Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson,
Speaker 2: and I'm Holly Frye. A few weeks ago, I was
Speaker 2: thinking about our Octoberfest trip that is coming up later
Speaker 2: this year, and I suddenly wondered whether we might have
Speaker 2: a chance of seeing.
Speaker 3: The Aurora while we're there, partly.
Speaker 2: Because one of the places will be staying seems like
Speaker 2: it will have maybe not as much light pollution as
Speaker 2: where I live, and also partly because I have a
Speaker 2: really hard time visualizing how far north things are on
Speaker 2: other continents unless I'm actually looking at a globe. The
Speaker 2: answer is that the aurora chances are roughly comparable to
Speaker 2: being at home in Massachusetts, which means unlikely but not impossible.
Speaker 2: The only time I have seen the aurora I was
Speaker 2: in my own yard at home, so that's in spite
Speaker 2: of having tried to see them in Iceland while we
Speaker 2: were there that didn't work out. During my quest to
Speaker 2: get an answer to that question, though, I stumbled across
Speaker 2: a reference to the Carrington event, and then a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks later the Carrington event came up again in
Speaker 2: a video game that I was playing, and I thought,
Speaker 2: should that be an episode? The Carrington Event was a
Speaker 2: massive geomagnetic storm that happened in eighteen fifty nine, and
Speaker 2: in some ways it strikes me as a story of serendipity.
Speaker 1: Most people who experienced the Carrington Event saw an aurora,
Speaker 1: including lots of people who lived in places where auroras
Speaker 1: do not normally appear. Although the words Aurora borealis and
Speaker 1: Aurora australis were not coined until the early eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: there are written descriptions of phenomena that certainly sound like Aurora's.
Speaker 1: Going back to the ancient world, the oldest might be
Speaker 1: an account of a five colored light in the sky,
Speaker 1: which was recorded in China about three thousand years ago.
Speaker 1: Assyrian astrological records dating back to the seventh century BCE
Speaker 1: describe a red glow at night. Aristotle's Meteorologica, which was
Speaker 1: written around three hundred and thirty BCE, describes the nighttime
Speaker 1: appearance of chasms and trenches in blood red, which sometimes
Speaker 1: look like flames or moving torches.
Speaker 2: All of those sound like they could definitely be describing
Speaker 2: ben aurora or something else, but possibly today we know
Speaker 2: that Auroras are caused by interactions between charged particles from
Speaker 2: the Sun and atoms in the.
Speaker 3: Earth's upper atmosphere.
Speaker 2: Auroras are most common near the poles because the Earth's
Speaker 2: magnetic field deflects those charged particles, and that field is
Speaker 2: weakest around the poles. But during this event, people saw
Speaker 2: Aurora's much closer to the equator than it usually appears,
Speaker 2: including people who were living in the tropics. Astronomers and
Speaker 2: other people who were observing the Sun also noticed sun
Speaker 2: spots leading up to this event. Like descriptions of aurora's,
Speaker 2: descriptions of sunspots go back to the ancient world. People
Speaker 2: in China and Korea are known to have observed sunspots
Speaker 2: as long ago as eight hundred BCE, but the oldest
Speaker 2: known depiction of spots on the face of the Sun
Speaker 2: meaning a sketch not just a written description, is in
Speaker 2: the Chronicle of John of Worcester, which is an English
Speaker 2: text dating back to eleven twenty eight. There is also
Speaker 2: a Chinese account of a black spot on the Sun
Speaker 2: from a few months later. It may be describing the
Speaker 2: same spot, although it doesn't have an illustration to accompany it.
Speaker 1: The first people known to observe and record sunspots through
Speaker 1: a telescope were past podcast subject Thomas Harriet and Galileo
Speaker 1: Galilee in the early seventeenth century. I just went to
Speaker 1: Galileo's tomb.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: By the nineteenth century, people were making systematic, methodical observations
Speaker 2: of sunspot activity. One was Samuel Heinrich Schwaba, who was
Speaker 2: a pharmacist from Germany who started recording daily sunspot observations
Speaker 2: in eighteen twenty six. In eighteen twenty nine he sold
Speaker 2: his pharmacy so he could work on astronomy full time,
Speaker 2: and by eighteen forty four he had concluded that sun
Speaker 2: spots occur in ten year cycles. That number was later
Speaker 2: adjusted to eleven years, but it's sometimes still referred to
Speaker 2: as the Shaba cycle.
Speaker 3: One of the people who.
Speaker 2: Was inspired by Shwaba's work was Richard C. Carrington, who
Speaker 2: the Carrington event is named for. In addition to observing
Speaker 2: the aurora and sunspots, nineteenth century astronomers were observing the
Speaker 2: Earth's magnetic field. The ability to do this started with
Speaker 2: the discovery of the magnetic compass, in its simplest version,
Speaker 2: a magnetized needle that orients itself in response to magnetic fields.
Speaker 2: The first magnetic compasses date back to about two thousand
Speaker 2: years ago in China, and they were used for divination.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until around the eleventh century that people started
Speaker 2: using them for navigation, with magnetized devices that always oriented
Speaker 2: themselves along a magnetic north south line. By the seventeenth century,
Speaker 2: people were theorizing that the reason compasses could do this
Speaker 2: was because the Earth had a magnetic field that magnetized
Speaker 2: needles were responding to, and by the eighteenth century people
Speaker 2: had noticed that this field seemed to fluctuate. Sometimes the
Speaker 2: compass needle would shift a tiny bit from where it
Speaker 2: normally pointed, and then it would stay that way for
Speaker 2: a while before shifting back. Or on ships traveling at sea,
Speaker 2: the compass needle didn't always seem to point in a
Speaker 2: exactly the same direction, but people did not yet know
Speaker 2: why this was. In the early nineteenth century, multiple people,
Speaker 2: including William Scoresby and Carl Friedrich Gauss, developed magnetometers to
Speaker 2: measure magnetic fields, and astronomers started using these instruments to
Speaker 2: record data about the Earth's magnetic field. In eighteen thirty six,
Speaker 2: Baron Alexander van Humboldt wrote a letter to the President
Speaker 2: of the Royal Society that called for the creation of
Speaker 2: a network of magnetic observatories all over the world. Humboldt
Speaker 2: was a foreign member of the Society, and he had
Speaker 2: already worked to get such observatories established in Russia, China,
Speaker 2: and multiple nations across continental Europe. In response to Humboldt's
Speaker 2: recommendation and the advocacy of people like astronomer John Herschel
Speaker 2: and natural philosopher William Hewell, Britain set up observatories in
Speaker 2: its territory, including in Toronto, Canada, Hobart, Australia, and on
Speaker 2: the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. A lot
Speaker 2: of these observatories were also on their island territories, including
Speaker 2: Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, two different islands
Speaker 2: in New Zealand, and the Falkland Islands off the coast
Speaker 2: of South America, as well as the Kerglan Islands in
Speaker 2: the Southern Indian Ocean below the Antarctic Circle.
Speaker 1: Britain's efforts in establishing these observatories came to be known
Speaker 1: as the Magnetic Scheme, or sometimes the Magnetic Crusade, and
Speaker 1: this crusade combined Victorian erascientific curiosity with the practical needs
Speaker 1: of the British Navy. Magnetic compass readings were imprecise, compasses
Speaker 1: point to magnetic north, not true north, and magnetic north
Speaker 1: changes over time. There are also variations in the Earth's
Speaker 1: magnetic field that affect these compass readings. The increased use
Speaker 1: of iron in shipbuilding exacerbated these issues, and the British
Speaker 1: Navy wanted to get more information about the Earth's magnetic
Speaker 1: field to try to assault these problems. By eighteen fifty two,
Speaker 1: thanks to ongoing observations of sunspot activity and readings from
Speaker 1: all of these magnetometer stations, astronomers had also started to
Speaker 1: make connections between sunspot activity and activity in the Earth's
Speaker 1: magnetic field, with disruptions in the field seeming to follow
Speaker 1: sunspot activity. In addition to all of this, in the
Speaker 1: mid nineteenth century, there were a lot of people who
Speaker 1: were interested in astronomy and had set up their own observatories.
Speaker 1: One was Richard C. Carrington, whose private observatory was in Redhill, Surrey,
Speaker 1: south of London. Carrington was elected to the Royal Society
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty and the Royal Astronomical Society in eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty one. Another was Richard Hodgson, whose observatory was at
Speaker 1: his home, Claybury Hall, near Woodford, Essex, northeast of London.
Speaker 1: Hodgson had become a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty eight. And one more nineteenth century redevelopment
Speaker 1: that was connected to all of this was the telegraph.
Speaker 1: The first practical telegraphs were developed in the eighteen thirties.
Speaker 1: That is also when Samuel Morse developed his system of
Speaker 1: dots and dashes that is known as Morse code. By
Speaker 1: the eighteen forties, cities were being connected with telegraph wires.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty nine, there wasn't yet a transcontinental telegraph
Speaker 1: line in North America, and there wasn't a transatlantic cable.
Speaker 1: One had been laid in eighteen fifty eight that had
Speaker 1: quickly stopped working, and it wasn't replaced until eighteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: We did an episode on this in twenty sixteen. But
Speaker 1: especially at North America and Europe, a lot of cities
Speaker 1: and towns were connected to one another by telegraph. This
Speaker 1: solar storm had an effect on telegraph lines and machinery,
Speaker 1: and we're going to get to all of that in
Speaker 1: a bit, but it also let people communicate about what
Speaker 1: they were seeing, experiencing, and measuring much faster than before
Speaker 1: the telegraph was developed. It is very likely that the
Speaker 1: Carrington event was not the largest geomagnetic storm ever to
Speaker 1: hit the Earth. For example, in seventeen seventy people in China, Korea,
Speaker 1: and Japan reported a bright red aurora which lasted for
Speaker 1: more than a week and was concurrent with sun spots
Speaker 1: that were about twice the size of the ones that
Speaker 1: were observed around the Carrington event. Also in twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: Japanese physicist Fusumiyaki, who was a PhD student at the time,
Speaker 1: discovered large spikes in carbon fourteen in tree rings, in
Speaker 1: this case rings dating back to the year seven seventy four.
Speaker 1: Other research has found examples of other huge carbon fourteen
Speaker 1: spikes in tree rings from other years, and we really
Speaker 1: don't know much about what caused these spikes, although they
Speaker 1: are believed to have been caused by solar energetic particle
Speaker 1: events that were probably much bigger than the Carrington event.
Speaker 1: We also don't really know what people on Earth may
Speaker 1: have been experienced while these Miaki events were happening. There
Speaker 1: are some very brief mentions of phenomenon that may have
Speaker 1: been auroras in some of the same years, but they
Speaker 1: aren't a whole lot to go on, and there wasn't
Speaker 1: a way to measure whatever it was that was happening.
Speaker 1: And that's what I find to be so serendipitous about
Speaker 1: the Carrington event, which is not something I would normally
Speaker 1: say about something that had so much to do with
Speaker 1: Britain's colonial empire project. Over just a couple of decades,
Speaker 1: magnetic observatories had been set up all over the world,
Speaker 1: including equipment on ships at sea. People had started watching
Speaker 1: the sun and recording what they saw every day for
Speaker 1: long enough to notice recurring patterns. People had figured out
Speaker 1: how to use electricity to quickly send messages across long distances.
Speaker 1: So when a geomagnetic storm started in August of eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty nine, things were already in place and recently in
Speaker 1: place for people to not only see its effects, but
Speaker 1: also measure that those effects and record them and to
Speaker 1: very quickly realize that it was happening in other places too.
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk more about all of this
Speaker 1: after we pause for a sponsor break.
Speaker 2: The Carrington event is sometimes described as two solar events
Speaker 2: that happened very close together, one on August twenty eighth
Speaker 2: and twenty ninth, eighteen fifty nine, and the other on
Speaker 2: September first and second. It's also described as one event
Speaker 2: that stretched over that whole window, but with reduced activity
Speaker 2: around August thirtieth and thirty first. People had also noticed
Speaker 2: changes in the sun in the days before any effects
Speaker 2: were noticed on Earth, with a particularly large group of
Speaker 2: sunspots noted on August twenty sixth.
Speaker 1: During the first phase of this geomagnetic storm, skies were
Speaker 1: clear over much of the northern hemisphere. Eighth was the
Speaker 1: new moon, so the skies were also particularly dark. Basically,
Speaker 1: these were great conditions for seeing an aurora.
Speaker 2: As we said at the top of the show, most
Speaker 2: people who experienced the Carrington event or knew that they
Speaker 2: were experiencing something during the event did so by seeing
Speaker 2: an aurora, and the descriptions of what people saw sound incredible.
Speaker 2: The Boston Transcript ran this description on September fifth.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 2: On Sunday evening in Vermont, the twenty eighth, at seven
Speaker 2: and a half o'clock, we were notified of a large
Speaker 2: fire behind the mountain to the north, and we went
Speaker 2: out to see it, and presently the red clouds began
Speaker 2: to disappear, and spires of green shot up from the
Speaker 2: same place. It was the most magnificent display ever witnessed
Speaker 2: in this section. The sky for about an hour more
Speaker 2: kept changing from green to red till ten and a
Speaker 2: half o'clock, when all the brilliancy was gone except a
Speaker 2: little green at the north.
Speaker 1: Here's how it was described in the Washington Daily National
Speaker 1: Intelligencer of Washington, d c. On August thirty first quote.
Speaker 1: The light appeared in streams, sometimes of a pure milky whiteness,
Speaker 1: and sometimes of a light crimson. The white and rose
Speaker 1: red waves of light as they swept to and from
Speaker 1: the corona were beautiful beyond description. And a friend nearby us,
Speaker 1: while looking to the zenith with the whole heavens and
Speaker 1: earth lighted up at a greater brilliancy than is afforded
Speaker 1: by the full moon, said that it was like resting
Speaker 1: beneath the wings of the Almighty. The crown above indeed
Speaker 1: seemed like a throne of silver, purple and crimson, hung
Speaker 1: and spread out with curtains or wings of dazzling beauty.
Speaker 1: The tremulous motion of moving light, which the inhabitants of
Speaker 1: the Shetland Islands called the merry Dancers, was less apparent
Speaker 1: than usual, but in place of it came those full, bright,
Speaker 1: changing but more steady streams of light, which gave an
Speaker 1: intense brilliancy to the whole heaven.
Speaker 2: Because of time zones and the International date line, it
Speaker 2: was August twenty ninth when the unusual aurora started in Australia.
Speaker 2: The Hobart Town Mercury reported quote, it was beyond all conception,
Speaker 2: the most magnificent aurora ever seen in the colony. Some
Speaker 2: of the descriptions of the aurora as seen in South
Speaker 2: Australia describe a meteor streaking across the sky just before
Speaker 2: the aurora started. I'm not totally sure whether this was
Speaker 2: actually a meteor that was visible from South Australia, or
Speaker 2: if that's more what people thought they were seeing before
Speaker 2: the rest of the color really started.
Speaker 1: People around the world were also talking about how bright
Speaker 1: it was. Professor Daniel Kirkwood of Bloomington, Indiana said, quote,
Speaker 1: it was the lightest moonless night our citizens have ever known.
Speaker 1: Other descriptions call the sky brighter than during the full moon,
Speaker 1: or bright enough to read by, As the Times of
Speaker 1: London reported, quote, during the first display, the whole of
Speaker 1: the northern hemisphere was as light as though the sun
Speaker 1: had set an hour before, and luminous waves rolled up
Speaker 1: in quick succession as far as the zenith, some a
Speaker 1: brilliancy sufficient to cast a perceptible shadow on the ground.
Speaker 1: Accounts of the aurora's return on September one are similarly dramatic.
Speaker 1: The Providence, Rhode Island Daily Post published this description on
Speaker 1: September third, quote, the auroral light sometimes is composed of threads,
Speaker 1: like the silken warp of a web. These sometimes become
Speaker 1: broken and fall to the earth. The September fifth edition
Speaker 1: of the San Francisco Harold red quote, the appearance now
Speaker 1: is positively awful. The red glare is over houses, streets,
Speaker 1: and fields, and the most dreadful of conflagrations could not
Speaker 1: cast a deeper hue abroad, so that makes it sound terrifying.
Speaker 1: But the words awful and dreadful were both used pretty
Speaker 1: commonly this time to mean inspiring awe. Elsewhere. On the
Speaker 1: same day, the Herald also said, quote, the whole sky
Speaker 1: appeared to undulate something like a field of grain in
Speaker 1: a high wind. The waters of the bay reflected the
Speaker 1: brilliant hues of the aurora. Nothing could exceed the grandeur
Speaker 1: and beauty of the site. The effect was almost bewildering,
Speaker 1: and was witnessed with mingled feelings of awe and delight
Speaker 1: by thousands on September first and second. The aurora was
Speaker 1: also apparently bright enough to confuse birds and people sleeping outdoors.
Speaker 1: The New Orleans Daily piciun carried an account of somebody
Speaker 1: who shot three larks at one am, and the larks
Speaker 1: were apparently out flying because they thought it was morning,
Speaker 1: and the Rocky Mountain News printed this account on September seventeenth, quote,
Speaker 1: we were high up on the Rocky Mountains, sleeping in
Speaker 1: the open air.
Speaker 3: A little after midnight.
Speaker 2: We were awakened by the auroral light, so bright that
Speaker 2: one could easy read common print. Some of the party
Speaker 2: insisted that it was daylight and began the preparation of breakfast.
Speaker 2: The light continued until morning, varying in intensity in different
Speaker 2: parts of the heavens, and slowly changing position. We can
Speaker 2: best describe it as the sky being overcast with very
Speaker 2: light cirrus clouds wafted before a gentle breeze and lighted
Speaker 2: up by an immense conflagration. It had rained for fifty
Speaker 2: hours before, only ceasing about twelve hours before the auroral light.
Speaker 3: In terms of where.
Speaker 1: People saw this aurora on August twenty eighth and twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: in the northern hemisphere, it was reported all across North
Speaker 1: America and Central America, from ships and islands in the
Speaker 1: Atlantic Ocean, and through western Europe as far south as
Speaker 1: southern Spain. The southernmost reported sightings were in Hawaii, Cuba,
Speaker 1: and Panama, and on a ship at sea that was
Speaker 1: at twenty five degrees latitude north. That is the same
Speaker 1: latitude is Key Largo, Florida. Then in the southern hemisphere
Speaker 1: it was reported across southeastern Australia and Tasmania. The geomagnetic
Speaker 1: storm was stronger on September first and second, with more
Speaker 1: reports in the same regions where it had been on
Speaker 1: the twenty ninth and thirtieth, along with new reports in Japan, China,
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Chile.
Speaker 2: These two waves of geomagnetic activity wreaked havoc on all
Speaker 2: those newly established telegraph systems. There were about two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand kilometers or one hundred and twenty five thousand miles
Speaker 2: of telegraph lines in the world at this point, and
Speaker 2: the storm had an impact on the vast majority of
Speaker 2: those lines, in some cases rendering them unusable for about
Speaker 2: eight hours. Accounts of what happened at the telegraph stations
Speaker 2: were as dramatic as the accounts of the Aurora Telegraph manager. E. W.
Speaker 2: Cuggan of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania said that quote, streams of fire
Speaker 2: came from the station's circuits. On August twenty eighth, telegraph
Speaker 2: wires in France were reported as sparking.
Speaker 1: Frederick W. Royce of Washington, d C. Described having great
Speaker 1: difficulty because of the changing currents that seemed to be
Speaker 1: running along the lines. When it seemed like there was
Speaker 1: a storm on the line to Richmond, he switched to
Speaker 1: another wire, but then that wire developed the same problem.
Speaker 1: It was also erratic. Things would be fine for five
Speaker 1: or ten minutes, but then the charge would become so
Speaker 1: weak that Royce couldn't feel it, or so strong that
Speaker 1: he couldn't lift the device's electromagnet. And then, as quoted
Speaker 1: in the New York Times quote. During the display, I
Speaker 1: was calling Richmond and had one hand on the iron plate,
Speaker 1: happening to lean towards the sounder, which is against the wall.
Speaker 1: My forehead grazed a ground wire which runs down the
Speaker 1: wall near the sounder. Immediately I received a very severe
Speaker 1: electric shock, which stunned me for an instant. An old
Speaker 1: man who was sitting facing me but a few feet distant,
Speaker 1: said that he saw a spark of fire jump from
Speaker 1: my forehead to the sounder. The Morse Line experienced the
Speaker 1: same difficulty in working. In Sydney, Australia, the telegraphs were
Speaker 1: quote seized with an unaccountable fit of restiveness. They did
Speaker 1: not altogether refuse to work, but acted irregularly, the adjustment
Speaker 1: of the instruments altering so frequently that it was almost
Speaker 1: impossible to get any continuous message through. Everywhere the instruments
Speaker 1: were jammed. This started during the daytime, and telegraph operators
Speaker 1: did not know what in the world could be causing
Speaker 1: all of these problems until night fell and the aurora
Speaker 1: was visible in the sky. Multiple telegraph workers also reported
Speaker 1: being able to send messages without the batteries attached to
Speaker 1: the lines. Samuel McGowan, the General Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs,
Speaker 1: submitted a report to Parliament that described this happening in Australia.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 1: The effect upon the wires was in many cases singular.
Speaker 1: At times, prevailing atmospheric currents would entirely dissipate the artificial
Speaker 1: current and assume complete possession of the lines, baffling all
Speaker 1: attempts at rendering the communication available again. The atmospheric currents
Speaker 1: would suddenly entirely disappear. The lines would work perfectly when
Speaker 1: in a moment the electromagnets would be quite deprived of
Speaker 1: their ordinary power, The conducting medium would be polarized in
Speaker 1: several opposite directions within as many seconds, and the whole
Speaker 1: natural condition of the instruments would be instantly reversed and
Speaker 1: as suddenly set right. On one occasion, during this interesting
Speaker 1: disturbance of the natural elements, I communicated with and received
Speaker 1: an acknowledgment from a station distant thirty two miles through
Speaker 1: atmospheric currents alone, there being at the time no battery
Speaker 1: on the line. I may add that I witness similar
Speaker 1: effects about twelve years back on a line of electric
Speaker 1: telegraph in Upper Canada, during the presence of a magnificent
Speaker 1: Aurora borealis in midwinter.
Speaker 2: The same thing happened in Washington, d C. And in Boston.
Speaker 2: An account from Boston was published in the American Journal
Speaker 2: of Science after being reported in The Boston Traveler, and
Speaker 2: it relayed the experience of operators in Boston and in Portland, Maine.
Speaker 2: The Boston operator had removed the batteries from the line
Speaker 2: as was working without them. He sent a message to
Speaker 2: Portland and said they should remove that battery from the
Speaker 2: line as well. The operator in Portland did, and then
Speaker 2: they relayed messages without any batteries more easily than they
Speaker 2: had done with the batteries on The Boston operator described
Speaker 2: them as quote working with the auroral current, and said
Speaker 2: the aurora seemed to alternately neutralize and augment their batteries,
Speaker 2: making the current sometimes two strong and sometimes too weak.
Speaker 2: So if you're wondering, like, hey, what does all of
Speaker 2: this have to do with that Carrington guy that you
Speaker 2: talked about earlier, listen, be patient. We're going to get
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: We will get to it right after we hear from
Speaker 1: these sponsors that keep the show going.
Speaker 2: The reason this geomagnetic event is called the Carrington event
Speaker 2: is because on September first, eighteen fifty nine, English astronomer
Speaker 2: Richard C. Carrington was working in his private observatory in Redhill, Surrey,
Speaker 2: and he witnessed something unusual. He published an account of
Speaker 2: what he saw in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Speaker 2: Astronomical Society in November of eighteen fifty nine, and it
Speaker 2: read quote, while engaged in the forenoon of Thursday, September first,
Speaker 2: in taking my customary observation of the forums and positions
Speaker 2: of the solar spots, an appearance was witnessed which I
Speaker 2: believe to be exceedingly rare. The image of the Sun's
Speaker 2: disc was, as usual with me, projected onto a plate
Speaker 2: of glass coated with distemper of a pale straw color,
Speaker 2: and at a distance and under a power, which presented
Speaker 2: a picture of about eleven inches diameter. I had secured
Speaker 2: diagrams of all the groups and detached spots, and was
Speaker 2: engaged at the time in counting from a chronometer and
Speaker 2: recording the contacts of the spots with the cross wires
Speaker 2: used in the observation. When within the area of the
Speaker 2: Great North Group, the size of which had previously excited
Speaker 2: general remark, two patches of intensely bright and white light
Speaker 2: broke out. This bright white light is probably the earliest
Speaker 2: known direct observation of a solar flare happening in conjunction
Speaker 2: with a coronal mass ejection. In his publication, Carrington included
Speaker 2: an illustration of the sun spots, and he marked the
Speaker 2: points where he saw the bright light as A and B.
Speaker 2: At first he thought a hole had formed in the
Speaker 2: screen that was part of his instrument, because it was
Speaker 2: as bright as direct, unfiltered light would have been, So
Speaker 2: he adjusted his instruments. He made note of what time
Speaker 2: it was, and he called for somebody else to come
Speaker 2: and look with him.
Speaker 3: But in the minute or so that it took him to.
Speaker 2: Do all that, the light was quote already much changed
Speaker 2: and enfeebled. In his illustration, he also marked where he
Speaker 2: saw the last traces of this phenomenon as points C
Speaker 2: and D.
Speaker 1: Carrington exhibited a diagram of the sun and what he
Speaker 1: had seen on it at the November meeting of the
Speaker 1: Royal Astronomical Society, and his account in the Society's Monthly
Speaker 1: Notices is followed by a parenthetical note about how roughly
Speaker 1: seventeen hours after Carrington made this observation. Quote, there commenced
Speaker 1: a great magnetic storm, the effects of which included the
Speaker 1: auroras and disruptions to the telegraph system. The person who
Speaker 1: wrote this parenthetical note charmingly relates what Carrington had to
Speaker 1: say about the proximity of the light he saw and
Speaker 1: this geomagnetic storm.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 1: While the contemporary occurrence may deserve noting, he would not
Speaker 1: have it supposed that he even leans toward hastily connecting them.
Speaker 1: One swallow does not make a summer.
Speaker 2: I saw a lot of puns about swallows as more
Speaker 2: data was gathered about these phenomena. A better name for
Speaker 2: this event might be the Carrington Hodgson event, because Richard
Speaker 2: Hodgson made the same observation at the same time in
Speaker 2: his own observatory in Essex, and also published his account
Speaker 2: of it in the November eighteen fifty nine Monthly Notices
Speaker 2: if the Royal Astronomical Society. His account was a little
Speaker 2: bit shorter. Hodgson wrote quote, while observing a group of
Speaker 2: sunspots on the first September, I was suddenly surprised at
Speaker 2: the appearance of a very bright star of light, much
Speaker 2: brighter than the Sun's surface. Most dazzling to the protected eye,
Speaker 2: illuminating the upper edges of the adjacent.
Speaker 3: Spots and streaks.
Speaker 2: Not unlike in effect the edging of the clouds at sunset,
Speaker 2: the rays extended in all directions, and the center might
Speaker 2: be compared to the dazzling brilliancy of the bright star
Speaker 2: Alpha Lira.
Speaker 3: When seen through a.
Speaker 2: Large telescope with low power. It lasted for some five
Speaker 2: minutes and disappeared instantaneously at about eleven twenty five am.
Speaker 2: Hodgson also made a sketch of what he had seen,
Speaker 2: although that sketch does not seem to have survived until today.
Speaker 1: Carrington heard about Hodgson's observations, and he intentionally did not
Speaker 1: discuss it with him. In his words, quote, I have
Speaker 1: carefully avoided exchanging any information with that gentleman, that any
Speaker 1: value which the accounts may possess may be increased by
Speaker 1: their entire independence. Both men also knew that the magnetic
Speaker 1: instruments at q Observatory had showed something happening at the
Speaker 1: time that they observed the bright light. Carrington included that
Speaker 1: information in his exhibition at the Society meeting, and Hodgson
Speaker 1: ended his account with quote the magnetic instruments that Q
Speaker 1: were simultaneously disturbed to a great extent.
Speaker 2: So the magnetometer traces from the Q Observatory on September first,
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty nine show a sudden, sharp spike in both
Speaker 2: horizontal force and declination. And there's a note written underneath
Speaker 2: that reads, quote, the above movement was nearly coincidental in
Speaker 2: time with Carrington's observation of a bright eruption on the
Speaker 2: sun disc over a sunspot. Today this kind of reading
Speaker 2: is called a solar flare effect or SFE, but it
Speaker 2: has also been described as a magnetic crochet I don't
Speaker 2: know why or who named it that, and I spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time trying to figure it out. On
Speaker 2: this particular one, one of the spikes does kind of
Speaker 2: look like a crochet hook, but there are lots of
Speaker 2: other ones that don't look that way that are showing
Speaker 2: similar phenomena.
Speaker 1: Beyond the readings at Q Observatory, magnetic observatories all over
Speaker 1: the world recorded intense disturbances over the course of this event.
Speaker 1: The readings were off the scale in Brussels, Rome, Toronto,
Speaker 1: and multiple cities in Russia. Words like violent and very
Speaker 1: disturbed were used. To describe the readings in Melbourne, Sydney, Paris,
Speaker 1: and Oslo. There were also disturbances in a magnetometer readout
Speaker 1: from India. During this event, astronomers and other researchers got
Speaker 1: so much information about the aurora and the descriptions to
Speaker 1: the telegraph system and the readings from all of those
Speaker 1: geomagnetic observatories. This was in part thanks to Elias Loomis,
Speaker 1: professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at Yale, who did
Speaker 1: a lot of work collecting reports from all over the world.
Speaker 1: He edited and published the results of this work as
Speaker 1: a series of nine articles in the American Journal of Science.
Speaker 1: All these observations and all this data helped astronomers, physicists,
Speaker 1: and other researchers conclude something that had already been suspected
Speaker 1: for a while. In the words of an article in
Speaker 1: Scientific American in October of eighteen fifty nine, quote, a
Speaker 1: connection between the northern lights and forces of electricity and
Speaker 1: magnetism is now fully established. This also led to a
Speaker 1: growing understanding that the Sun and the Aurora were connected.
Speaker 1: Before this point, the aurora was speculated to be connected
Speaker 1: to everything from volcanic ash in the atmosphere to reflections
Speaker 1: of light from polar ice to nebulous material falling from space.
Speaker 1: It also became a precursor to the field of space
Speaker 1: weather prediction, and this data from the Carrington event has
Speaker 1: continued to be used in more recent years to further
Speaker 1: the understanding of solar phenomena and specifically what happened in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine. In two thousand and six, scientists from
Speaker 1: the NASA Goddard Space Center published a paper called Duration
Speaker 1: and Extent of the Great Auroral Storm of eighteen fifty nine.
Speaker 1: This paper described the event as quote arguably the greatest
Speaker 1: and most famous space weather event in the last two
Speaker 1: hundred years. For the first time, observation showed that the
Speaker 1: Sun and Aurora were connected and that auroras generated strong
Speaker 1: ionospirit currents.
Speaker 2: These researchers poured over reports from eighteen fifty nine. They
Speaker 2: cross referenced observations of the Aurora with incidents at the
Speaker 2: telegraph stations and the magnetometer readings try to get a
Speaker 2: really precise look at exactly what had happened. This paper
Speaker 2: also makes it clear just how much was written about
Speaker 2: the event at the time. Quote, there are literally several
Speaker 2: hundred reports that the authors have uncovered that could not
Speaker 2: be used since they typically do not a start and
Speaker 2: stop time of the observed aura.
Speaker 1: Of course, more precise instruments for measuring and recording these
Speaker 1: kinds of phenomena have been developed since eighteen fifty nine.
Speaker 1: The observation of solar flares became a lot easier with
Speaker 1: the development of the spectro helioscope by George ellery Hale
Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties. By the nineteen forties, astronomers had
Speaker 1: gathered enough data and observations to definitively connect large solar
Speaker 1: flares with geomagnetic storms. Apart from just being interesting, this
Speaker 1: kind of research and projects to study and model the
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine event may help predict what would happen
Speaker 1: if another similar event struck the Earth Today. The vast
Speaker 1: majority of large geomagnetic storms happened before there was anything
Speaker 1: happening on Earth that could be adversely affected by them,
Speaker 1: beyond maybe people's fear or psychological responses to the lights
Speaker 1: in the sky. Yeah, there were a few reports from
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine of people seeming kind of drunk or
Speaker 1: behaving erratically, but overwhelmingly the reports that had more of
Speaker 1: a sense of awe and wonder rather than fear, like
Speaker 1: they all sounded really poetic. The only things that seemed
Speaker 1: really alarming to people were like the telegraphs suddenly having
Speaker 1: sparks and getting fire. I am curious because you know,
Speaker 1: at this time too, the idea of awe had a
Speaker 1: layer of fear relation to it. Yeah, so there may
Speaker 1: have been some fear in the mix.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but at least in terms of the accounts accessible
Speaker 2: to me, which our accounts written in English. It seems
Speaker 2: like in most places people realized what they were seeing.
Speaker 2: They had either heard a description of an aurora before
Speaker 2: or somebody was there who was like, oh, this is
Speaker 2: the aurora. And it wasn't a matter of people thinking, oh, no,
Speaker 2: the world is ending. It was more of a it's
Speaker 2: the aurora. How cool and profound.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I said at the top of the show that
Speaker 2: I find this to be a serendipitous story. There were
Speaker 2: two different people looking at the right place at the
Speaker 2: right time to see this solar flare. There was a
Speaker 2: whole newly built array of observatories to record the data
Speaker 2: about it and the geomagnetic storm that followed it. But
Speaker 2: the converse of that is that with the development of
Speaker 2: the telegraph, there was something on Earth that this geomagnetic
Speaker 2: storm could actually break, at least temporarily. And today there
Speaker 2: are way more things that could be damaged or knocked
Speaker 2: offline by a massive solar event like this, and a
Speaker 2: lot of them are way more integrated into our daily lives.
Speaker 2: Like I read a couple of things that tried to
Speaker 2: quantify the financial loss of the telegraph systems being down
Speaker 2: for about eight hours and in some cases having to
Speaker 2: be repaired. But today we have things like the power
Speaker 2: grid and GPS and satellites and the Internet, all kinds
Speaker 2: of things that are all around us and could be
Speaker 2: knocked offline or destroyed in a similar event.
Speaker 1: Goodbye connectivity right.
Speaker 2: Over the last twenty years, various governments and militaries and
Speaker 2: even banks and insurance companies have sort of looked back
Speaker 2: at the Carrington event to see what kinds of risks
Speaker 2: we might be facing today, and a couple.
Speaker 1: Of recent events have highlighted these risks. In March of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, a coronal mass ejection disabled much of
Speaker 1: the power distribution network in Quebec, Canada. About six million
Speaker 1: people were without power for nine hours and restoring power
Speaker 1: involved rerouting electricity from other stations while damaged equipment was repaired.
Speaker 1: During that event, the aurora was seen as far south
Speaker 1: as Florida, and in July of twenty twelve, a massive
Speaker 1: solar storm narrowly missed Earth. Conveniently, though, it hit the
Speaker 1: Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory A or stereo AA, which is
Speaker 1: in orbit around the Sun. So it was simultaneously a
Speaker 1: close call and also a cool source of new data.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like there was another moment of serendipity of literally
Speaker 2: hitting a solar observatory. Anyway, that's the Carrington event. I
Speaker 2: find it fascinating. Do you have some listener mail? I
Speaker 2: do have listener mail. The listener mail is from frequent
Speaker 2: correspondent Caitlin, and Caitlyn wrote after our IUD episode. Kaitlyn wrote, Hi,
Speaker 2: Tracy and Holly. I was listening to the behind the
Speaker 2: scenes about iud's and was so glad to hear about
Speaker 2: the buffet of paid management options Tracy was offered. Definitely
Speaker 2: something missing from too many folks experiences at the GYN.
Speaker 2: This is perhaps an example of skewed data, but I
Speaker 2: have definitely noticed a trend towards more compassionate and comprehensive
Speaker 2: patient care across several medical disciplines over the last decade
Speaker 2: or so. I'm disabled, so I see a lot of
Speaker 2: for a wide variety of reasons, and I've long been
Speaker 2: in the habit of assuming that they won't be very
Speaker 2: familiar with my conditions and the breadth of symptoms. When
Speaker 2: I moved for grad school and was getting set up
Speaker 2: with new folks, I showed up at the dentist with
Speaker 2: my notebook full health history and a textbook about my
Speaker 2: disability and its systemic implications, with a colorful tab on
Speaker 2: the section about dental concerns. The office photocopied it for
Speaker 2: my chart, earning my loyal patronage. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's because I present myself as well informed and aware
Speaker 2: of procedures and practices, or if it's a true shift,
Speaker 2: but the general experience has gone from being told this
Speaker 2: needs to happen, sign.
Speaker 3: Here to this is the concern.
Speaker 2: Here's what we recommend, here's other options, and if you
Speaker 2: follow the recommendation, here is how we can manage pain, anxiety,
Speaker 2: and any side effects. When I had to get a
Speaker 2: transvaginal ultrasound, horrid an extra nurse came in to hold
Speaker 2: my hand and I was offered noise canceling headphones and
Speaker 2: was handed a warm blanket while I waited for them
Speaker 2: to start. It felt so fancy, but that should be
Speaker 2: the standard. This rambling email to say, I'm glad things
Speaker 2: aren't shifting, but I also want people to know they
Speaker 2: can and should advocate for themselves. Asking for basic care
Speaker 2: and management isn't being precious or demanding. It's asking for
Speaker 2: basic care. Unfortunately, it isn't always possible to leave a
Speaker 2: provider who won't listen or isn't respectful of your wishes.
Speaker 2: There are so many ways to get incremental improvements and
Speaker 2: your healthcare. Hope all as well and that Holly is
Speaker 2: enjoying spring while Tracy and the rest of us up
Speaker 2: north finish winter. Caitlin, this email is from a little
Speaker 2: more than a month ago. We are now solidly into
Speaker 2: spring here in the North. I'm very excited about that.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Kaitlin for this email. We also
Speaker 2: have some photos of recent crimes done by Caitlin's Orange
Speaker 2: Boy Kitty. So we have Orange Boy Kitty with a
Speaker 2: bow tie up in the top of the closet and
Speaker 2: in other shelves in the closet on top of the
Speaker 2: air conditioner, one of those air conditioners that's like up
Speaker 2: up high, mounted through the wall.
Speaker 3: These are misdemeanors. They're misdemeanors. I love all of them.
Speaker 2: And then some very lovely scenes of outdoor snowy, cold
Speaker 2: looking river. Anyway, so thank you so much Caitlin for this.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think it's been a while, but we
Speaker 2: sort of talked a little bit on the show about
Speaker 2: general shifts in medicine in the US and how it
Speaker 2: has moved some from being like a very paternalistic system
Speaker 2: where a doctor who was normally male would just sort
Speaker 2: of hand down pronouncements and not really explain anything and
Speaker 2: sometimes would only tell men what was going on, so
Speaker 2: the husband would get the news, and it was up
Speaker 2: to the husband whether to tell the wife.
Speaker 3: Like, There's been a lot of things like that that
Speaker 3: we've talked about. But I do.
Speaker 2: Think obviously there are still a lot of folks who
Speaker 2: have a really hard time accessing care and finding providers
Speaker 2: that seem like they listen to them. But it does
Speaker 2: seem like there has been a movement more toward informed
Speaker 2: consent for things and being more collaborative with patients. Yeah,
Speaker 2: as that was this email was inspired by the IUD episode,
Speaker 2: and that episode talked about like, there are these recommendations
Speaker 2: for pain relief now and a lot of people are
Speaker 2: still not being offered pain relief, which just why I
Speaker 2: hope that episode would give people a tool that they
Speaker 2: could use to say to their doctor, this is actually
Speaker 2: what the recommendation is now to be offered pain relief.
Speaker 2: So so thank you so much Caitlin for this email.
Speaker 2: And then I love all of these pictures of very
Speaker 2: naughty kitty cat.
Speaker 3: Misdemeanors.
Speaker 2: Our bedroom closet, which is honestly one of the reasons
Speaker 2: that we bought this house. There's the closet, and then
Speaker 2: over on the left hand side of the closet there
Speaker 2: is a door that I thought was going to lead
Speaker 2: to like a fuse box or something like some archaic
Speaker 2: electrical problem to have to deal with later. No, it
Speaker 2: is how someone made shelves in the space underneath the
Speaker 2: attic stairs, so it's like another closet inside the closet,
Speaker 2: and boy do both my kitty cats like to get
Speaker 2: in there anytime I opened the closet door. Because that
Speaker 2: door doesn't fully shut the one on the inside and
Speaker 2: love to get in there and sleep on my sweaters,
Speaker 2: and I just let them. At this point, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be covered in your fur anyway, So I
Speaker 2: have some cat crying we could discuss on Friday.
Speaker 1: I'm not proud of her.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much again, Caitlin for this email
Speaker 2: and for all your many emails that you send to us.
Speaker 2: If you would like to send us a note, We're
Speaker 2: a history podcast that i heeartradio dot If you would
Speaker 2: like to see the show notes for this episode, it
Speaker 2: is our website which is Missed Inhistory dot.
Speaker 3: Com, and you can subscribe to the show on.
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