New Delhi: Nearly 180 years ago, a train in England was held up for 16 minutes after a mysterious electrical disturbance disrupted the railway’s telegraph system. The cause was not a problem with the train or tracks, but the Sun interfering with the technology used to keep railway operations safe.
The incident was long considered one of the earliest known examples of space weather disrupting human technology. But researchers have now found that a crucial detail in the historical account was wrong, as the railway line had not even opened at the originally reported time.
A new international study published in the journal Space Weather traces the incident to October 18, 1848, correcting an error that remained in scientific literature for more than 150 years.
The story first appeared in the journal Nature in 1871 and described a powerful magnetic disturbance on October 18, 1841, that affected telegraph equipment along the South Devon Railway. In those days, railway operators relied on electric telegraph signals to communicate whether sections of track were clear. When the equipment malfunctioned, officials in Exeter could not confirm that the line near Starcross was safe, and a train scheduled to leave at 10:05 pm was consequently delayed by 16 minutes.
Space weather historian William B Cade of Baylor University had previously highlighted the account as a possible early example of the Sun affecting technology. But researchers later noticed a glaring hole in the story, realizing that the railway line through Starcross did not open until 1846.
To solve the mystery, researchers compared old railway timetables with magnetic measurements, newspaper reports, and astronomical observations. As a result, they found that the 10:05 pm train schedule was in use in 1848 and 1849.
Records from the Greenwich Observatory showed strong magnetic disturbances on the evening of October 18, 1848. Newspapers also reported bright auroras across England, while astronomers recorded a large group of sunspots facing Earth. Together, these clues pointed to intense solar activity interfering with the telegraph system.
Space weather occurs when activity on the Sun affects Earth, creating auroras while also threatening power grids, satellites, communications, GPS navigation, and other technologies. Furthermore, the Exeter incident was not even the earliest known case, as researchers also highlighted a railway telegraph disruption on March 19, 1847.
The corrected account offers an early warning of a vulnerability that has grown as society has become more dependent on electricity and digital systems. Researchers note that this technological susceptibility has continued and expanded to the present day.