In the summer of 1835 the New York Sun printed a series of stories, allegedly from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, under the byline of Sir John Herschel, "internationally known British astronomer." Herschel related how he had recently gone to the Cape of Good Hope to test out a powerful new telescope with which he claimed he could see "planets in other solar systems" and even more "astronomical discoveries of the most wonderful description." Training the telescope on the moon, Herschel reported that the moon not only had oceans, trees, and birds, but also men with wings similar to those of a bat, "being a transparent membrane expanded in curvilineal divisions by means of a straight radii, united at the back by dorsal integument."

The seeming authenticity of the "Moon" articles caused a wave of excitement. Sales of the Sun almost doubled. Thousands...