The moon hoax : $b or, A discovery that the moon has a vast population of human beings — John Locke — John Shaqi
The moon hoax : $b or, A discovery that the moon has a vast population of human beings
John Locke · en
that if the rays of the hydro-oxygen microscope, passed through a drop
of water containing the larvæ 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 fabric of his present
telescope. The power of his father's instrument would still leave him
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 to it the attention of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex,
the ever munificent patron of science and the arts. It was immediately
and enthusiastically approved by the committee chosen to investigate
it, and the chairman, who was the Royal President, subscribed his name
for a contribution of £10,000, 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 expense was £70,000, 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 blanch_ for the amount which might be required.