Coal and the Power of the New Industrialism
t the start of the colonial period the European empires are powered by
wind, water, animals and the strength of the backs or their subjects. But by the time
of The Berlin Conference of 1875, and the resulting mad scramble for colonies
the empires ran ever more on steam. To feed this ever growing fiery hunger, the
empires had moved from wood and peat to coal and petroleum oil. All claims
of exploration, debts owed, protection of expatriate populations were used
as pretext to securing the raw materials of the growing industrial age.
These new colonies would serve as markets, navel bases and coaling stations
for the great merchant and military navies of the empires. With the innovations
that were to arise from the London conference the value of petroleum soon became
obvious and this too soon became a prize for the imperialist powers to seize. The limitations on the European militaries imposed by the Berlin conference resulted in a rush to develop new weapons to amplify the potency of the remaining regular armed forces that were allowed. The "arms race" to develop the next generation of new weapon amplified the need to secure and refine the power of steam.
A massive influx of funding into scientific and engineering of power systems was directed to develop the new mechanized forces. To this end, the energy contained within the primary fuel of the age, coal, was examined from all conceivable angles. The chemists and engineers processed and converted coal into all manner of new fuel. It was converted into gas, liquid, powered and compressed as to force from it its vital energy in any number of new ways. Lightened by the extraction of water and refined to a fine power dust, the fuel was brought to the razors edge of self ignition.
At the same time as iron replaced wood as the primary material of the construction of ships and other forms of transportation, the use of whale oil was being replaced by the distillation products of petroleum oils. The need to lubricate the moving metal parts of the new machines had out strips the ability of the whaling fleets to supple the vital fluid. With this growing need many experiments were conducted to find a suitable replacement.
