Energy Timeline | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

About 17 pages (5,151 words)

Energy Summary

Energy Timeline

ENERGY SOURCE, PROCESSING, AND STORAGE EVENTS

B.C.E.
2600	Construction of Lake Moeris in Egypt, a reservoir created by a dam 27 miles long.
2589	Construction of Great Pyramid of Khufu begins and lasts until 2566 B.C.E.; innovative use of available power for transportation and construction.
1500	Water clocks being used by Egyptians.
850	Natural gas utilized in China.
400	An oil well is completed on an island in the Ionian Sea and the oil used in lamps.
180	Revolving mill invented; it is powered by slaves and asses.
65	Earliest known reference to the use of a windmill is made by Antipater of Thessalonica.
C.E.
600	Arabs develop a windmill in which the pad- dlewheel revolves in the vertical plane.
1000	Burmese successfully drill oil wells.
1003	Wells are drilled in China for natural gas, which flows through bamboo pipes to be used perhaps in porcelain manufacture.
1200	Coal being mined in Europe.
1269	Frenchman Pèlerin de Maricourt writes a treatise on magnetism that includes the earliest description of the compass in the Western world.
1430	Turret windmill invented.
1600	England suffers from timber and fuel wood scarcity.
1619	Coke first used instead of charcoal in a blast furnace.
1635	John Winthrop, Jr., opens America's first chemical plant in Boston. They produce saltpeter (used in gunpowder) and alum (used in tanning).
1640	Oil well completed in Italy; kerosine from the oil later used for lighting
1670	First distillation of gas from coal.
1678	Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens first states his wave theory of light, published in Traité de la lumièrein 1690.
1682	Law of gravitation announced by English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton; five years later his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematicais published, setting forth the laws of motion as well as gravitation.
1694	Oil produced in England by retorting oil shale and cannel coal.
1793	British physicist Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) shows that work is convertible into heat and vice versa.
1799	Production of coal gas.
1800	Italian physicist Alessandro Volta demonstrates the galvanic cell, also known as the voltaic cell.
1802	Gas lighting.
1819	English chemist and physician John Kidd obtains naphthalene from coal tar, pointing the way toward the use of coal as a source of many important chemicals.
1830	American physicist Joseph Henry discovers the principle of electromagnetic induction. English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday independently discovered the same principle a year later but is the first to publish his findings.

1850s	The first petroleum refinery consisting of a one-barrel still is built in Pittsburgh by Samuel Kier.
1850	Scottish chemist James Young starts to produce "coal oil" (kerosine) from coal.
1853	Kerosene is extracted from petroleum.
1854	The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company becomes the first oil company in the United States.
1855	Chemist Benjamin Silliman, of New Haven, Connecticut, obtains valuable products by distilling petroleum. They include tar, gasoline, and various solvents.
1856	The first synthetic dye is developed by William H. Perkin (English); he accidentally creates a mauve dye from the impure aniline in coal tar.
1857	Oil is discovered in Romania and Ontario.
1859	The first commercially successful U.S. oil well is drilled by E. L. Drake near Titusville, Pennsylvania. This 70-foot well launches the petroleum industry.
1867	Swedish philanthropist Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.
1886	There are forty to fifty water-powered electric plants reported to be online or under construction.
1888	The first dry cell battery, consisting of a moistened cathode and a swollen starch or plaster of paris separator, is invented.
1895	The Edison dry cell nickel/cadmium battery and the Jungers nickel/iron cell are developed; work on these endeavors lasts until 1905.
1900	American chemist Charles Palmer makes a breakthrough in devising a thermal process to produce gasoline from crude petroleum.
1900	First off-shore wells, fixed to piers, are drilled in the Caspian Sea.
1901	Oil drilling begins in Persia.
1905	German-American physicist Albert Einstein formulates the Law of Mass-Energy Equivalence (E=mc²) and the Photon Theory of Light.
1907	Atlantic Refining Company introduces the tower still refinery, in which petroleum is separated in a continuous process rather than in batches.
1913	The world's first geothermal power station begins operation in Italy.
1918	Shell introduces the first drill with diamond tooth edges.
1921	Federal Energy Regulatory Commission statistics show hydropower generation at 3,700 MW (cf. 1992 figure of 91,600 MW).
1918	Ethyl gasoline is developed by General Motors Laboratories in the United States.
1926	Du Pont and Commercial Solvents begin synthetic methanol production in the United States.
1931	Oil drilling becomes more accurate because of the gyroscopic clinograph that stabilizes the drill.
1932	After American physicist Ernest Orlando Lawrence invented the cyclotron three years earlier, the E. O. Lawrence Cyclotron becomes operational. It helps scientists discover what an atom is composed of, how it behaves, and how its energy can be tapped.
1933	Construction of Grand Coulee Dam begins. Originally built to meet irrigation needs, it has more electric generating capacity than any dam in North America by 1975.
1935	From 1920 to 1935, 6.5 million windmills have been erected in the United States to pump water, run sawmills, or generate electricity.
1936	The Hoover Dam is completed.
1936	The Houdry Process is used in the catalytic cracking of petroleum.
1937	Westinghouse constructs its "Atom Smasher" in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. The five million volt van de Graaff generator represents the first large-scale program in nuclear physics established in industry, makes possible precise measurements of nuclear reactions, and provides valuable research experience for the company's pioneering work in nuclear power.
1939	Enrico Fermi (Italian-American), Otto Hahn (German), F. Strassman, Lise Meitner (Austrian), and Otto Frisch (Austrian) discover and describe nuclear fission.
1940	Standard Oil Co. (Indiana) develops catalytic reforming to produce higher octane gasoline.

1941	American nuclear chemist Glenn Seaborg's team of experimenters isolates plutonium, which proves to be a better fuel for nuclear reactors than uranium because of its greater energy yield.
1942	The Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago Laboratory, headed by Enrico Fermi (Italian-American), creates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
1942	Natural gas liquified for first time in Cleveland, Ohio.
1944	Seismic profiling for oil deposits begins in the Gulf of Mexico.
1947	Offshore oil wells drilled off coast of Louisiana.
1951	An electricity-producing nuclear breeder reactor commissioned by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
1952	The first hydrogen (fusion) bomb to be tested by the United States is exploded at Bikini Atoll.
1954	First submersible drilling unit, "Mr. Charlie," is used.
1954	First solar cell developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories researchers.
1959	Liquified natural gas is shipped via cryogenic tanker from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to London.
1960s	First large-scale U.S. nuclear power plants go on line.
1960	Geysers near San Francisco begin supplying geothermal electric power.
1976	Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project, the first large-scale demonstration breeder reactor is constructed near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The project died for lack of support, however.
1982	The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory produces fusion.
1992	Federal Energy Regulatory Commission statistics show hydropower generation at 91,600 MW (cf. 1921 figure of 3,700 MW).
TRANSPORTATION AND AGRICULTURE
B.C.E.
8000	Settled agriculture occurs in the Near East and other centers of human habitation.
7500	Dugout canoes are used in northwestern Europe. Reed boats are developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
7000	Agriculture starts in Mexico.
3500	The earliest illustration of a sail dates from this period and was found near Luxor, Egypt. The sail is fixed to a single mast and there is a shelter aft.
3200	The first wheeled vehicles are believed to have appeared in Sumer (now Iraq).
2700	Spoked wheel appears; traction plow already developed.
2400	First canal for ships built at Elephante in Egypt.
2000	Horse-drawn vehicles are used.
312	Roman road building prowess is exemplified in the construction of the Appian Way.
C.E.
400	Paddlewheel propulsion invented in China.
500	Invention of the modern horse collar in China helps produce agriculture surpluses.
700	Lateen sailing vessels are established in the Mediterranean Sea, increasing directional sailing ability.
730	Stern post rudder invented for sailing vessels.
1701	English agriculturist Jethro Tull invents a seed drill that sows seed in neat rows, saving seed and making it easier to minimize weeds.
1705	English inventor Thomas Newcomen builds his atmospheric steam engine.
1769	French engineer Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot builds his steam road-carriage.
1786	Scottish inventor Andrew Meikle builds his first thresher.
1783	First manned flight via balloon.
1787	American John Fitch launches the first U.S. steamboat.
1804	English inventor Richard Trevithick's steam railway locomotive.
1805	Twin-screw propeller developed by American John Stephens.
1814	Railway locomotive by Englishman George Stephenson.
1816	The forerunner of the bicycle is patented by German inventor Karl D. Sauerbronn.

1819	Atlantic first crossed by a steam-powered vessel, the Savannah.
1825	Stockton and Darlington Railway completed, first public steam powered railway.
1827	Steam automobile invented by Hancock.
1829	First horsedrawn carriage "omnibus," which carries eighteen passengers, introduced by G. Shillibear in London.
1830	Liverpool and Manchester railroad.
1831	American inventor Cyrus McCormick develops the harvester.
1834	Electric streetcar invented by Thomas Davenport (American).
1844	American inventor Charles Goodyear patents "vulcanizing" of rubber.
1847	German-English electrical engineer William Siemens creates the regenerative steam engine.
1852	American inventor Elisha G. Otis develops the first "safety" elevator; it incorporates a brake that prevents elevators from falling even if the main cable is completely cut.
1852	The first nonrigid, powered, manned airship is flown by its builder, French engineer Henri Giffard; this marks the beginning of the practical airship.
1860	French inventor Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir builds the first practical internal-combustion engine, fueled by illuminating gas.
1865	Samuel Calthrop (American) creates a streamlined locomotive.
1867	Gas engine built by German engineers Nikolaus August Otto and Eugen Langen.
1868	American engineer George Westinghouse introduces the air brake. The new power braking system uses compressed air as the operating medium.
1869	The Transcontinental Railroad is completed as the Golden Spike is driven in at Promontory Point, Utah.
1875	Internal combustion engine invented by Siegfried Marcus (Austrian).
1877	German aeronautical engineer Otto Lilienthal invents his first glider.
1877	American meatpacker Gustavus Franklin Swift invents the refrigerated railcar.
1883	Elevated electric railroad opens in Chicago.
1884	English engineer Charles Algernon Parsons invents his compound steam turbine.
1885	The gasoline automobile is developed by German engineer Karl Friedrich Benz. Before this, gasoline was an unwanted fraction of petroleum that caused many house fires because of its tendency to explode when placed in kerosene lamps.
1886	The first modern oil tanker, Gluckauf, is built for Germany by England.
1887	Scottish inventor John Boyd Dunlop creates an air-inflated rubber tire.
1888	Richmond Union Passenger Railway electric street railway system designed by American electrical engineer Frank Julian Sprague.
1889	Carl Gustaf de Laval (Swedish) improves the steam engine by devising a small, high-speed turbine in which jets of steam hit a single set of blades set on a rim of a wheel.
1889	Petroleum-fueled agricultural tractor developed in the United States.
1900	Worldwide railways total 470,000 miles of track.
1901	First merchant vessel, King Edward, driven by steam turbines in Scotland.
1902	Steam superheaters dramatically improve the performance of railway engines.
1903	American inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright fly the first powered aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1903	The Ford Motor Company is founded.
1905	Long Island Railroad is the first to abandon steam completely in favor of electrification.
1911	American industrialist and electrical engineer Elmer A. Sperry creates a gyrocompass.
1924	Constant speed propeller brings better efficiency to aircraft.
1926	American physicist R. H. Goddard builds and launches the first liquid-fuel rocket.
1927	First electrically powered, automatically controlled pipeline is built in California.
1930	English inventor Frank Whittle patents the basic design of the turbojet engine.
1939	Russian-American aeronautical engineer Igor Sikorsky makes the first successful tethered helicopter flight.

1941	The Whittle jet engine is flown from Britain to the United States and provides the model for the first practical American jet engines that will be built by General Electric.
1947	Diesel-electric locomotive is built.
1952	First regular jet air passenger service begins; it goes from London, England, to Johannesburg, South Africa.
1954	U.S. Navy launchs the first nuclear-powered submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus, the first use of nuclear propulsion. It could cruise 62,500 miles before refueling.
1956	German engineer Felix Wankel develops the prototype for his Wankel engine, a rotary-piston engine.
1956	English engineer Christopher Cockerell designs the hovercraft.
1959	NS Savannahlaunches; it is the first nuclear-powered merchant ship.
1961	USS Enterprise, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and the world's largest ship, is launched. It operates at speeds of 20 knots for distances of up to 400,000 miles.
1966	Electronic fuel injection is developed; it eventually replaces the carburetor.
1968	Supersonic transport plane.
1972	Ford invents the sodium sulfur battery.
1977	Hydrogen gas used to power vehicles in two California experiments.
LIGHT, HEAT, ELECTRICITY, AND COMMUNICATION
B.C.E.
c. 500000	Peking man uses fire for heat, light, and cooking.
c. 17000	Stone oil lamps enable Paleolithic artists to paint and engrave the walls of caves.
c. 2400	Greek civilization designs buildings to take advantage of solar heating.
c. 8000	Oil lamps are used in Mesopotamia.
c. 2500	Glass-making occurs in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
c. 600	Greek philosopher Thales observes that amber, a fossilized type of tree sap, attracts bits of paper and certain materials, like straw, when rubbed. This is the first mention of static electricity.
285	The Lighthouse at Alexandria is constructed; a mirror projects the light of fire for thirty miles.
1	Roman engineers develop a vertical water-mill known as a Vitruvian mill.
C.E.
551	Jerome Cardan, an Italian mathematician, determines that while amber attracts light objects, a magnetic black stone attracts only iron. This is the first in a series of discoveries that links electricity to magnetism.
1340	Blast furnaces are developed in Europe.
1600	English physician William Gilbert discovers that materials like glass, sulfur, and diamonds behave just like amber. He calls these materials electrics, which means amber in Latin.
1646	Walter Charlton coins the word "electricity" to explain the attraction between these substances.
1672	German physicist Otto von Guericke molds a large sphere out of sulfur. Holding a piece of wool against this spinning sphere produces a large spark. This is the first generator to use friction to create electricity.
1729	Englishman Steven Gray first discovers that metals are conductors and non-metals are non-conductors.
1745	Dutch mathematician and physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek invents the Leyden Jar, which stores an electric charge.
1747	American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin deduces the existence of positive and negative electric charges.
1752	Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm with a key dangling on the end of a wire. A silk string collects a charge from the thunderclouds which is conducted into a Leyden Jar. Thus, he makes the connection between lightning and electricity. This experiment leads to his invention of the lightning rod.
1762	Oil street lamps used in New York City.
1767	The city of Philadelphia lights streets with whale-oil lamps.
1790	First steam-heated factory.
1792	Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock in Cornwall.

1794	Italian physicist Allessandro Volta creates the first continuous electrical current by making a battery out of silver and zinc strips placed in salty water. Prior to this discovery all man-made electrical sources came from static.
1795	British physicist Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) invents the Rumford stove, a close-toped range that economizes fuel.
1800	The first commercial battery is manufactured. Scientists realize that if chemical changes can create electricity, then electricity can create chemical change.
1803	First factory illuminated by coal-gas lighting, in James Watt's foundry (Scotland).
1803	Italian cities of Genoa and Parma are lighted by kerosine from an oil well in Modena.
1813	London Bridge is lighted by gas.
1819	Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted creates a magnet with electrical current, establishing the connection between electricity and magnetism.
1826	German physicist George Simon Ohm publishes Die galvanische kette, mathematisch bearbeitet, in which he describes his discovery that the voltage across an electrical conductor is proportional to the electrical current, and that the current is inversely proportional to the resistance of the conductor. His formulation becomes known as Ohm's Law.
1828	English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
1829	American physicist Joseph Henry develops a coil magnet that grows stronger as more wire is wound around an iron core. He succeeds in lifting more than a ton of metal.
1830	Thermostat is invented.
1831	English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday creates the first electrical generator by using a magnet and a spinning copper plate to produce a current. Using a steam engine to keep the copper plate spinning within the magnetic field, electrical current is produced.
1831	American physicist Joseph Henry, by reversing Faraday's discovery, passes an electrical
	current through a magnetic field to turn a copper wheel, creating the first electric motor. For the first time in history, electrical energy can be used to power machines to do work that was formerly done by humans and animals.
1834	The first practical liquid refrigerating machine is patented by American inventor Jacob Perkins.
1835	The electric automobile is created by American inventor Thomas Davenport.
1838	American inventors Samuel F. B. Morse and Alfred Vail first demonstrate practical telegraphy.
1844	Samuel F. B. Morse builds the first electric telegraph. By transmitting short or long signals along a wire, messages can be sent anywhere. The Morse code makes it possible to send messages long distances at the speed of light.
1845	Safety matches are developed.
1849	American engineer James B. Francis invents the hydraulic turbine.
1851	American inventor John Gorrie patents an expansion cycle refrigerating machine.
1852	Heat pump is invented.
1868	The Siemens brothers (German) design the regenerative gas furnace.
1864	Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell publishes his theory of light and electricity.
1866	The first transatlantic cable is laid, creating a permanent electrical communications link between the old world and the new.
1868	French chemist Georges Leclanche invents the zinc-carbon battery, a precursor of the dry cell and the modern portable battery.
1875	A building in France is iluminated by electricity.
1876	American inventor and educator Alexander Graham Bell develops the telephone by converting electrical impulses into sound.
1878	American inventor Charles F. Brush invents the arc lamp.
1879	The streets of Cleveland are lit by carbon-arc lamps.
1879	Thomas Edison invents the incandescent lamp.

1879	English physicist William Crookes develops the cathode ray tube.
1882	October. The pioneering firm of United States Electric Illuminating Company starts up South Carolina's first central station for incandescent electric lighting one month after Thomas Edison opened his central station on New York City's Pearl Street. In the following years, U.S. Electric becomes one of Edison's main competitors.
1885	American electrical engineer William Stanley invents the transformer.
1886	Austrian chemist Carl Auer (Freiherr von Welsbach) invents the Welsbach mantle, tripling the output of kerosene lamps and gas burners.
1884	American engineer Lester A. Pelton develops the hydraulic turbine.
1884	First large-scale use of natural gas in Pittsburgh.
1887	Italian-American physicist Nikola Tesla invents a motor that produces alternating current. This discovery changes the way electricity is transmitted over long distances.
1889	The first commercial, long-distance transmission of electricity takes place when a direct-current line provides power from Willamette Falls for street lights in Portland, Oregon.
1893	German physicists Julius Elster and Hans F. Geitel invent the first photoelectric cell as a result of studying the photoelectric effect.
1895	The first hydroelectric generator at Niagara Falls, New York, produces alternating current from a Nikola Tesla design.
1900	A hydroelectric plant is built at Niagara Falls.
1901	The first reception of transatlantic radio signals.
1904	Gas is used for the first time for heating and hot water in London, England.
1904	English electrical engineer John Ambrose Fleming patents the first electron tube, which he calls a diode vacuum tube.
1904	American electrical engineer Ernst Alexanderson creates a high-frequency alternator; it allows reliable transoceanic radiotelegraph communication.
1909	Shoshone Transmission Line, power generated by the Shoshone Hydroelectric Generating Station to Denver.
1910	French chemist and physicist Georges Claude invents the first neon light.
1911	English engineer Charles Algernon Parsons improves the turbo-alternator for generating electricity in power stations.
1913	Austrian inventor Victor Kaplan patents his turbine; the invention enables hydroelectric power stations to be more consistently efficient.
1920	Martin Hochstadter introduces a three-core power cable that does not become deformed or burn by the high voltage electricity.
1930	First domestic gas water heater to work efficiently is developed.
1934	Power from the Boulder (Colorado) dam is transmitted 270 miles to Los Angeles, California.
1937	First commercial convective heater equipped with an electric fan.
1937	The five million-volt van de Graaff generator, Westinghouse "Atom Smasher, 1937," represents the first large-scale program in nuclear physics established by industry.
1939	The Massachusetts Institute of Technology builds a solar house.
1939	American physicist John Vincent Atanasoff collaborates with Clifford E. Berry to design the first digital electronic computer.
1940	The first gas-powered turbine to generate electricity is developed in Switzerland.
1943	Electric cables are filled with pressurized gas for insulation in England.
1945	Perry L. Spencer (United States) patents the first microwave oven.
1948	Bell Telephone Laboratories first demonstrates the transistor, a non-vacuum device that will eventually replace the conventional electron tubes.
1952	Four thousand die in London, England, from smog during air-inversion event.
1953	Four hundred die in New York City from smog event.
1954	Americans D. M. Chapin, C. S. Fuller, and G. L Pearson develop the silicon photovoltaic cell.

1955	Narinder Kapany invents optical fiber in Germany.
1958	American Gordon Gould develops the laser.
1959	Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invent the integrated circuit.
1962	American Nick Holonyak, Jr., invents the light-emitting diode.
1963	Solar furnace capable of generating temperatures greater than 9,300°F becomes operational in Japan for scientific research.
1964	Generating electricity without turbines via magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) could theoretically double the output from nuclear power plants.
1964	George Heilmeier develops the liquid-crystal display.
1966	First superconducting motor.
1971	Ted Hoff invents the microprocessor.
1986	April. A severe nuclear accident occurs at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union.
1986	High Temperature Superconductors developed by J. Georg Bednorz and Karl A. Muller.
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
B.C.E.
1550	Levers used for well sweep in Egypt as well as India.
1500	Simple pulley employed in Egypt.
900	Rotary bucket pump invented.
700	First mention of the pulley; chain of pots used to raise water.
600	Compound pulley crane first used in Greece.
300	Tooth wheels and gears developed.
180	Quern or revolving mill is invented; turned by slaves or asses.
150	Force pump appears.
100	Undershot water-wheel first designed.
27	Vitruvian waterwheel created; first known instance of the transmission of power through gearing.
C.E.
1–100	Aeolipile, earliest recognized steam-powered mechanism, built by Hero of Alexandria.
200–300	Barbagal water-mills developed in Provence, France.
600–700	Windmills appear on Iranian plateau.
1240	Water-powered saw and jack invented by Honnecourt in France.
1335	Mechanical clock erected in the tower of Milan.
1472	In the next fifty years, Leonardo Da Vinci constructs the following devices: centrifugal pump, dredge for canal building, breech-loading cannon, rifled firearms, universal joint, rope-and-belt drive, link chains, bevel gears, spiral gears, parachute, and propeller.
1530	Foot-driven spinning wheel invented.
1698	Steam pump created by Thomas Savery (English).
1698	Denys Papin's steam engine, France.
1705	Reciprocating steam engine developed by Thomas Newcomen (English).
1720s	Thomas Newcomen's steam engine comes into general use.
1769	James Watt receives main patent on condensing steam engine.
1769	Richard Arkwright invents his spinning water frame to spin yarn and silk; later to be used in North America as an industrial mill.
1772	Ball-bearings developed.
1772	James Watt's double-acting steam engine first used in Britain.
1782	Double-acting steam engine patented by James Watt.
1785	Screw propeller invented invented by Joseph Bramah.
1801	Richard Trevithick demonstrates first successful steam-powered road vehicle in Cornwall, England.
1816	Robert Stirling patents a forerunner of the Stirling engine, tauted as "A New Type of Hot Air Engine with Economiser."
1827	Benoit Fourneyron develops a water turbine in France.
1877	Invention of a hydraulic elevator with jugger mechanism.
1884	First practical steam turbine patented by Charles Algernon Parsons.
WARFARE AND SPACE
B.C.E.
30000	Bow and arrow first used.

1000	Assyrians use battering rams mounted on wheeled fighting towers.
1000	Crossbow invented in China.
400	Catapult and mechanical crossbow (ballista) invented at Syracuse and used against Carthage.
400	Catapult first used in China.
215	Archimedes' catapult used against the Romans.
C.E.
950	Gunpowder invented in China.
1000	The trebuchet, a missile thrower of great force operated by a hundred or more men, appears in China.
1118	Cannon used by Moors.
1232	Chinese use rockets against the Tartars and invent hot-air balloons.
1259	First cannons used in China.
1405	Portable firearms appear.
1490s	First portable siege guns used in a military campaign in France.
1515	Wheel-lock gun invented in Germany.
1525	Rifled musket designed.
1835	American Samuel Colt invents the revolver.
1840s	Guncotton (nitrocellulose) and nitroglycerine developed.
1850s	First ocean-going steam-powered naval vessels.
1860s	Railroads provide important support for armies in the U.S. Civil War and the Wars of German Unification.
1864	Self-propelled torpedo invented by Robert Whitehead (England).
1867	Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
1880s	Electric power introduced on warships, which allows significant improvement in their capabilities.
1904–1905	Japan defeats the Russian army; first use of telephone and telegraph to coordinate troops and supplies.
1914	Tank invented by E. D. Swinton (England).
1926	Liquid-fuel rocket developed by R. H. Goddard (United States).
1939	August 2. Albert Einstein writes to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to warn him of the possibility of Nazi Germany developing atomic weapons.
1944	Ballistic missile developed by Wernher von Braun (Germany).
1945	July 16. First atomic bomb test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, under the code name "Manhattan Project."
1945	August. United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II.
1949	The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, which launches the "arms race" with the United States.
1952	United States tests the first hydrogen bomb.
1955	World's first nuclear submarine, Nautilus, is tested (United States).
1957	First artificial satellite, Sputnik, in orbit (Soviet Union).
1958	Neutron bomb developed in the United States
1965	First nuclear reactor in space is launched.
1983	U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative, intended to shield the United States from nuclear attack.
1991	January 15. United States and allied countries launch Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, a military operation characterized by some as an "energy war."
1992	May. The nuclear arms race ends—for the first time since 1945, the United States builds no nuclear weapons.
BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT, AND CULTURE
C.E.
529	St. Benedict founds Monte Cassino; the Benedictine Order, which is to become a very powerful force in Western Christianity, adopts manual labor as a virtuous action.
716	St. Boniface, an English Benedictine, visits Germany and establishes abbeys and country estates as centers of industry and material progress.
1066	With the Norman conquest of England, industry moves from the abbeys and country estates to the towns because of energy—water mills and water transportation.
1095	The First Crusade begins (ending in 1099); the Crusades, of which there were ten—if one counts the tragic Children's Crusade—reflected a growing energy surplus (as did

	the universities) in western Europe, not yet channeled into national military establishments.
1150	Cistercians introduce use of city garbage and sewer water as fertilizer near Milan (Italy); both Benedictines and Cistercians drain swamps and lakes in Germany, France, the Low Countries, and Italy.
1273	Coal smoke in London, England, provokes complaints from the gentry.
1306	King Edward I of England makes it a capital offense to burn coal in London.
1345	Division of hours and minutes into sixties (Germany); without linear time, the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible.
1798	T. R. Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population, as pessimistic in its conclusions as the Marquis de Condorcet's work was optimistic
1863	The British government passes the "Alkali Works Act" in an attempt to control environmentally harmful emissions.
1870	John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil Company.
1882	Standard Oil Trust is formed and buys controlling interest in a number of oil companies.
1901	Oil found at Spindletop, Texas, which leads to the formation of Gulf, Texaco, and Sun oil companies.
1907	First drive-in gas station opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
1908	Oil is discovered in Persia; Anglo-Persian (later British Petroleum) is formed.
1911	U.S. Supreme Court breaks Standard Oil monopoly into thirty-four companies.
1920	The U.S. Congress passes the Federal Water Power Act of 1920, which authorizes the first Federal Power Commission (later Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). It has authority to issue licenses for hydroelectric projects that are best adapted to the comprehensive development of a waterway.
1930	Huge oil discovery in East Texas.
1935	Federal Water Power Act becomes part of the Federal Power Act to regulate interstate commerce in electricity.
1937	The Bonneville Project Act creates the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which markets electricity generated at Federal hydro projects to the northwestern United States; it also owns the nation's largest network of long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines needed to bring hydropower to market.
1938	Oil discovered in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
1941	The United States, Britain, and the Netherlands put an oil embargo on Japan after it takes over Indonesia.
1952	Smog identified for the first time in Los Angeles, California, from the combination of a large number of automobiles, bright sunlight, and frequently stagnant air.
1953	December 8. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech before the United Nations.
1954	The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 permits and encourages the participation of private industry in the development and use of nuclear energy.
1955	Atomic Energy Commission announces the Power Demonstration Reactor Program, a cooperative effort with private industry in constructing experimental power reactors.
1956	Celilo Village, a traditional Indian tribal fishing ground, is flooded by the Dalles Dam. The sovereign rights of tribes lead to several court cases and agreements that affect use of rivers and hydropower in the United States.
1957	The United Nations establishes the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
1960	The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) founded in Baghdad, Iraq.
1961	The United States and Canada sign the Columbia River Treaty. Under the treaty, Canada builds two storage dams and one dam for generation, resulting in greater power and flood control benefits at U.S. facilities downstream.
1964	The Pacific Northwest Coordination Agreement is signed; it seeks to meet the region's electricity needs most efficiently by

	operating the diverse generating resources as a coordinated system, as if they were owned by a single utility.
1965	First major blackout occurs in northeast United States and Canada.
1966	The Public Power Council is formed to give a voice to publicly owned utilities in the Northwest. PPC represents and advocates the common legal and technical interests of the Northwest's consumer owned utilities.
1967	The Pacific Northwest-Pacific Southwest Intertie creates the only direct way to move electricity between the Northwest and California. Billions of dollars are saved by the Northwest trading some spring and summer surplus power for fall and winter power from California.
1967	The Air Quality Act becomes law in the United States.
1968	Oil is discovered on Alaska's North Slope.
1969	Santa Barbara, California, oil spill.
1970	Production of crude oil in the United States reaches an all-time peak.
1970	Clean Air Act goes into effect in the United States.
1973	October 6. The Yom Kippur War breaks out in the Middle East.
1973	October 17. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries declares an oil embargo; prices rise to nearly $12 a barrel from $3.
1975	December. U.S. President Gerald Ford signs the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, extending price controls into 1979, mandating automobile fuel economy standards, and authorizing creation of a strategic petroleum reserve.
1977	June 3. The U.S. Department of Energy is created by the consolidation of the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration, and the Atomic Energy Commission.
1978	U.S. Congress passes Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). This law requires utilities to purchase electricity from qualified independent power producers. Portions of the act helped stimulate growth
	of small scale hydro plants as a means of meeting the nation's energy needs.
1978	November. U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the National Energy Conservation and Policy Act, which promotes conservation activities, requires development of standard measures of energy efficiency and its reporting to the public.
1978	Last new nuclear power plant ordered in the United States.
1979	March. An accident occurs at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in New York.
1979	June. U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces program to increase the nation's use of solar energy.
1979	July. U.S President Jimmy Carter proposes $88 billion effort to enhance production of synthetic fuels from coal and shale oil reserves.
1980	U.S. Congress passes the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act. The Northwest Power Planning Council is formed. The Council is charged with developing a plan to meet Northwest energy needs. The act also called for the Council to develop a fish and wildlife mitigation and enhancement plan.
1980	June. U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the Energy Security Act.
1981	July. U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs Executive Order 12287, effectively decontrolling crude oil and refined petroleum products.
1979–1981	Panic caused by Iran's revolution and the Iran-Iraq war sends oil prices as high as $34 a barrel from $13.
1983	January. U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the first comprehensive nuclear waste legislation.
1986	Congress amends the Federal Power Act, increasing environmental review of hydropower projects.
1986	Oil price collapses to $12 a barrel.
1987	December. U.S. Congress approves Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the only repository site for high-level nuclear waste.

1988	The Northwest Power Planning Council designates 44,000 miles of Northwest streams as "protected areas" because of their importance as critical fish and wildlife habitat.
1989	New York Governor Mario Cuomo and the Long Island Power Authority announce that the already built Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant will never open.
1989	Exxon Valdezruns aground off the Alaska coast.
1990	August. Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering an international crisis.
1991	January 15. United States and allied countries launch Operation Desert Storm against Iraq to end its invasion of Kuwait.
1991–1995	By some estimates, fish and wildlife protection measures reduced firm electric generation by about 850 megawatts annually.
1992	June. Representatives from many nations convene at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1993	April. U.S. President Bill Clinton announces that the United States will stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000.
1994	The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states have the authority under the Clean Water Act to establish minimum streamflows at hydro projects. The ruling gives states more authority in hydro licensing and relicensing decisions.
1997	December 11. The Kyoto Protocol is adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
1998	United States oil and utility industry companies spend over $100 million to influence federal government energy policy.
1998	Oil prices fall sharply; collapses in Asian economies severely curtail demand.
2000	Oil prices surge to highest levels since the mid-1970s.