Energy · c. 1000

Coal as industrial fuel

Song China fires its iron furnaces with coal, the first fossil fuel economy.

By the 11th century, northern Chinese ironworks burned coal and coke on a large scale after local forests were exhausted. England's own coal mining grew from the 13th century and exploded after 1600. Coal's energy density freed industry from the land area needed to grow wood.

See it in the living treeWikipedia