Telegraph lines were long, unterminated, unisolated stetches. Their effective loop area was absurdly large. Yeah a large CME would likely pop a lot of unprote

Telegraph lines were long, unterminated, unisolated stetches. Their effective loop area was absurdly large. Yeah a large CME would likely pop a lot of unprotected transformers which would take years to replace, but it's not like kV are being induced in personal computers. Even then, I zapped my laptop chassis with 10 kV pulses a dozen times this Winter.