{"id":635471,"date":"2026-10-19T17:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635471\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:30:14","slug":"a-solar-storm-supposedly-delayed-a-train-in-1841-but-the-railway-didnt-exist-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635471\/","title":{"rendered":"A Solar Storm Supposedly Delayed a Train in 1841. But the Railway Didn’t Exist Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"-3\"<\/a>Victorian era train. Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

For more than 150 years, scientists believed it was the earliest documented example of a solar storm interfering with human technology. There was just one glaring problem. The Victorian railway hadn\u2019t even been built yet.<\/p>\n

The story appeared in the prestigious scientific journal Nature<\/a> in 1871. According to the account, an intense magnetic storm on October 18, 1841, scrambled telegraph signals along the South Devon Railway. Unable to confirm that the tracks ahead were clear, railway officials held the 10:05 p.m. express at Exeter for 16 minutes.<\/p>\n

The superintendent reportedly suspected \u201csome one was playing tricks with the instruments,\u201d according to the original Nature article.<\/p>\n

Now, an international team of researchers has uncovered the mistake and traced the incident to a much more plausible date. Their new study also reshuffles the history of humanity\u2019s first encounters with a technological threat from the Sun.<\/p>\n

The 10:05 Train<\/p>\n

The story returned to scientific attention in 2013, when Baylor University space-weather researcher William \u201cTrey\u201d Cade III rediscovered the 1871 account and suggested it might describe the earliest known example of space weather disrupting technology.<\/p>\n

But there was a problem with the date. The South Devon Railway, where the incident supposedly happened in 1841, didn\u2019t open until 1846. The train simply couldn\u2019t have been there.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to talk to many railway enthusiasts before someone points out that the line didn\u2019t open until 1846!\u201d James Wild, a space physicist at Lancaster University who led the new investigation, told Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wild and his colleagues suspected that the incident might have happened several years later. Cade himself joined the investigation, helping to correct the historical account he had brought to light.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>A summary timeline of key dates relevant to this investigation spanning the years 1835\u20131875. Adapted by ZME Science.<\/p>\n

To find out, they turned to old railway timetables. The original account mentioned a very specific departure time: 10:05 p.m.<\/p>\n

That proved to be the breakthrough. The researchers discovered that a train matching this description ran from Exeter between March 1848 and July 1849. They focused on October 18, 1848, exactly 7 years after the date published in Nature.<\/p>\n

Then came the most convincing evidence.<\/p>\n

Records from the Greenwich Observatory showed that a powerful magnetic storm swept over Britain that very evening, right around the train\u2019s scheduled departure. Newspapers reported spectacular northern lights across England, including an unusually brilliant display near Leeds, while an astronomer\u2019s drawing from the following morning showed a large group of sunspots, another sign of intense solar activity.c<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sunspot observations, made at 10:25 a.m. on 19 October 1848 by the British clergyman, astronomer and mathematician Temple Chevallier. Credit: Space Weather<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the pieces fit together. The railway existed, the train was scheduled to depart at the right time, and a magnetic storm was underway that could have interfered with its telegraph signals. The researchers also found no comparable evidence of intense geomagnetic activity in England on October 18, 1841.<\/p>\n

The researchers believe someone probably made a simple typographical error in the 1871 Nature article, turning 1848 into 1841.<\/p>\n

They even tried to identify the article\u2019s anonymous author, finding clues pointing to Victorian electrical engineer Nathaniel John Holmes<\/a>. But they couldn\u2019t locate the original manuscript or a contemporary report of the train delay.<\/p>\n

So while the evidence strongly favors 1848, the precise circumstances of the incident remain unconfirmed. What researchers can say with certainty is that it couldn\u2019t have happened in 1841.<\/p>\n

The Sun\u2019s Technology Disrupting History<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a>The magnetogram recorded at Greenwich Magnetic Observatory (London) from 11:20 UT on 18 October 1848 to 00:20 UT on 19 October 1848. Credit: Space Weather<\/p>\n

Correcting the date means the Exeter incident loses its place as the earliest credible recorded technological disruption caused by space weather. That distinction now belongs to March 19, 1847, when a brilliant aurora coincided with strange electrical disturbances on the Midland Railway near Derby.<\/p>\n

Railway engineer William Henry Barlow documented unexplained currents flowing through telegraph wires. He presented his findings to the Royal Society in 1848, and they appeared in an 1849 scientific paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The underlying physics is straightforward. Powerful solar eruptions can disturb Earth\u2019s magnetic field<\/a>. As that field changes, it can induce electric fields at Earth\u2019s surface, driving unwanted currents through long conductors such as telegraph wires. Those currents can confuse electrical signaling equipment.<\/p>\n

In Exeter\u2019s case, the reported problem was specifically the inability to establish whether the track ahead, near the village of Starcross, was clear.<\/p>\n

The timing was particularly consequential. Better batteries had made long-distance telegraphy practical during the 1840s, just as solar activity began rising. An emerging technology was encountering an environmental hazard its inventors had barely anticipated. These incidents preceded the famous Carrington Event of 1859<\/a>, an enormous solar storm that disrupted telegraph networks across continents.<\/p>\n

\"-3\"<\/a>3D reproduction of what the Sun would have looked like with adequate filtration on 1859 September 1st at 11:20 AM GMT\u2014the Carrington Event. Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

The vulnerability hasn\u2019t disappeared<\/a>. A 2023 modeling study found that geomagnetic disturbances could still cause malfunctions<\/a> in modern railway signaling systems.<\/p>\n

The historical correction also offers a broader lesson. A single erroneous date survived in the scientific literature for generations, until researchers checked it against evidence as mundane as a train timetable.<\/p>\n

And there may be more surprises buried in the archives. The 1847 incident is only the earliest credible example researchers have identified so far, not necessarily the first time the Sun interfered with human technology.<\/p>\n

The study was published in the journal Space Weather<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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