
formation which Professor
Frauenhofer uncharitably
conjectured to be lunar fortifications, he ascertained to be
a tubular buttress of a remarkably pyramidical
mountain;
line which had been whimsically pronounced roads and canals,
he found to be keen ridges of singularly regular
rows of
hills; and that which Schroeter imagined to be a great city
in the neighborhood of Marius, he determined to be a valley
of disjointed rocks scattered in fragments, which averaged
al least a thousand yards in diameter.
Thus the general geography of the planet, in its grand
outlines of cape, continent, mountain, ocean, and island,
was surveyed with greater particularity and accuracy than by
any previous observer; and the striking dissimilarity
of
many of its local features to any existing on our own globe,
was clearly demonstrated. The best enlarged maps
of that
luminary which have been published were constructed
from
this survey; and neither the astronomer
nor the public
ventured to hope for any greater accession
to their
developments. The utmost power of the largest telescope in
the world had been exerted in a new and felicitous manner to
obtain them, and there was no reasonable expectation that a
larger one would ever be constructed, or that it could
be
advantageously used if it were. A law of nature,
and the
finitude of human skill, seemed united
in inflexible
opposition to any further improvement in telescopic science,
as applicable to the known planets and satellites of
the
solar system. For unless the sun could be prevailed upon to
extend a more liberal allowance of light to these bodies,
and they be induced to transfer it,
for the generous
gratification of our curiosity, what adequate substitute
could be obtained? Telescopes do not create
light, they
cannot even transmit unimpaired that which they
receive.
That anything further could be derived from human skill in
the construction of instruments, the
labors of his
illustrious predecessors, and his own, left
the son of
Herschel no reason to hope. Huygens, Fontana,
Gregory,
Newton, Hadley, Bird, Short, Dolland, Herschel,
and many
others, all practical opticians, had resorted
to every
material in any wise adapted to the composition either
of
lenses or reflectors, and had exhausted every law of vision
which study had developed and demonstrated.
In the
construction of his last amazing specula. Sir John Herschel
had selected the most approved amalgams that the advanced
stage of metallic chemistry had combined; and had watched
their growing brightness under the hands of the artificer
with more anxious hope than ever lover watched the eye
of
his mistress; and he had nothing further to expect than they
had accomplished. He had the satisfaction to know that
if
he could leap astride a cannon ball, and travel
upon its
wings of fury for the respectable period of several millions
of years, he would not obtain a more enlarged view of
the
distant stars than he could now possess in a few minutes of
time; and that it would require an ultra-railroad speed of
fifty miles and hour, for nearly the live-long
year, to
secure him a more favorable inspection
of the gentle
luminary of night.
The interesting question, however, whether this light
of the solemn forest, of the treeless desert, and of
the
deep blue ocean as it rolls; whether this
object of the
lonely turret, of the uplifted eye
on the deserted
battle-field, and all of the pilgrims of love and hope, of
misery and despair, that have journeyed over the hills and
valleys of this earth, through all the eras of its unwritten
history to those of its present voluminous
record; the
exciting question, whether this "observed" of all the sons
of men, from the days of Eden to those of Edinburgh,
be
inhabited by beings like ourselves, of consciousness
and
curiosity, was left for solution to the benevolent index of
natural analogy, or to the severe tradition
that it is
tenanted only by the hoary solitaire whom the criminal code
of the nursery had banished thither for collecting fuel on
the Sabbath-day.
The limits of discovery in the planetary bodies, and in
this one especially, thus seemed to be immutably fixed; and
no expectation was elevated for a period of several years.
But, about three years ago, in
the course of a
conversational discussion with Sir David Brewster upon the
merits of some ingenious suggestions by the latter, in his
article on optics in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia (p. 644),
for improvements in the Newtonian Reflectors,
Sir John
Herschel adverted to the convenient simplicity of the
old
astronomical telescopes that were without tubes, and
the
object-glass of which, placed upon a high pole, three
its
focal image to a distance of 150, and even 200 feet.
Dr.
Brewster readily admitted that a tube was not necessary,
provided the focal image were conveyed
into a dark
apartment, and there properly received by reflectors.
Sir
John then said that, if his father's great telescope,
the
tube alone of which, though former of the lightest suitable
materials, weighed 3,000 pounds, possessed an
easy and
steady mobility with its heavy observatory
attached, an
observatory moveable without the incumbrance of such a tube,
was obviously practical. This also was admitted,
and the
conversation became directed to that all-invincible enemy.
The paucity of light in powerful magnifiers.
After a few moments silent thought,
Sir John
diffidently inquired whether it would not be possible
to
effect a transfusion of artificial light through the focal
object of vision! Sir David somewhat
startled at the
originality of the idea, paused
awhile, and then
hesitatingly referred to the refrangibility of rays, and the
angle of incidence. Sir John, grown more confident, adduced
the example of the Newtonian Reflector,
in which the
refrangibility was corrected by the second speculum, and the
angle of incidence restored by the third. And," continued
he, "why cannot the illuminated microscope,
say the
hydro-oxygen, be applied to render
distinct, and, if
necessary, even to magnify the focal object?" Sir
David
sprang from his chair in the ecstasy of conviction,
and
leaping half-way to the ceiling, exclaimed, "Thou art
the
man!"
Each philosopher anticipated the other in
presenting the prompt illustration that if the rays of the
hydro-oxygen microscope, passed through a
drop of water
containing the larvae of a gnat and other objects invisible
to the naked eye, rendered them not only keenly but firmly
magnified to dimensions of many feet; so could
the same
artificial light, passed through the faintest focal object
of a telescope, both distinctify (to coin a new word for an
extraordinary occasion) and magnify its feeblest component
members. The only apparent desideratum was a recipient for
the focal image which should transfer it, without refranging
it, to the surface on which it was to be viewed under
the
revivifying light of the microscopic reflectors.
In the
various experiments made during the few following weeks, the
co-operative philosophers decided that a
medium of the
purest plate glass (which it is said they
obtained, by
consent, be it observed, from the shop
window of Mons.
Desanges, the jeweller to his ex-majesty Charles X, in High
street) was the most eligible they
could discover. It
answered perfectly with a telescope which magnified
100
times, and a microscope of about thrice that power.
Sir John Herschel then conceived the stupendous facric
of his present telescope. The
power of his father's
instrument would still leave his distant from his favorite
planet nearly forty miles, and he resolved
to attempt a
greater magnifier. Money, the wings of science
as the
sinews of war, seemed the only requisite,
and even the
acquisition of this, which is often more difficult than the
task of Sisyphus, he determined
to achieve. Fully
sanctioned by the high optical authority
of Sir David
Brewster, he laid his plan before the Royal Society,
and
particularly directed it to the attention of
His Royal
Highness the Duke of Sussex, the ever munificent patron of
science and the arts.
It was immediately nd
enthusiastically approved by the committee
chosen to
investigate it, and the chairman, who
was the Royal
President, subscribed his name for
a contribution of
œ10,000, with a promise that he would zealously submit the
proposed instrument as a fit object for the patronage of the
privy purse. He did so without delay, and his Majesty,
on
being informed that the estimated cost was œ70,000, naively
inquired if the costly instrument would conduce
to any
improvement in navigation? On being
informed that it
undoubtedly would, the sailor King promised a carte blanche
for the amount which might be required.
Sir John Herschel had submitted his
plans and
calculations in adaptation to an object-glass of twenty-four
feet in diameter: just six times the size of his venerable
father's. For casting this ponderous mass, he selected the
large glass-house of Messrs. Hartly and Grant, (the brother
of our invaluable friend Dr. Grant)
at Dumbarton. The
material chosen was an amalgamation of two parts of the best
crown with one of flint glass, the use of which, in separate
lenses, constituted the great achromatic
discovery of
Dolland. It had been
found, however, by accurate
experiments, that the amalgam would as completely triumph
over every impediment, both from
refrangibility and
discoloration, as the separate lenses. Five furnaces of the
metal, carefully collected from
productions of the
manufactory, in both the kinds of glass, and known to
be
respectively of nearly perfect homogenous
quality, were
united, by one grand conductor, to the mould; and on
the
third of January, 1833, the first cast was effected. After
cooling eight days, the mould was opened,a nd the
glass
found to be greatly flawed within eighteen inches
of the
centre. Nothwithstanding this failure, a new glass was more
carefully cast on the 27th of the same month, which
upon
being opened during the first week of February, was found to
be immaculately perfect, with the exception of two slight
flaws so near the line of its circumference that they would
be covered by the copper ring in which it was designed to be
enclosed.
The weight of this ponderous lens was 14,826 lbs. or
nearly seven tons after being polished; and its estimated
magnifying power 42,000 times. It was therefore presumed ot
be capable of representing objects in our lunar satellite of
little more than eighteen inches in diameter, providing its
focal image of them could be rendered distinct
by the
transfusion of article light. It was not, however, upon the
mere illuminating power of the hydro-oxygen microscope, as
applied to the focal pictures of this lens, that the younger
Herschel depended for the realization of
his ambitious
theories and hopes. He calculated largely upon the almost
unlimited applicability of this instrument as
a second
magnifier, which would supersede the use, and infinitely
transcend the powers of the highest magnifiers in reflecting
telescopes.
So sanguinely indeed did he calculate
upon the
advantages of this splendid alliance, that
he expressed
confidence in his ultimate ability to
study even the
entomology of the moon, in case she contained insects upon
her surface. Having witnessed the completion of this great
lens, and its safe transportation to the metropolis,
his
next care was the construction of a suitable microscope, and
of the mechanical frame-work for the horizontal and vertical
action of the whole. His plans in every branch
of his
undertaking having been intensely studied, even
to their
minutest details, were easily nd rapidly executed.
He
awaited only the appointed period at which he was to convey
his magnificent apparatus to its destination.
[To be continued.]
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The Great Moon Hoax of 1835
By R. J. Brown
HistoryBuff.com © 2000
Every History of American journalistic hoaxing properly begins with the
celebrated moon hoax which "made" the New York Sun of Benjamin Day. It
consisted of a series of articles, allegedly reprinted from the nonexistent
Edinburgh Journal of Science, relating to the discovery of life on the
moon by Sir
John Herschel, eminent British astronomer, who some time before had gone
to
the Cape of Good Hope to try out a new type of powerful telescope.
The first installment of the moon hoax appeared in the August 25, 1835
edition
of the New York Sun on page two, under the heading "Celestial Discoveries."
The
brief passage read in part as follows: "We have just learnt (sic) from
an eminent
publisher in this city that Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope,
has made
some astronomical discoveries of the most wonderful description, by means
of an
immense telescope of an entirely new principle."
As a mater of fact, Herschel had gone to South Africa in January, 1834,
and set
up an observatory at Cape Town. Three columns of the first page of the
Sun
contained a story credited to the Edinburgh Journal of Science. (That publication
had suspended some time before.) There was a great deal of matter about
the
importance of HerschelÍs impending announcement of his discoveries.
On August 25, the Sun ran four columns describing what Sir John had been
able
to see, looking at the moon through his telescope.
So fascinating were the descriptions of trees and vegetation, oceans and
beaches, bison and goats, cranes and pelicans that the whole town was talking
even before the fourth installment appeared on August 28, 1835, with the
master revelation of all: the discovery of furry, winged men resembling
bats. The
narration was printed as follows:
"We counted three parties of these creatures, of twelve, nine and
fifteen in each, walking erect towards a small wood... Certainly they
were like human beings, for their wings had now disappeared and
their attitude in walking was both erect and dignified... About half of
the first party had passed beyond our canvas; but of all the others
we had perfectly distinct and deliberate view. They averaged four
feet in height, were covered, except on the face, with short and
glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings composed of a thin
membrane, without hair, lying snugly upon their backs from the top
of the shoulders to the calves of their legs.
The face, which was of a yellowish color, was an improvement upon
that of the large orangutan... so much so that but for their long
wings they would look as well on a parade ground as some of the old
cockney militia. The hair of the head was a darker color than that of
the body, closely curled but apparently not woolly, and arranged in
two circles over the temples of the forehead. Their feet could only
be seen as they were alternately lifted in walking; but from what we
could see of them in so transient a view they appeared thin and
very protuberant at the heel...We could perceive that their wings
possessed great expansion and were similar in structure of those of
the bat, being a semitransparent membrane expanded in curvilinear
divisions by means of straight radii, united at the back by dorsal
integuments. But what astonished us most was the circumstance of
this membrane being continued from the shoulders to the legs,
united all the way down, though gradually decreasing in width. The
wings seemed completely under the command of volition, for those
of the creatures whom we saw bathing in the water spread them
instantly to their full width, waved them as ducks do theirs to shake
off the water, and then as instantly closed them again in a compact
form.
The Sun reached a circulation of 15,000 daily on the first of the stories.
When
the discovery of men on the moon appeared Day was able to announce that
the
Sun possessed the largest circulation of any newspaper in the world: 19,360.
Later stories told of the Temple of the Moon, constructed of sapphire,
with a
roof of yellow resembling gold. There were pillars seventy feet high and
six feet
thick supporting the roof of the temple. More man-bats were discovered
and
readers of the Sun were awaiting more astounding details, but the Sun told
them
the telescope had, unfortunately, been left facing the east and the Sun's
rays,
concentrated through the lenses, burned a hole "15 feet in circumference"
entirely through the reflecting chamber, putting the observatory out of
commission.
Rival editors were frantic; many of them pretended to have access to the
original articles and began reprinting the Sun's series. It was not until
the Journal
of Commerce sought permission to publish the series in pamphlet form, however,
that Richard Adams Locke, confessed authorship. Some authorities think
that a
French scientist, Nicollet, in this country at the time, wrote them.
Before Locke's confession a committee of scientists from Yale University
hastened to New York to inspect the original articles; it was shunted from
editorial office to print shop and back again until it tired and returned
to New
Haven. Edgar Allan Poe explained that he stopped work on the second part
of
The Strange Adventures of Hans Pfaall because he had felt he had been
outdone. So many writers have perpetuated the legend that Harriet Martineau
in
her Retrospect of Western Travel said a Springfield, Massachusetts, missionary
society resolved to send missionaries to the moon to convert and civilize
the bat
men.
After a number of his competitors, humiliated because they had "lifted"
the
series and passed it off as their own, upbraided Day, the Sun of September
16,
1835, admitted the hoax. When the hoax was exposed people were generally
amused. It did not seem to lessen interest in the Sun, which never lost
its
increased circulation.
October 31, 1998
Credit: Apollo 17, NASA
Explanation: This picture, taken as the Apollo 17 astronauts orbited the
Moon in
1972, depicts the stark lunar surface around the Eratosthenes and Copernicus
craters. Images of a Moon devoid of life are familiar to denizens of the
space
age. Contrary to this modern perception, life on the Moon was reported
in
August of 1835 in a series of sensational stories first published by the
New York
Sun - apparently intended to improve the paper's circulation. These descriptions
of lunar life received broad credence and became one of the most spectacular
hoaxes in history. Supposedly based on telescopic observations, the stories
featured full, lavish accounts of a Moon with oceans and beaches, teeming
with
plant and animal life and climaxing with reported sightings of winged,
furry,
human-like creatures resembling bats ! Within a month the trick had been
revealed but the newspaper continued to enjoy an increased readership.
For
now ... have a safe and happy Halloween !
