This post is the second in a four-part series describing how we became so dependent on fossil fuels. The first post is The 300-Year Party: Peak Forests. In the year 1712 a Baptist preacher named Thomas Newcomen developed a steam-powered engine for pumping water out of the mines in Cornwall, England. Newcomen’s engine was powered by coal, the über-commodity of the 19th century; it was coal that put the ‘Great’ in ‘Great Britain’.
The 300-Year Party: The Atmospheric Engine
The 300-Year Party: The Atmospheric Engine
This post is the second in a four-part series describing how we became so dependent on fossil fuels. The first post is The 300-Year Party: Peak Forests. In the year 1712 a Baptist preacher named Thomas Newcomen developed a steam-powered engine for pumping water out of the mines in Cornwall, England. Newcomen’s engine was powered by coal, the über-commodity of the 19th century; it was coal that put the ‘Great’ in ‘Great Britain’.