The Role of Coal in Creating our Modern World
Throughout history coal has been a valuable resource that many people have depended on. For centuries people have been exploiting coal’s most evident and beneficial property-the ability for it to burn. Though the entire world has felt the impact that coal has had on our current ways of life, the role that it played in shaping the United States is especially important. For many years coal has been used as a reliable power source to provide electricity to millions of electronic devices from the cell phones in people’s pockets to the subway systems buried beneath our large cities. It has also been the inspiration behind several forms of technology such as the steam engine, which also played a large
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The ability to burn coal to produce steam allowed for steam engines to be used in manufacturing plants to do jobs that would otherwise take a team of people, or simply be impossible. The first person to use a steam engine in a manufacturing plant was John Wilkinson, who in 1783 used the engine to assist in the production of wrought iron. Soon after, other companies began using such technology in their companies in order to produce more goods more efficiently. One company that adopted the use of coal-powered steam engines were the Ford Motor Company, who in 1908 released the Model T. The model T was the first affordable car designed for the general public, not just those who were wealthy. The ability to produce the vehicles at low cost was largely in part due to the efficiency levels that were obtainable through the use of coal as a power source. By using coal to produce goods for cheaper Ford Motor Company was able to sell them for reasonable pricing to the public, which paved the way to affordable vehicles in the present day. Now there is a single vehicle for every seven people in the world; a statistic that would have been thought impossible before the innovations enabled by