CONS 425 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Well Drilling, Industrial Revolution, Working Animal
11 Oct 2017
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Energy expended on food production limits scale and complexity of society. As humans reach limits of food production one option: to become more productive. Higher productivity requires more energy (and more complexity) Limits of humans for labor and transport. Animals 30mj/day of useful work (13x humans) Need to feed and can only get limited output. Can only use small number for a given task. Required the use of technological innovations to increase efficiency. Most efficient energy conversion in pre-industrial society. Could produce high levels of kinetic energy continuously, impossible for animal power. Donkey 12 kg of flour in one hour. Dutch windmill of 30m 7. 5 kw. Mostly same power levels as waterwheels until prior couple of centuries. Increasing sophistication in sails to better harness kinetic energy of wind. Energy dense but high variation (8. 3-35 mj/kg) Used in pre-industrial era (e. g. iron-making) but marginal. Major shift to coal predates industrial revolution in england variety of uses.
