Hoaxes: Deception and Cardiff Giant
Hoaxes What is a Hoax? A hoax is something that is intended to deceive you or better described as a theory. They are many hoaxes in the world that have been developed over time. The two I have decided to tell you about are in the top 10 famous hoaxes in the world. These two are the Cardiff Giant and then the Cottingley Fairies. As you will out while you continue to read is both of these came out not to be completely true. George Hull who was a tobacconist created the hoax, Cardiff Giant. “He decided to create the giant after an argument at a Methodist meeting about a passage stating there were giants that once lived on the earth. The men he hired to carve the man, were instructed to make it long out of gypsum. Edward Burghardt was hired by Hull to carve the stone into a man and not tell anyone.
To make the stone man look old and weathered, they used many stains and acids. By the time he was transported to a farm the United States has already spent 2,600 dollars trying to figure out the hoax, this was in 1868. In almost 1869, two men dug up a well and discovered the giant. One of the reporters said, “I declare some old indian has been buried here! Later some guy set up a tent and charged 25 cents for people who wanted to see the giant. Hull later sold his interest for 23,000 dollars to a man with the name of David Hannum. They moved it to Sycacuse, New York for an exhibit. It was so popular that a man named P. T. Barnum offered 50,000 dollars for the giant; he was turned down. He later hired a man to model the giants shape and cover it in wax and created a plaster replica. The replica was put on display at New York and claimed that it was real and the other one was fake.
Barnum got sued by Hannum for calling his giant fake. Barnum got sued by Hannum for calling his giant fake. Hull eventually confessed to the press on December 10. On February 2, 1870, both of the giants were revealed in the court as being, fake. Barnum was ruled by the judge that he couldn’t be sued. The story of Cottingley Fairies is based off of a series of five pictures that were taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. Elsie borrowed her dad’s 25 cent camera one day and toke pictures behind the family house.
As Mr.Wright was developing the pictures, he saw fairies in them, but he said they were, fake. She was banned from taking anymore pictures, but her mom, Polly, was convinced they were real. In the summer of 1919, the whole situation became public and an author wrote an article saying these fairies were real. The next fifty years od there life was spent avoiding the public and is particular hoax continued to be believed by a lot of people. Frances and Elsie both admitted when they were about to die that the first four that were taken was fake, but the fifth photo was, authentic.
