Energy's Timeline
Energy has been around for a long time, at least 2,000 to 3,000 years. In 3,000 B.C,
the Mesopotamians used rock oil in architectural adhesives, ship caulks, medicines, and roads.
.Hydro power was used by the Greeks to turn water wheels for grinding grains more than 2,000 years ago. then, around 600 B.C a man named Thales, a Greek, found that when amber was rubbed with silk, it became electrically charged and attracted objects. He had originally discovered static electricity. In 1600 William Gilbert (England) first coined the term electricity from elektron, the Greek word for amber. Gilbert wrote about the electrification of many substances. He was also the first person to use the terms electric force, magnetic pole, and electric attraction.
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Sixty Years later, in 1660, Otto von Guericke (Germany) described and demonstrated a vacuum, and then invented a machine that produced static electricity. Also Robert Boyle (Ireland) discovered that electric force could be transmitted through a vacuum and observed attraction and repulsion. In 1673 and ​1674 The first record of coal in the United States was shown on a map prepared by Louis Joliet. The map notes charbon de terra (coal of the earth) along the Illinois River in northern Illinois. The following year,1675, Stephen Gray (England) distinguished between conductors and nonconductors of electrical charges. In 1701, coal was discovered near Richmond, Virginia. 35 years later, in 1736,
the location of several "cole mines" were recorded on a map. The mines were located along the upper Potomac River, near what is now the border of Maryland and West Virginia. In 1748, the first commercial U.S. coal production began near Richmond, Virginia. Two years later in 1750, Coal was reported in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and what is now the state of West Virginia. In that same year, a French military officer noted that Indians living near Fort Duquesne (now the site of Pittsburgh) set fire to an oil-slicked creek as part of a religious ceremony. As settlement by Europeans proceeded, oil was discovered in many places in northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York — to the frequent dismay of the well-owners, who were drilling for salt brine. . In 1758 the first commercial coal shipment in the United States was recorded. In 1762 Pennsylvania’s anthracite deposits were found and coal was used to manufacture shot, shell, and other military materials. Seven years later, in 1769, James Watt patented the modern-day steam engine. Coal was used to produce steam for early steam engines. in the 1775, French hydraulic and military engineer Bernard Forest de Belidor wrote Architecture Hydraulique, a four-volume work describing vertical- and horizontal-axis machines. In 1800 Alessandro Volta (Italy) invented the first electric battery. The term volt is named in his honor. Also, in that year, coal became the principal fuel used by steam-powered trains (locomotives). As the railroads branched into the coal fields, they became a vital link between mines and markets. More and more households and steamboats used coal for fuel. Coal was used to produce oil and gas for lighting. In 1808, Sir Humphry Davy (England) invented the first effective lamp. The arc lamp was a piece of carbon that glowed when connected by wires to a battery. In 1814, coal was burned to heat salt brines, a source of salt in southwestern Pennsylvania. Then, in 1816, Baltimore, Maryland, became the first city to light streets with gas made from coal. In 1820, separate experiments by Hans Christian Oersted (Denmark), Andre-Marie Ampere (France), and Francois Arago (France) confirmed the relationship between electricity and magnetism. The following year, 1821, Michael Faraday (England) discovered the principle of electro-magnetic rotation that would later be the key to developing the electric motor. In 1826, Georg Ohm (Germany) defined the relationship between power, voltage, current and resistance in Ohms Law. Wow! Energy has been around for a long time! Or so it seems...
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