One of the earliest known instances of space weather interfering with human technology has finally been solved after 178 years, overturning prior understanding.
In a recent paper published in Space Weather, an international team of researchers finally got to the bottom of mysterious interruptions to telegraph networks in the 1840s that led to train delays.
During the 1840s, space weather disturbances to the Earth’s magnetic field produced significant impacts on early electrical communication technology. Although these systems used wired connections, they were still vulnerable to the field disturbances that threaten our modern wireless systems whenever space weather turns hostile.
The Carrington Event
The Carrington Event, a powerful solar storm in 1859, had significant effects on telegraph systems. Energy induced in telegraph wires allowed some systems to operate without their normal power sources, but also overloaded lines, reportedly causing fires and shocking operators.
While this event is well known, an earlier incident remained more mysterious. An anonymous article published in Nature in 1871 described a magnetic disturbance that reportedly occurred on October 18, 1841. The author claimed the event delayed a train departure in Exeter by 16 minutes, potentially marking an instance of space weather affecting communications technology even before the Carrington Event.
Yet in their investigation of the strange event, the team found one major discrepancy: the train line in question wasn’t yet in operation on the date given in the article.
“In this study, we effectively investigated what had to be a typo in a Nature paper from 1871. We know it was a typo because the Exeter-to-Starcross train line mentioned in that paper didn’t exist until 1846, which is 5 years afterwards,” said co-author Associate Professor Brett Carter of RMIT University.
Recovering the Past
The game of telephone is often used as an analogy for how historical information becomes distorted over time, but this isn’t entirely accurate. In ancient times, before printing presses could reproduce texts automatically, human scribes inevitably made errors. However, rather than every new copy necessarily being made from the previous one, multiple copies could be produced from earlier sources, allowing modern researchers to compare surviving texts and identify likely errors.
Researchers studying a period as recent as the nineteenth century are more fortunate, with many surviving texts and records created for different purposes providing a rich basis for comparison. Based on the team’s examination of a wide variety of documents—including newspaper articles, railway timetables, solar observations, auroral reports, and geomagnetic records—they believe the day and month were correct, but the year was actually 1848.
“Understanding this historical event is important because the 1840s mark the intersection between the rise of our technological age and space weather, which has always been around,” Carter explained. “Since this line was crossed, humans have not looked back.”
Clarifying this date brings into better relief the period when human technology became so susceptible to solar events. With the 1841 date now revised, the earliest credible event where communications were interrupted by space weather on record occurred in 1847 at Midland Railway.
Understanding Space Weather
“Deepening our understanding of these events is essential for preparing for, and mitigating, the impacts of space weather – especially as we look forward to a decade of exciting space developments that will face the challenge of a new solar cycle in the 2030s,” said co-author Dr Mike Hapgood of RAL Space.
“What this research highlights is that space weather is not a new threat but a long-standing natural hazard. Society has been experiencing the effects of space weather on technology for almost as long as electrical technologies have existed,” said lead author Professor Jim Wild from Lancaster University.
Unfortunately, while our technology has progressed at an ever-expanding pace, it is even more vulnerable today than those Victorian-era systems were. Modern networks are wireless, and many are in space, unshielded from space weather. However, our ability to study and predict space weather has vastly improved. By investigating past space weather events, scientists can make better forecasts, potentially saving crucial technological infrastructure from interruption and damage.
“Although this means it is not the earliest recorded space weather impact, it remains one of the first clear examples of solar activity disrupting critical infrastructure,” Wild concluded. “It also demonstrates the value of combining scientific records with contemporary newspaper reports and archival documents when reconstructing historic space weather events.”
The paper, “Did Space Weather Delay the 10:05 p.m. Train Departure from Exeter on 18 October 1841?,” appeared in Space Weather on September 16, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.