Leigh Kimmel’s Reviews > Energy and Civilization: A History > Status Update

The beginnings of metalworking, and the problem of using up all the wood in an area to make charcoal for smelting metals from ore.

The use of tools in public works, and particularly the construction of monumental buildings. How were the giant blocks that compose the Pyramids of Giza moved into position? Giant ramps and rollers, or some form of levers? The Roman invention of concrete, and the creation of the Pantheon with its dome. Technologies that wouldn't reappear until the Industrial Age and Portland cement.

Sailing ships vs. ships using fossil fuels

The development of the sailing ship and the ability to sail in unfavorable winds. It reached its apex just as the steamship became able to cross oceans.

Human gaits and their energy costs. The building of roads in various civilizations.

Pre-industrial methods of heating. For much of history open fires have been the norm, but at times we see such things as hypocausts (warm air drawn from a fire through under-floor passages) and various types of stoves, mostly brick or ceramic. Lighting also weak and flickering, based upon combustion.

Waterwheels and windmills -- humanity's first non-biological energy source for getting work done. But both depend upon environmental factors not under human control. Various kinds of water wheels, horizontal and vertical, and the necessities of managing water flow for maximum output. Their replacement by water turbines in the Nineteenth Century. Early Dutch and other windmills...

The urban horse, and the horrific conditions these animals had to toil under -- and the sheer volume of waste they produced.

The Nineteenth Century sees sophisticated scientific measurements of human muscle power vs horse and other animals. Unsurprising, given this is also the century of the steam engine, with railroads, steamboats and the earliest steam traction engines. But steam is tricky to handle and hard to subdivide into small engines for farming and household use. So muscle power remains important.

The limits of muscle power -- including the fact that you can't turn the prime movers on and off at need, so you have to feed and shelter them all year even if you only need them a few months. The use of various simple machines -- wheels, levers, etc. -- to gain more work out of the same amount of effort.