Ed Helms

Another writer called it the most spectacular far-flung effects of any man-made event in history.

And I have to think he's probably right.

That's quite accurate.

Yeah.

You know, if it's something seen a thousand miles away.

I think solar flares, I don't know if they were well understood at this time, but I believe there was a really big one recorded.

I don't know if they knew what it was at the time back in the 19th century.

So this would have been like pre-industrial revolution, pre-electricity.

What's interesting, I know we're going to get to this, is I think there's always this big concern that an enormous solar flare could have the same effects like this enormous radiation event.

Yeah.

could disrupt electrical systems for wireless systems etc and so it is interesting i'm just curious if they knew was there some thought oh is this going to be like a solar flare does this experiment confirm some hypothesis we had about you know what i mean like so like a man-made version of a solar flare um or is this really like let's put these lizards in a jar and see what happens

I think that's a very astute question.

I'm not sure how much was understood about the effects of solar flares on electrical components at the time, but it's so much better understood now.

That's a very cool question.

I'd kind of like to dig into that myself.

This created six full minutes of daylight in Hawaii.

In the middle of the night.

So one Navy dance band playing at a beachfront hotel in Waikiki walked out of their gig to watch the night sky joined by hotel waiters.

If you didn't know this was coming or even if you did know it was coming and you're just like on that beach in Waikiki and you walk out and the sky just starts to glow these crazy colors.

I think it depends on like how...