Train delay attributed to solar storm happened years later
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
An international team of researchers determined a reported train delay caused by a solar storm in 1841 actually occurred in 1848.
For over 150 years, scientists believed a story published in Nature described the earliest instance of space weather disrupting technology. James Wild at Lancaster University and others investigated after realising the South Devon Railway, where the incident supposedly took place, did not open until 1846.
The team examined old railway timetables and found a train matching the description in the original account ran from Exeter between March 1848 and July 1849. They then confirmed a powerful magnetic storm swept across Britain on October 18, 1848, coinciding with the train’s scheduled departure and causing spectacular auroras. Newspapers reported bright northern lights and astronomers observed sunspots, signs of solar activity.
This discovery means the Exeter incident no longer holds the title of the first documented technological disruption from space weather. Instead, that distinction now belongs to an event on March 19, 1847, involving electrical disturbances on the Midland Railway near Derby, England. Researchers suggest a typographical error likely changed the date in the original Nature article, and although they suspect Victorian electrical engineer Nathaniel John Holmes authored it, they could not confirm this.
