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In the early hours of 2 September 1859, the biggest solar storm on record lit the night sky red and green and sent currents racing through the world's telegraph wires. The Short follows Henry, a fictional night telegraph operator in Boston, through the night it arrived. This is the history behind it.
Miners in the Rocky Mountains who got up and started breakfast, thinking it was morning.1
Operators in Boston and Portland who unplugged their batteries and kept sending.1
The day, hour by hour
Sunday 28 August, night
A first storm
Days before the great storm, a first one knocked out many North American telegraph lines. One telegraph engineer wrote that the wires were affected "more than ever before".23
HENRY
Northern lights on the wires again. Same as Sunday.
1 September · just before noon in England
A flash on the Sun
The astronomer Richard Carrington, sketching sunspots, saw two patches of brilliant white light flare up. Richard Hodgson saw it too. The storm it launched took about 17.6 hours to reach Earth.12
In England, an astronomer just saw a flash on the Sun. Tonight, it hits Earth.
1 September · evening
The night shift
Telegraph lines linked Boston to Portland, Maine, and far beyond. Each line ran on banks of batteries at its stations.1
HENRY
From these batteries, Tom. No battery, no message.
Around midnight
The sky ignites
The aurora spread far beyond the poles. In the north-eastern United States it was bright enough to read a newspaper by, and the sky was so red that many thought neighbouring towns were on fire.12
BOSTON2 SEP 1859 00:15
That night
Sparks on the wires
Currents induced by the storm made telegraph wires spark. Some telegraph paper caught fire, and operators got shocks: in Washington, Frederick Royce was badly shocked when his forehead touched a ground wire.12
HENRY
Don't touch the wires, Tom! Outside, now!
2 September
Unplugged
The Boston operator asked his colleague in Portland to "cut off your battery entirely". With both batteries disconnected, they worked the line for about two hours on the current from the sky alone.1
On 2 September, Boston and Portland operators unplugged their batteries.
On 2 September, Boston and Portland operators unplugged their batteries.
They sent messages for two hours on the aurora's power alone.
Henry is fictional. The battery-free telegraph is real.
Every line, checked
Each line from the Short that makes a historical claim, beside what the record says.
On screen · opening
In England, an astronomer just saw a flash on the Sun. Tonight, it hits Earth.
The record
Carrington saw the flare just before noon on 1 September 1859 in England, about seven in the morning in Boston. The storm reached Earth about 17.6 hours later.12
High
On screen · life
HENRY
From these batteries, Tom. No battery, no message.
The record
Telegraph stations ran on batteries; the famous Boston and Portland exchange begins with a request to cut them off.1 Henry and his night shift are our invention.
High
On screen · the omen
TOM
Papa, the telegraph is clicking! Nobody's sending!
The record
The storm induced currents that disrupted telegraph lines across North America and Europe.12 The record describes sparks, fires, shocks and lines that worked without batteries; a telegraph clicking with nobody sending is our dramatisation of that.
Medium
On screen · shrug-off
HENRY
Northern lights on the wires again. Same as Sunday.
The record
A first storm on the night of Sunday 28 August knocked out many North American telegraph lines.23
High
On screen · the event
BOSTON2 SEP 1859 00:15
The record
The storm arrived about 17.6 hours after the flare, around midnight in Boston. Accounts differ on exactly when the aurora appeared over the city.1
Medium
On screen · break
TOM
Papa, is the whole city on fire?
The record
The sky was so red that many people believed neighbouring places were on fire.2
High
On screen · chaos
Telegraph wires threw sparks. The sky glowed as far south as Cuba.
The record
Telegraph wires and pylons threw sparks. The aurora was seen in Cuba and Jamaica, and as far south as Colombia.12
High
On screen · aftermath
In the Rockies, gold miners got up and made breakfast. They thought it was dawn.
The record
Miners in the Rocky Mountains are reported to have started breakfast, thinking it was morning. The story is widely repeated from 1859 reports; one account says only that labourers started their daily chores.12
Medium
On screen · fact card
They sent messages for two hours on the aurora's power alone.
The record
The Boston and Portland operators worked their line for about two hours on auroral current alone.1
High
Open question
Open question
What would a storm like this do today?
In 1859 the telegraph was the only electrical network. A 2013 study for Lloyd's of London estimated that a similar storm would cost the United States alone between 0.6 and 2.6 trillion dollars.1
On 23 July 2012, a storm of the same class erupted from the Sun and missed Earth by about nine days.1
Medium
Think about it
Telegraph operators had seen auroras disturb their lines before, even that same week. Why might they have shrugged it off?
In 1859 only the telegraph depended on long wires. Which systems depend on wires and satellites today, and how would you protect them?
Most of what we know comes from newspapers and telegraph operators. Whose experience of that night might be missing from the record?
Carrington saw the flare partly by luck. How do scientists watch the Sun today, and how much warning could they give?
Glossary
Aurora
Light in the sky made when particles from the Sun hit the upper atmosphere, usually seen only near the poles.
Solar flare
A sudden, intense burst of light and energy from the Sun's surface.
Coronal mass ejection
A huge cloud of charged particles thrown out from the Sun, which can trigger storms when it reaches Earth.
Geomagnetic storm
A disturbance of Earth's magnetic field caused by activity on the Sun.
Induced current
Electric current pushed through a wire by a changing magnetic field, with no battery needed.
Telegraph
A system that sent messages as electric pulses along wires, tapped out in Morse code.
Henry
Tom
HENRY
BOSTON2 SEP 1859 00:15
HENRY
