Did space weather delay a train in 1841?

In 1841, an anonymous correspondent in Nature suggested that a train departing Exeter at 10:05 pm was delayed by 16 minutes due to a "very intense magnetic disturbance." This disturbance, they argued, was caused by "the magnetic and auroral storms that have of late excited some attention and discussion in these pages." These storms, now known as space weather, have the potential to impact human technology, leading physicist Trey Cade to wonder if this could be the first recorded example of space weather affecting transportation.

However, according to a collaborative study led by Lancaster University and involving experts from various institutions, the 1841 hypothesis was debunked. The answer is "no," as the railway line in that part of England had not yet opened in 1841, making it impossible for the train to be delayed. Nevertheless, this raises another question: could the correspondent have been thinking of a different storm?

The research team, including Jim Wild from Lancaster University, examined various data sources, including railway timetables, historical newspapers, solar observations, auroral reports, and geomagnetic records. They concluded that the correspondent, likely an electrical engineer named Nathaniel John Holmes, was probably referring to a storm that occurred on 18 October 1848, not 1841.

This study, published in Space Weather, concludes that the earliest known instance of space weather impacting human technology emerged in March 1847, involving telegraph systems on England's Midland Railway. According to Lancaster University's Jim Wild, the importance of understanding space weather's impact on technology remains as relevant now as it was then, as society has relied on electrical technologies for nearly as long as they have existed.