History of Coal 2: Before the Revolution

Today we talk about coal before the Industrial Revolution. People needed a lot of wood in the past to heat their houses, cook their food, and make stuff like buildings, bridges and navies. When population increased, people shifted from wood to coal. After the Black Death, population in Britain slowly crept up meaning more expensive stuff. But things got really bad in the middle of the 17th century--the Little Ice Age. It was cold. It was crowded. People needed fuel, but the forests were shrinking. Big cities like London shifted to coal. Coal miners had a field day. Coal started to replace wood in a bunch of industrial applications. Boiling stuff was easy: salt, beer, alum. Other things were harder, like glass or baking bread. In the 17th century, Britain became something new: a society that got most of its energy from a rock, rather than from the sun. Music by Jonathan Lear. Image by Duncan Barton. For book lists, images, and graphs check out https://www.historian.live/home/2017/7/28/a2ipq6n6zn0bn91pyye5fo66fr7vfg