GEOS 24705 / ENST 24705 / ENSC 21100 Lecture 5

Agriculture, History of Energy Use I

Issue #1: Europe’s energy crisis limits growth

“Lack of energy was the major handicap of the ancien régime economies”

--- F. Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life Technology of 18th century was complex

Lathe, late 1700s

Europeans had complex and sophiscated technology, and an abundance of industrial uses for energy, but not enough supply Lift pump design – ancient, robust technology also called “sucker rod pump” or “piston pump” Same technology used today in oil wells

The li pump Animaon from Scuola Media di Calizzano

First recorded piston pump is in Renaissance

Taccola, 1450 Siena, Italy

De ingeneis 1433 (Concerning engines) De machinis 1449 (Concerning machines)

but, pumps don’t replace bucket chains in England until 1700s

reproduction from: Donald Grindstone, China from the encyclopedia Routledge Hill: A history of “Tiangong Kaiwu”, by Song Yingxing (1637) engineering in classical and medieval times Uses powered by wind & water include: Rotational • Grindstones • Pumps • Winches • Bucket lifts • Spinning wheels • Lathes, borers, drilling machines (first use)

Linear (reciprocating) • Hammer-mills • Beaters • Bellows • Saws • Looms

Linear (non-reciprocating) • Boats Uses powered by wind & water include: Rotational • Grindstones • Pumps • Winches • Bucket lifts • Spinning wheels • Lathes, borers, drilling machines (first use)

Linear (reciprocating) • Hammer-mills • Beaters • Bellows • Saws • Looms

Linear (non-reciprocating) • Boats Heating Large-scale wood-burning to make heat for industrial use

Complex chemical transformations driven by heat were common in Medieval Europe.

Georg Acricola “De res metallica”, Book XII (“Manufacturing salt, soda, alum, vitriol, sulphur, bitumen, and glass”), 1556. Uses powered by wood include

Fuel burnt for • Heating • Metallurgy • Glass-making • Brewing (drying the malt) • Baking • Brick-making • Salt-making • Tiles and ceramics • Sugar refining Uses powered by wood include

Fuel burnt for • Heating • Metallurgy • Glass-making • Brewing (drying the malt) • Baking • Brick-making • Salt-making • Tiles and ceramics • Sugar refining Heating: industrial furnaces grow larger and larger Foundries much larger scale in 1700s than in1500s

Georg Acricola “De res metallica”, Book XII (“Manufacturing salt, soda, alum, vitriol, sulphur, bitumen, and glass”), 1556. Heating: industrial furnaces grow larger and larger Foundries much larger scale in 1700s than in1500s

Copper foundry, France

D. Diderot & J. Le Rond d`Alembert eds, Encyclopédie méthodique. Paris 1763-1777 & 1783-87. The energy crisis in Europe: lack of wood

“When the fuel situaon became difficult in France in 1700s the eighteenth century, it was said that a single forge used as much wood as a town the size of Chalon-sur-

Marne. Enraged villagers complained of the forges and foundries which devoured the trees of the forests, not even leaving enough for the bakers’ ovens.”

--- F. Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life, 1979. Issue #2: the heat-to-work barrier the 18th century technological impasse

All technology involved only two energy conversions • Mechanical moon à mechanical moon • Chemical energy à heat

There was no way to convert chemical energy to moon other than muscles (human or animal) – no engine other than flesh

The energy crisis hit Britain first

“Aeneas Sylvius (aerwards Pope Pius II), who visited 1400s Scotland… in the middle of the fieenth century, menons …that he saw the poor people who begged at

churches going away quite pleased with stones given them for alms. ‘This kind of stone … is burnt instead of wood, of which the country is destute.”

“Within a few years aer the commencement of the 1600 seventeenth century the change from wood fuel to coal, for domesc purposes, was general and complete.”

--- R. Galloway, A History of Coal Mining in Great Britain, 1882. Coal-use in Britain FALSTAFF What is the gross sum that I owe thee? 1600

MISTRESS QUICKLY Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sing in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon

Wednesday in Wheeson week, when the prince broke thy head for liking his father to a singing-man of Windsor, thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? ...

--- W. Shakespeare, Henry IV Part II Sea-coal: washes up on beach from exposed seams

2013, London Daily Mail: “sea- coalers” lose access to beach they have used for centuries Switch to underground mining as surface exposures are exhausted

Children hauling coal from underground mine England 1840s. Image: the Wellcome Trustees

First shaft coal mines in England early 1600s, common by 1750 Wood à coal: changing an energy system

Robert Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective The 2nd Brish energy crisis: flooding of the mines

1600s “The miners, no less than the smelters, had their difficules during the seventeenth century, but of a

totally different kind; for while the laer were suffering from too lile fire, the former were embarrassed by too much water… the exhauson of he coal supply was

considered to be already within sight. In 1610, Sir George Selby informed Parliament that the coal mines at Newcastle would not last for the term of their leases of twenty-one years.”

--- R. Galloway, A History of Coal Mining in Great Britain, 1882. Early complaints about intermient renewables

“In the year 1708 a plan was projected in Scotland for draining collieries by means of windmills and pumps... one John Young, a millwright of Montrose... had been sent to Holland at the expense of the town to inspect the machinery there... Wind mills were erected at several collieries, but though they were powerful their acon was found to be too intermient; the mines being drowned and all the workmen thrown idle during long periods of calm weather. ”

--- R. Galloway, A History of Coal Mining in Great Britain, 1882. The 18th century European energy crisis has 3 parts

1. Fuel became scarce even when only used for heat Wood was insufficient, & coal was geng hard to extract Surface “sea coal” à deep-sha mining below the water table

2. There were limited ways to make moon No way to make moon other than through capturing exisng moon or through muscle-power.

3. There was no good way to transport moon Water and wind weren’t necessarily near demand

The only means out of the energy crisis was coal – but to mine the coal required moon for pumps. The revoluonary soluon = break the heat à work barrier The revoluonary soluon = break the heat à work barrier use heat to make ordered moon

Newcomen “Atmospheric Engine”, 1712

(Note that widespread use & Industrial Revolution followed invention by ~100 years – typical for energy technology) What is a “heat engine”?

A device that generates converts thermal energy to mechanical work by exploing a temperature gradient

• Makes something more ordered: random moons of molecules à ordered moon of enre body

• Makes something less ordered: degrades a temperature gradient (transfers heat from hot to cold) Physics: long understood that steam exerted force

Evaporang water produces high pressure Pressure = force / area

“aeliopile” “lebes”: demonstration of lifting power of steam Hero of Alexandria, “Trease on Pneumacs”, 120 BC Physics: condensing steam can produce sucon force

Low pressure in airght container means air exerts force Same physics that lets you suck liquid through a straw

First commercial use of steam: the Savery engine

“A new Invenon for Raiseing of Water and occasioning Moon to all Sorts of Mill Work by the Impellent Force of Fire which will be of great vse and Advantage for Drayning Mines, serveing Towns with Water, and for the Working of all Sorts of Mills where they have not the benefi of Water nor constant Windes.”

Thomas Savery, patent applicaon, filed 1698