Once coal had reached dominance, it didn’t yield quickly to its successor, oil. Even though oil was available in sufficient quantities and processes to refine and use it were well known in the early 20th century, people stuck to coal which was the largest energy source, providing more than 50% of all energy used. It took oil until the 1960s to

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When James Watt patented an improved steam engine in 1769 which ultimately kicked off the industrial revolution, the dominant energy sources were wood and charcoal. You would think that for industrial purposes, coal was going to take over quickly from wood – after all, the 19th century is often characterized as the age of coal industry. But it took

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