It was the worst solar storm in history, the Carrington Event in 1859:
NatGeo.
In addition, the geomagnetic disturbances were strong enough that U.S. telegraph operators reported sparks leaping from their equipment—some bad enough to set fires, said Ed Cliver, a space physicist at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Bedford, Massachusetts.
NatGeo.
Yep, LOOOOONG lengths of wire make for good transformer "secondaries" when you have huge atmospheric currents.
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