A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENERGY Coal

Energy and human history go hand in hand. For most of the time that humans have been on earth, energy was used at a very low level, mostly by burning wood for cooking and warmth. This is still the case for large areas of the planet, espe­cially in much of Africa and parts of Asia and South America. As human popu­lations grew, forests were decimated to obtain fuel, resulting in the collapse of several societies (1). Coal was discovered in England in the thirteenth century and began to be used extensively beginning in the 1500s. Between 1570 and 1603, during the reign of Elizabeth I, coal became the main source of fuel for England (2). This was, not coincidentally, also during the time of the Little Ice Age, when there was a great need for fuel to keep warm.

Coal transformed England, for better and for worse. The development of the coal-based steam engine by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, with further criti­cal developments by James Watt and Matthew Boulton, led to the Industrial Revolution beginning in about 1780. Coal built England into the world’s most powerful country during the nineteenth century. At the same time, it brought about unbelievable pollution, which drastically shortened lives, and it led to child slave labor in factories and mines.

Coal had been discovered even earlier in China and was being used for iron production in the eleventh century (2). Coal was discovered in Appalachia in the United States in the mid-eighteenth century and quickly became its most abun­dant source of energy. This led to the industrial development of the United States, the building of canals to transport coal, and the construction of railroads to con­nect the far reaches of the country. Wherever large sources of coal were found, societies were transformed.

Coal was fine for running steam engines and cooking or keeping warm, but what people wanted desperately was a better source of light for their homes and businesses. Sperm whale oil had illuminated lamps for hundreds of years, but the

whale populations were being decimated and whale oil was expensive; animal and vegetable fats were a poor second choice because they did not burn brightly and cleanly. “Town gas” could be derived from coal, but it was too expensive for gen­eral use. In 1854 a group of investors hired Yale professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr., to study the properties of “rock oil” that seeped out of the ground in Pennsylvania. His studies proved that “rock oil” would make a good source of light (3). The question was whether there was a sufficient quantity readily available.