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Guess what? Coal isn't just an excellent stocking stuffer it's

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also a tasteful anniversary gift all right well maybe not the coal was pretty [A crown on top of a pile of coal]

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important in the history of the world it took off during the industrial

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revolution but people were burning and using coal long before the 1800s for [People in 1800's burning coal]

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most of human history coal deposits were literally lying around on the ground and

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nobody cared that much it's not like coal was wearing a light-colored free [A chunk of coal with a light colored device wrapped around it]

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bracelet, right? well some people even made jewelry out of it which is not

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recommended if one is wearing a white dress not like that well the first time

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people really went crazy for coal was when they ran out of trees because spoiler [Digger chops down trees and people scream in the fields]

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alert the supply is not endless the coal was nowhere near a magical perfect

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answer burning coal is dirty smoky and pretty much the most unhealthy hobby [Man burning coal as smoke bellows into the air]

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ever unless your idea of a good time is speed-dating Big Macs so when people had a

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choice and didn't need a fire hot enough to melt iron they burned wood instead and

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when the people of the Netherlands ran out of timber while they burned peat to [Peat burning on the fire]

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heat their homes and cook their food and no no peats were harmed in the making of [Pete Sampras and Pete Rose hit by a rock]

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this video we mean P.E.A.T... all right well peat is like a really really really weak coal

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if bituminous coal is gas station coffee, peat is a quarter teaspoon of

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instant coffee in a gallon water jug little smelly though oh and remember how

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we said there's a limit on trees well in the 1500s England ran out of trees [Trees on a map of England disappear]

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ever see Pirates of the Caribbean you know those huge wooden ships they kept

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blowing up well it takes a lot of trees make a ship and Britain's a pretty small

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island well naturally the price of firewood in England rose seven hundred [Graph showing price of firewood rising in England]

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percent in this period.. to the math impaired or even even just math lazy if

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a load of wood was fifty bucks in fifteen hundred it was 350 bucks by 1600

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conscious inflation though Britain turned to coal for heat and they weren't fooling [British man using coal to heat his fire]

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around by 1700 they had coal mines 200 feet deep.. now we come to one of those [Chicken and an egg in a field]

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historical chicken and egg situations the coal mines got deeper and deeper and had [Miner digging a coal mine deeper with a pick-ax]

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a distressing tendency to fill up with water

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the only thing more depressing than being in the bottom of a coal mine is [Miner trapped at the bottom of a coal mine as water fills up]

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being at the bottom of a coal mine and drowning well the very first steam

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engine was invented to solve this problem seriously it was actually

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invented to pump water out of the bottoms of coal mines, though steam engines

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ran on coal which increased the need for coal which increased the need for steam

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engines but once the steam engine got popular coal became a massively [Man standing by a coal stand as people flock to buy more]

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important global commodity it was selling like hotcakes what does that

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actually mean has anyone ever seen hot cakes sell.. well whatever the point is that [Man at a stand selling hot cakes]

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coal was the energy source behind railroad textile mill steamship and

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everything else that made our world a stinky smoggy powerhouse of progress and [Landscape of a city filled with pollution]

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and global warming well after the invention of the steam turbine which turned coals

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latent energy into electricity the craze only got crazier we're talking pokeyman [Couple smiling out at sea]

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go levels of nuttiness and at the heart of this new industrial age there was and

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is a staggering amount of human suffering let's just say that a lot of [Man trapped by rocks down a coal mine]

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kids weren't dreaming of being coal miners when they grew up that's because a lot

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of them were coal miners while they still were kids, though the next time you get [Children working in a coal mine]

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surly about mowing the lawn well just think you could be drowning in a coal

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mine yeah [Boy mows the lawn as a child coal miner stands covered in coal]

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