Last month's blog ended with a brief mention of the Scientific Revolution and its impact on the Industrial Revolution in the 17th and 18th centuries.
I am rehashing what most of us were fed in junior high and high school. If you were paying attention, some of it may have stuck. As for me, the details, the dates, the minutiae, lost. I am taking a meandering path through history, but the underlying context is mining and the raw materials that have profoundly impacted our environment and lives.
/Whale Oil
In the late 1700s, most homes used tallow or beeswax candles for lighting. If you could afford beeswax candles, their cleaner, brighter flame would have been your preferred choice. You would have also appreciated the brighter, cleaner flame of whale oil for your lamps.
Had you lived in New England, especially New Bedford, Massachusetts, during the height of the whaling industry, you might have been among the thousands employed directly or indirectly in a sector that was a major contributor to the U.S. economy.
It may have seemed that there was a never-ending abundance of whale oil and you might not have considered the ecological and sustainability consequences of whaling. While some individuals and organizations did recognize the perils posed by whaling, the markets, demand, and no regulation prevailed.
Side note: the history of whaling dates back to the Basque in the 11th century. A subject that I look forward to exploring in a later blog.
/Coal Before the commercialization of coal mining, wood was the dominant fuel source until the mid-1800s, then came coal. Its first commercial use was in 1701 in the Manakin-Sabot area of Richmond, Virginia. The first recorded commercial coal mine was in Richmond Basin, Virginia, in 1748. By the 1800s coal mining had expanded to other regions, particularly Pennsylvania. By the 1850s and 60s coal had become the dominant fuel source that helped underpin the Industrial Revolution. It powered steam engines, and factories, and replaced wood for heating urban homes and businesses.
The expansion of the railroad system in Appalachia led to the rapid exploitation of its coal resources. Since 1800 the region produced 54% of all coal extracted in the U.S. Pennsylvania alone accounted for 20% of the nation's output. Presently, Wyoming's coal mines now account for ~41% of national coal production, and two of its mines, the North Antelope Rochelle and Black Thunder produce 20% of the nation’s total.
Coal 2024: Chemistry, Physics, human curiosity, innovation, and resourcefulness have enabled us to discover multiple uses for coal:
Metallurgical coal is an important raw material used in the steel-making process.
Coal is used as an energy source in the production of aluminum ...more
Coal is used as an energy source in paper manufacturing, some paper mills also use coal-derived chemicals in paper-making. ...more
Coal provides ~90% of the energy consumed in cement plants worldwide in the concrete and cement industry. It takes 200-450kg of coal to produce 1 ton of cement.
Combustion products such as fly ash are used as a supplement or replacement for cement in concrete, improving its properties and reducing its environmental impact.
Coal is a feedstock:
. Rare earth elements ...more
. Refined coal tar is used to manufacture chemicals like creosote oil, naphthalene, phenol, and benzene.
. Ammonia gas recovered from coke ovens is used to produce ammonia salts, nitric acid, and agricultural fertilizers.
. Coal gasification can produce hydrogen, formaldehyde, methanol, and other chemicals.
. Coal is used to produce silicon metal, which is then used in lubricants, water repellents, resins, cosmetics, shampoos, and toothpaste.
. Activated carbon is used for water and air purification and in kidney dialysis machines.
. Carbon fiber is used in construction, aerospace, and sports equipment
. Coal by-products are used in the production of aspirin and other medicines.
. Coal is used in the production of rayon and nylon
Our reliance on coal has come at a cost.
104,000 mining fatalities from 1900 to 2019 - this does not include fatalities before 1900, or global coal mining fatalities. ...more
Environmental degradation, land destruction, and water pollution ...more
Pneumoconiosis, silicosis, COPD, lung cancer ...more
CO2 emissions: In 2022 U.S. utility power plants produced ~ 1.65 billion metric tons of CO2, about 0.86 pounds of CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated. 'The average US household electricity consumption is 29 kWh per day, according to the most recent data from the US Energy Information Administration, which means the average kWh usage per month is around 870 kWh, 10,440 kWh/year.' So, that works out to ~ 748.2 pounds of CO2 emissions per month and 8,978.4 pounds of CO2 emissions per household, per year. As of 2023, there were ~131.43 million households in the United States.
All of these numbers continue to change, and hopefully improve, as we shift to cleaner energy alternatives; however, the pace of change needs to increase significantly if we have any hope of reversing global warming.
Worldwide, there are over 2,400 coal-fired power stations, generating about 1/3 of the world's electricity. They emit over 10 billion tons of CO2 each year; that's about 1/5 of the world's greenhouse gas emissions; 216 coal-fired power stations in the U.S. generated
~868 million tons of CO2 in 2022, and over 50% of greenhouse emissions from the electricity sector. ...more
The current plan is to phase out coal-fired power stations sometime around 2036. However, the emergence of AI and the growth of data centers will most likely alter that timetable.
AI: I couldn't find any hard data regarding how much power current data centers consume. Estimated US data center consumption in 2022: ~ 17 GW of power, representing ~2% of total electricity consumption. This number is expected to double by 2030. This surge in power demand, combined with a warming planet, will undoubtedly require radical adjustments in how we approach these challenges -- think nuclear. I know, I know -- risks there too but there have been some promising new developments. ...more and ...more
Bitumen There were places where it seeped to the surface, evaporated, and left behind a sticky substance we know as bitumen (asphalt), a byproduct of crude oil. The earliest estimated use of bitumen dates back 40,000 years to the Paleolithic age. Stone tools uncovered in the Le Moustier rock shelters in France had handles (grips) made of ochre and bitumen. Egyptians used it to embalm mummies and 16th-century Spanish conquistadores used crude oil to calk their ships and waterproof their boots. Natural bitumen was used as an adhesive, insect repellant, and medicine by various cultures throughout history.
/Oil:
The irony of ironies: oil and coal eventually supplanted the demand for whale oil as a lighting source. They helped hasten the decline of the whaling industry worldwide. Then, decades later, thanks to the persistent outcry and efforts of many individuals and organizations, the U.S. officially outlawed whaling in 1971. However, Iceland, Norway, and Japan are still actively engaged in whaling. More than a thousand whales are killed each year. Their oil, blubber, and cartilage are used in pharmaceuticals and health supplements. Stop whaling
Beginning in the 19th century oil would have a major impact on global economies and environments. Here are some key events that made that transition possible:
1846: Abraham Gesner demonstrated a process to refine kerosene from coal and oil shale. He coined the term "kerosene" and patented the process in 1854.
1847: James Young, discovers how to distill paraffin from crude oil and coal.
1859: Edwin Drake drills the first commercial well in Titusville, Pennsylvania
1870 John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil Company
1901: Spindletop gusher, Beaumont, Texas
1938: Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries. ...more
What happened in Beaumont, Texas on January 10, 1901, in a field called Spindletop, was a transformational event. It blew for 9 days at an estimated rate of 100,000 barrels a day before it could be capped. The abundance of oil spawned an entire industry that helped catapult the U.S. onto the world stage as a major economic power. It is estimated that Texas oil fields encompassed 140,000 acres, dotted with 30,340 historic and active oil wells.
Here are a few other transformational events:
1820: Hans Christian Ørsted (Denmark) discovered that electricity and magnetism are related phenomena. This led to the development of electromagnetism, and contributions to a new field in physics by James Clark Maxwell, André-Marie Ampère, Oliver Heaviside, and Heinrich Hertz.
1825: William Sturgeon (Britain) discovered the multiturn electromagnet, and in 1831: Michael Faraday (Britain), and Joseph Henry (U.S.) refined the science of electromagnetism making it possible to design practical electromagnetic devices."
1856: Henry Bessemer's process for the mass production of steel ...more
1861: Louie Pasteur (French) discovers germ theory ...more
January 27, 1880: Edison receives a patent for his incandescent lamp. ...more
1871: Russian chemist Mendeleev's periodic table ...more
Cinema: In 1893 the Edison Company gave the first public Kinetoscope demonstration. By 1894 the Kinetoscope was a commercial success, with public parlours established around the world. December 1895, the Lumière brothers were the first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience. They used a device of their own making, the Cinématographe, which was a camera, a projector, and a film printer all in one.
Telephone: Italian innovator Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first basic phone in 1849, and Frenchman Charles Bourseul devised a phone in 1854, Alexander Graham Bell won the first U.S. patent for the device in 1876.
1895: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (German) discovers X-rays ...more
1903: The Wright Brothers made their historic first flight. Their subsequent work in aircraft development continued into the 1910s. ...more
1908: Henry Ford introduced the Model T, and revolutionized manufacturing with the assembly line in the 1910s. His contributions to the automobile industry and mass production continued into the 1920s and beyond.
Electrical generation: Edison v Tesla and "The War of the Currents" ...more
These and other transformative events solved problems, met needs, or provided conveniences that involved material drilled, mined, processed, and reconstituted into the "stuff" that has become an essential part of contemporary life.
Next month, "Scratching the Earth Part 3".
Your thoughts, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
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