The Industrial Revolution
Cynthia Stokes Brown
1 Abundant fossil fuels, and the innovative machines they powered, launched an era of
accelerated change that continues to transform human society. At one time, humans, fuelled
by the animals and plants they ate and the
wood they burned, or aided by their
domesticated animals, provided most of the
energy in use. Windmills and waterwheels
captured some extra energy, but there was
little in reserve. All life operated within the
fairly immediate flow of energy from the
Sun to Earth.
2 Everything changed during the Industrial
Revolution, which began around 1750.
People found an extra source of energy
with an incredible capacity for work. That
source was fossil fuels — coal, oil and
natural gas, though coal led the way —
formed underground from the remains of
plants and animals from much earlier
