Coal: not a sufficient reason for industrial revolution: http://antonhowes.tumblr.com/post/102001277904/national-king-coal … Perhaps not even necessary: http://burycoal.com/blog/2010/02/26/the-history-of-wood-and-coal-in-industrial-transport/ …
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@NickSzabo4 Do you know why they preferred to use the wood as is rather than converting it into charcoal?
@mmeijeri Wood converted to charcoal (and coal to coke) when cleaner burning required, especially to avoid impurities in chemical reactions.
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@mmeijeri When burning for indirect process heat or to power steam engine, purity not important enough to outweigh costs of making charcoal. -
@NickSzabo4 Is there any energy density difference? -
@mmeijeri Charcoal is about twice as energy dense as air-dried wood, but wasteful: get only 10-20% of energy of burning the wood directly.
End of conversation
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