Researchers resolve 178-year-old space weather mystery

Researchers have resolved a 178-year-old mystery regarding how space weather may have impacted human technology. A study published in the journal Space Weather investigated mysterious telegraph network disruptions in the 1840s that were reported to have caused train delays.

While the 1859 Carrington Event is a well-known instance of a solar storm affecting telegraph systems, an older reported event from October 18, 1841, remained a mystery. An anonymous 1871 article in Nature claimed a magnetic disturbance delayed a train in Exeter by 16 minutes. However, the research team discovered a significant discrepancy: the railway line mentioned in the report was not yet operational on that date, suggesting the historical account may have been a typographical error rather than a documented space weather event.