Energy Use

Hopi Indians Energy Use

Jan 1, 1300

Hopi Indians use coal for cooking, heating, and firing pottery

Natives and Natural Gas

Jan 1, 1626

French explorers discovered Native Americans burning gases that were seeping into and around Lake Erie.

Conductor Discovery

Jan 1, 1675

Stephen Gray (England) distinguished between conductors and nonconductors of electrical charges.

Coal Mining

Jan 1, 1740

Commercial coal mining starts.

First Electric Battery

Jan 1, 1800

Alessandro Volta (Italy) invented the first electric battery. The term volt is named in his honor.

U.S. Union Ethanol Tax

Jan 1, 1862

The Union Congress put a $2 per gallon excise tax on ethanol to help pay for the Civil War. Before the Civil War, ethanol was a major illuminating oil in the United States. After the tax was imposed, the cost of ethanol increased too much to be used this way.

AC Invention

Jan 1, 1884

Nikola Tesla invented the electric alternator for producing alternating current (AC). Until this time, electricity had been generated using direct current (DC) from batteries.

X-Ray Discovery

Jan 1, 1895

Wilhelm Roentgen, a German physicist, discovered X-rays

Ethanol Automobile

Jan 1, 1896

Henry Ford built his first automobile, the quadricycle, to run on pure ethanol.

Nuclear Fission

Jan 1, 1938

The process of splitting uranium atoms, called nuclear fission, was demonstrated by scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman (Germany).