Man has known about coal since ancient times.
The Chinese mined the fuel 3,000 years ago and, according
to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, blacksmiths were using it in the Middle East in 400 BC. The first blades made from the celebrated damask steel (steel is an alloy of iron and carbon which comes from coal) probably already existed at the time of Alexander the Great, in the 3rd century BC. Charcoal is even older; prehistoric man used it for his cave drawings. In Europe, the first to use coal were the Gauls (1st century BC). But it was not until the 9 th and 10 th centuries AD that the use of coal became widespread. At that time, the “stone that burns” became “coal from the earth”, to differentiate it from “coal from wood” (charcoal). The first known written record dates from 859 AD (the Peterborough Charter). Early attempts at extraction began in Saxony around the year 1000 AD and in Belgium in 1049 AD. In France, coal had an enormous impact on the history of the 19 th century: industrial revolution, union strife, political life, social progress and even literature (Zola’s Germinal).
At the same time the development of coalmines in a number of areas in the English Midlands, around Manchester and Sheffield and in Scotland around Glasgow prompted the industrial revolution in the Britain. In Germany coal mines were developed in the Ruhr while in the United States coal was mined primarily in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Like oil and natural gas, coal is a fossil energy.
It is produced as a result of fundamental changes in organic vegetable matter: plants
soaked in water, compacted rapidly in a mass and preserved from rotting and from oxidation.
It was thanks to coal that the inhabitants of Europe and the United States experienced the first
industrial revolution in the 19 th century: steam driven machines, railroads, and the first factories were the driving forces behind the new and rapid industrial development. Today, coal is mainly used to produce electricity (and also coke, an essential raw material for the steel industry). It is a primary source of energy, so-called because we cannot use it directly; it has to be transformed into electricity to meet our needs.
It is also a fossil fuel, created millions of years ago. As such it is not an inexhaustible resource. But its life span will be longer than that of two other fossil energies, oil and gas: at the rate of current consumption, we have about 200 years of coal reserves left. In this case, why not immediately envisage further development of its use? Political decision makers are hesitating, because coal is very polluting and as it burns it gives off enormous quantities of CO2, one of the main greenhouse gases. Nevertheless, coal remains one of the most economic means of producing electricity. |