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Coal Begins to Displace Use of Other Energies
The shift in population in the 18th century was due to the intro of coal as a source of mechanical power. By the end of the eighteenth century coal began to take the place of current sources of energy such as wood, wind, and water -
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Energy Use in the US
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First Natural Gas Well in US Is Drilled
in Fredonia, New York, by William Hart; He dug a 27 foot well to try and obtain a larger flow of gas to the surface. natural gas was used almost exclusively as a source of light -
First Commercial Oil Well Drilled by Edwin Drake in Pennsylvania
By the middle decades of the nineteenth century, coal gas was replacing whale oil lamps for city lighting. But storing it and piping it to the customer was burdensome and expensive, and it was poisonous and explosive -
John D. Rockefeller Forms Standard Oil and Develops Petroleum as a Major Energy Source in the US
By 1879, Standard controlled 90 percent of U.S. refining capacity, and the majority of rail lines between urban centers in the northeastern U.S. Due to Rockefeller's efforts and developments, petroleum became the primary energy source not only in the U.S., but for societies around the world -
Solar Energy
William Grylls Adams and his student, Richard Evans Day, discovered that an electrical current could be started solely by exposing it to light. they proved that a solid material could change light into electricity without heat or without moving parts -
First Windmill to Generate Electricity Developed in Cleveland, Ohio
Charles F. Brush develops the world's first windmill that can generate electricity. It was found after continued use of this electric plant that the amount of attention required to keep it in working condition is practically nothing. -
Worlds First Flex Fuel Vehicle, the Ford Model-T, Goes into Mass Production
Ethanol-fueled vehicles date back to the 1880s when Henry Ford designed a car that ran solely on ethanol. He later built the first flex fuel vehicle: a 1908 Model T designed to operate on either ethanol or gasoline -
World's First Geothermal Power Plant Is Built in California
John D. Grant drilled a geothermal well and ran a small direct-current generator which was used to provide electricity for lighting. However, because the materials used at that time could not withstand the geothermal steam environment and because of the difficulties of drilling for geothermal steam, this resource didn’t compete with other low-cost energy resources -
Hoover Dam, the World's Largest Hydroelectric Power Plant, Is Built
Hoover Dam is completed on the Colorado River in Arizona in 1935. At the time of completion, the Hoover Dam was the largest hydroelectric producer in the world. The dam remained the largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world until 1948 -
First Commercial Nuclear Power Plant Begins Operation in Shippingport, Pennsylvania
The first large-scale nuclear power plant in the world began operating in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1957. Three years later, the Shippingport plant began supplying electricity to the Pittsburgh area. It retired in 1982 when Congress assigned the decontamination to the department of energy.
