History of Energy and Power: An excerpt from the new book Power Plug-In by Gordon Ettie
Until the beginning of the 19th century, wood and candles were the major energy sources providing both heat and light. These fuels or energy sources are still in use today in many underdeveloped countries. An estimate from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) is that over 1.8 billion people in the world still use these archaic energy sources. This is out of a total world population estimated at 6.9 billion.
When Michael Faraday first harnessed electricity through the invention of the electric motor in 1821, a great change began to take place. This change marked the beginning of a rapid and exciting expansion of energy and power. The application of this power contributed to individual progress and comfort and also to commercial and industrial advances.
James Maxwell linked electricity, magnetism and light in 1861. Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Alexander Graham Bell and others rapidly followed and all served to turn electricity from a scientific curiosity into a tool that started the technological revolution, which then lead to the industrial revolution. Thus a direct line can be drawn from the technological revolution, which began with electrification in the 1880’s, to efficiencies in production that we enjoy today.
But this enjoyment was due to more than just the inventions, investments and advancements in technology. There is another major factor which played a large role in these advancements, and that was the low cost energy from coal, oil and gas, making the production of energy in great abundance economically viable. Mother Nature herself was a ‘partner’ in this progress, yielding up her enormous supply of energy from the earth and the seas at a relatively low extraction and processing cost. The genie was out of the bottle. Society improved and flourished because of the low cost of energy—and this truth comes home with maybe the greatest force and result for the United States.
