bpnjensen wrote:


Dave, not sure what your point is - a temporary and relatively rare
disruption does not obviate an otherwise useful technology.

I don't doubt his claims, and this is not a challenge, but I am
curious as to how the scientist relating this tale of 19th century woe
has determined the specifics so well that he can "predict" the solar
mass ejection travelling through space at half the speed of light.
That is crazy FAST for anything heavier than a photon. It must have
been ridiculously energetic to achieve that velocity. How could we
determine this 150 years after the fact, and with no reliable
recording equipment at the time? Was it based purely on observations
of the flare and timing of the disruption, whatever form that took?
Was the telegraphy disrupted? Did keys everywhere begin to chatter
chaotically? And if so, was it certain that it was the particular
observed flare that resulted in the CME, or could it have been a
slighlty earlier flare?

Bruce Jensen

It took down the telegraph. They saw the flare and 17 hours later the
telegraph system freaked.