A Brief History of Energy

The very first energy source was the sun, providing heat and light during the day. Later, fire was discovered by a lightning strike, producing another source of heat and light.

Thousands of years later, we discovered that the wind could be harnessed, and we began to use sails on our boats for transportation.

After this, we began to use windmills to turn water wheels for grinding grain.

Throughout history, we have made lots of discoveries using energy. Before 1850, wood, straw, and dried dung was our main source of fuel for heating, cooking, and producing steam for powering steam engines for the railroads. Other sources of energy were water, wind, coal, and some manufactured natural gas.

 

In 1698, Thomas Savery invented the first commercial steam powered device called the Savery Steam Pump. In the mid 1700s, Thomas Newcomen and James Watt invented the steam engine. The Steam Engine was more practical than wind and water, and less expensive than having to use horses for work. Steam engines would later power locomotives, factories, and farms. In 1880, coal powered a steam engine attached to the world’s first electric generator.

Natural gas was used as early as 500BC by the Chinese. They would find natural gas leaking from the ground and use bamboo to pipe the gas for use in everyday tasks such as, boiling sea water to remove the salt.

William Murdoch, a Scottish engineer, invented gas lighting in 1792, and cities in Britain began using these gas lights to light up their streets. The United States followed with the gas lighting on Pelham Street in Newport, Rhode Island in 1803.

From about 1850 to 1945, coal was the main fuel source. Wood was still an important energy source for heating, as well as natural gas for lighting, but water and wind were used less.

For most of the 1900s, oil and natural gas were our main fuel sources. Electricity was used more in the late 1900s. From about 1945 to the present, nuclear and solar energy along with water and wind have played a larger role in the production of energy. Other alternative energy sources being used today are geothermal and biomass.