The surprising rise of muscle power, the salty source of Scottish Lowlands wealth, the Dutch Republic's energy abundance, and why doesn't anybody ever talk about lime?
Up until WWII, business people often considered it to be a depression when prices fell. When countries industrialized, the impact was often an expansion of supply in the face of static demand, leading to price decreases. So, for the Dutch collapse, was there a collapse of supply? Or was it really an expansion of supply causing falling prices?
It’s a very astute question. In this case it does appear to be a collapse in supply, however, and not just a matter of falling prices because of expansion.
My hunch is that it has something to do with other countries' protectionism - especially France's changes under Colbert. But even then, I'm not sure this fully explains the collapse in population growth. So it's still research in progress (but not one I've been actively researching - just keeping an eye out)
Lime also supplies calcium, which is necessary for some soils. Sometimes sulfur is as well; that is not usually an issue if people are burning fossil fuels nearby, but sulfur deficiency is a bit more common these days. Sulfur, now a waste product from petroleum production, is also useful as a pesticide.
Very interesting. Calcium certainly. Not sure whether making the lime with coal would have removed sulfur or not, however - will have to check, as may have been used for that too.
My mother remembered using a "dog-power" in the early 1900's to power the washing machine. Dog made himself scarce on wash days.
The way we used lime on the farm was to decrease the acidity of the soil. Not sure how that would relate to the early use of it. No expertise here, but sandy soils might be more subject to losing fertility over the years.
Wow! Had no idea dog power was still in use so late!
Yes, sandy soils would likely have required quite a bit of fertiliser and other methods to be usable. Lime was just one of the ingredients, but a big one.
Interestingly, The Romans added a type of volcanic "ash", known as "Poxzzalan", from the region" to enhance the binding properties of the basic mortar made from "burnt" limestone. in modern times, this has been replaced by "fly ash", which is the particulate residue from burning coal on an industrial scale.
Also used in the "plaster" that forms the "skin" of the hulls of ferro-cement boats. The fly-ash is not completely hydrated in the formation of the cement "plaster". In the event of a "crack" forming in the hull whilst at sea, the process is that a bit of seawater will enter the "crack" and finish hydrating the fly-ash, causing expansion that will seal the "crack".
There are limits to this "healing" process. If your keel gets ripped off striking a barely-submerged empty shipping container in mid ocean, all bets are off.
Yeah the properties of those cements are fascinating. It’s another area where quite a lot happens in the eighteenth century too - Joseph Aspdin, Eleanor Coade, later Isaac Charles Johnson. Another area that’s largely neglected
The building of lime kilns is really interesting across Highland Scotland, especially considering the location of some of them in context of fuel. For example, take a look at the Tomphubil Lime-Kiln near Schiehallion.
There's an unknown link to why a bunch of guys invented the horseless carriage in the 1880s: the Great Horse Flu. In 1872 there was a worldwide influenza pandemic that affected horses but not people. The flu strain did not kill the horses, but they were weak for maybe 7-21 days, depending. The horses were unable to do their jobs, and the horse-powered economy seized up in many places. About a third of Boston burned down because the horses could not pull the water carts used by the firefighters.
I would speculate that wars sped up the process too. Apparently most of the horses in Paris were eaten during the siege in 1871, while the German confederation lost many as well. During the Boer War Britain shipped hundreds of thousands of horses to South Africa, where a majority died. Later, WWI may have caused the deaths of 8 million horses.
I too, am now somewhat intrigued and curious about the collapse of Dutch industrial development, and looking at the dates when this occurred although not previously being aware of this occurrence, I have some food for thought.
Could the Industrial development collapse not have had something to do with the establishment of the VOC/ Dutch East India company and their establishment of a trafe route to the East/ Asia to purchase spices and other goods from that region, which involved a "halfway" settlement at the Cape of Good Hope ( South Africa ) established woth the landing of Jan Van Riebeeck at the Cape in 1652, as this developed into more than just a "halfway house" to replenish ships of the VOC, but a colony which exported a multitude of mainly agricultural products back to the Netherlands?
The agricultural products, together with the array of goods being purchased in Asia, most probably quite cheaply, could quite possibly have led to the collapse of Dutch industrial development as they opted for contracting the supply of what they needed, out to cheaper sources.
If this were to be the case, it would expose an early version of what has happened in the US over the past three plus decades.
Speaking of soil fertility I always found it strange that composting was developed only in the 20th C, despite allegedly being used historically for making some dyes. Maybe that's because they already had uses for some of this stuff, like throwing kitchen scraps to chickens/pigs/dogs instead of on a compost plie.
Composting has been used for centuries, I think. I’ve seen it mentioned many times - see for example the huge trade in city “nightsoil” for use on farms. Unless you mean something more specific?
I mean the mixing of "greens" (grass clippings, vegetal food scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds) with "browns" (dry leaves, straw) and water to create an exothermic decomposition that results in compost, a fluffy soil additive.
Manure can be added to a compost pile as a "green" but it was indeed used since forever directly as a fertilizer only aged a little to make it less acid.
Gotcha - assumed it must have been something more specific! Not sure exactly. Would have to check some of the many many manure recipes to see if any might match the description. I'd not be surprised if it had been used, just from the sheer variety!
Composting is a general method rather than a specific recipe. You can find tons of Youtube videos on how it's done because it's a very widespread thing for gardeners to make, especially if they are organic farmers.
Right. What I mean is that I'm not sure if they would have seen it as a general method, though it's possible and I wouldn't have noticed. But I suspect that some of the many more specific recipes would fit with what we'd now call composting. But I'm speaking from ignorance, my eyes often having glazed over the hundreds of recipes I've scrolled past to find specific things I'm looking for!
Sometimes, certainly! The piece I linked to about Robert Bakewell discusses his motivations, which were purely economic:
'Bakewell’s core objective, in improving cattle, was to make them as profitable as possible. His core insight was that you could divide a cow with two horizontal lines, with butchers paying the most for the topmost meat on cows’ backs, fit for roasting — “gentlemen’s meat” of the sirloin and fillet. The middle section was less valuable. And the lowest, generally boiled, was “only fit for the army”. Over the course of decades he thus selectively bred cows with the largest possible backs — where the most valuable meat was — and the leanest possible lower parts, their bellies forming a sort of triangle.'
Roger Osborne mentions lime in his popular history of the industrial revolution 'Iron, Steam and Money' (2014), though it is only a mention, and he does call it a fertiliser. But he does credit it as a 'highly significant element' in the rise of agricultural productivity and thus so much else. Credit where credit's due and all that.
Interesting. Not a book I was aware of. He had a good instinct there then! I think Wrigley has also mentioned it, and it certainly featured in Nef’s work in the 30s-50s, which is where I noticed just how prominent it could have been. Coal specialists are aware. But it’s the lack of quantitative analysis by the economic historians that bothers me. We ought to have estimates of its effects!
Very interesting historical research as always. Just a couple of questions. You state , ",,,the actual inventors involved are still a bit of a mystery. It’s something I need to return to, as “lots of anonymous people just invented through trial and error and adaptation” just doesn’t cut it for me — I’ve never found such stories to be true upon closer investigation." What evidence do you have that prior to the eighteenth century new discoveries were not shared and adapted within a community rather than a 'light bulb' moment of ingenuity through one inventor. A second question: When writing this piece for Nesta were you asked to consider what impact any of this rapid industrialisation had on the environment and what lessons we could learn from past environmental mistakes? A very interesting book on this question is by Jarring and Le Roux 'Contamination of the Earth'. The purpose of today's energy transition after all is premised on anthropogenic harm not just shortage of supplies and opportunities for further industrial growth.
On 1) I don’t think I ever characterise invention as some lightbulb moment, but rather as a series of incremental steps by lots of people - lots of sharing and adaptation, as you say. But that’s not the same as “well a group just did it”, which I often see when the source of a change is somewhat mysterious. In those cases, upon digging deeper, I have almost always been able to identify a handful of people driving that process of improvement within the group, and always a smaller number than one would think. Improvement always takes initiative from *some*one.
2) Not part of my brief because it’s already so obvious and well-known: we already know the environmental harm from the rise of fossil fuels. The brief was about what energy abundance looks like, in terms of the economic as well as environmental opportunities of the shift to renewables.
There is much horsepower in these articles
Haha thanks
Up until WWII, business people often considered it to be a depression when prices fell. When countries industrialized, the impact was often an expansion of supply in the face of static demand, leading to price decreases. So, for the Dutch collapse, was there a collapse of supply? Or was it really an expansion of supply causing falling prices?
It’s a very astute question. In this case it does appear to be a collapse in supply, however, and not just a matter of falling prices because of expansion.
Do you have any hunches for what did cause the collapse?
My hunch is that it has something to do with other countries' protectionism - especially France's changes under Colbert. But even then, I'm not sure this fully explains the collapse in population growth. So it's still research in progress (but not one I've been actively researching - just keeping an eye out)
Lime also supplies calcium, which is necessary for some soils. Sometimes sulfur is as well; that is not usually an issue if people are burning fossil fuels nearby, but sulfur deficiency is a bit more common these days. Sulfur, now a waste product from petroleum production, is also useful as a pesticide.
Very interesting. Calcium certainly. Not sure whether making the lime with coal would have removed sulfur or not, however - will have to check, as may have been used for that too.
My mother remembered using a "dog-power" in the early 1900's to power the washing machine. Dog made himself scarce on wash days.
The way we used lime on the farm was to decrease the acidity of the soil. Not sure how that would relate to the early use of it. No expertise here, but sandy soils might be more subject to losing fertility over the years.
Wow! Had no idea dog power was still in use so late!
Yes, sandy soils would likely have required quite a bit of fertiliser and other methods to be usable. Lime was just one of the ingredients, but a big one.
FWIW: Don't know what my grandparents machine looked like, but here's a photo of one. https://museumofclean.com/2021/12/14/museum-of-clean-acquires-19th-century-dog-powered-washing-machine/
And I didn't know this, but apparently a major US washing machine maker got started in the city where they sold their cabbages. https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/connections/history/2016/06/16/how-household-name-got-its-start-binghamton/85982400/
Fascinating. Those poor dogs!
Thank you for your article, Anton.
I enjoyed learning about lime’s role in the transition to coal
Cheers, glad you enjoyed reading
Coal and cement.
One of the by-products of burning coal is "ash".
Interestingly, The Romans added a type of volcanic "ash", known as "Poxzzalan", from the region" to enhance the binding properties of the basic mortar made from "burnt" limestone. in modern times, this has been replaced by "fly ash", which is the particulate residue from burning coal on an industrial scale.
Also used in the "plaster" that forms the "skin" of the hulls of ferro-cement boats. The fly-ash is not completely hydrated in the formation of the cement "plaster". In the event of a "crack" forming in the hull whilst at sea, the process is that a bit of seawater will enter the "crack" and finish hydrating the fly-ash, causing expansion that will seal the "crack".
There are limits to this "healing" process. If your keel gets ripped off striking a barely-submerged empty shipping container in mid ocean, all bets are off.
Yeah the properties of those cements are fascinating. It’s another area where quite a lot happens in the eighteenth century too - Joseph Aspdin, Eleanor Coade, later Isaac Charles Johnson. Another area that’s largely neglected
The building of lime kilns is really interesting across Highland Scotland, especially considering the location of some of them in context of fuel. For example, take a look at the Tomphubil Lime-Kiln near Schiehallion.
The "turnspit dog" wasn't just in Bristol- it was a breed of dog created for this purpose, and allowed to go extinct when no longer needed.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/13/311127237/turnspit-dogs-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-vernepator-cur
Yup! But I think 1630s Bristol is the earliest I’ve seen it mentioned so far, and seemingly as something quite unusual by someone very well-travelled.
There's an unknown link to why a bunch of guys invented the horseless carriage in the 1880s: the Great Horse Flu. In 1872 there was a worldwide influenza pandemic that affected horses but not people. The flu strain did not kill the horses, but they were weak for maybe 7-21 days, depending. The horses were unable to do their jobs, and the horse-powered economy seized up in many places. About a third of Boston burned down because the horses could not pull the water carts used by the firefighters.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-horse-flu-epidemic-brought-19th-century-america-stop-180976453/
If you were an enterprising inventor in 1875 or 1880, the "horseless carriage" was suddenly a very interesting idea.
I would speculate that wars sped up the process too. Apparently most of the horses in Paris were eaten during the siege in 1871, while the German confederation lost many as well. During the Boer War Britain shipped hundreds of thousands of horses to South Africa, where a majority died. Later, WWI may have caused the deaths of 8 million horses.
I too, am now somewhat intrigued and curious about the collapse of Dutch industrial development, and looking at the dates when this occurred although not previously being aware of this occurrence, I have some food for thought.
Could the Industrial development collapse not have had something to do with the establishment of the VOC/ Dutch East India company and their establishment of a trafe route to the East/ Asia to purchase spices and other goods from that region, which involved a "halfway" settlement at the Cape of Good Hope ( South Africa ) established woth the landing of Jan Van Riebeeck at the Cape in 1652, as this developed into more than just a "halfway house" to replenish ships of the VOC, but a colony which exported a multitude of mainly agricultural products back to the Netherlands?
The agricultural products, together with the array of goods being purchased in Asia, most probably quite cheaply, could quite possibly have led to the collapse of Dutch industrial development as they opted for contracting the supply of what they needed, out to cheaper sources.
If this were to be the case, it would expose an early version of what has happened in the US over the past three plus decades.
Speaking of soil fertility I always found it strange that composting was developed only in the 20th C, despite allegedly being used historically for making some dyes. Maybe that's because they already had uses for some of this stuff, like throwing kitchen scraps to chickens/pigs/dogs instead of on a compost plie.
Composting has been used for centuries, I think. I’ve seen it mentioned many times - see for example the huge trade in city “nightsoil” for use on farms. Unless you mean something more specific?
I mean the mixing of "greens" (grass clippings, vegetal food scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds) with "browns" (dry leaves, straw) and water to create an exothermic decomposition that results in compost, a fluffy soil additive.
Manure can be added to a compost pile as a "green" but it was indeed used since forever directly as a fertilizer only aged a little to make it less acid.
Gotcha - assumed it must have been something more specific! Not sure exactly. Would have to check some of the many many manure recipes to see if any might match the description. I'd not be surprised if it had been used, just from the sheer variety!
Composting is a general method rather than a specific recipe. You can find tons of Youtube videos on how it's done because it's a very widespread thing for gardeners to make, especially if they are organic farmers.
Right. What I mean is that I'm not sure if they would have seen it as a general method, though it's possible and I wouldn't have noticed. But I suspect that some of the many more specific recipes would fit with what we'd now call composting. But I'm speaking from ignorance, my eyes often having glazed over the hundreds of recipes I've scrolled past to find specific things I'm looking for!
Very interesting points about the “improvement of animals”; to what extent did people making the improvements think about them in economic terms?
Sometimes, certainly! The piece I linked to about Robert Bakewell discusses his motivations, which were purely economic:
'Bakewell’s core objective, in improving cattle, was to make them as profitable as possible. His core insight was that you could divide a cow with two horizontal lines, with butchers paying the most for the topmost meat on cows’ backs, fit for roasting — “gentlemen’s meat” of the sirloin and fillet. The middle section was less valuable. And the lowest, generally boiled, was “only fit for the army”. Over the course of decades he thus selectively bred cows with the largest possible backs — where the most valuable meat was — and the leanest possible lower parts, their bellies forming a sort of triangle.'
Thanks Anton!
Roger Osborne mentions lime in his popular history of the industrial revolution 'Iron, Steam and Money' (2014), though it is only a mention, and he does call it a fertiliser. But he does credit it as a 'highly significant element' in the rise of agricultural productivity and thus so much else. Credit where credit's due and all that.
Interesting. Not a book I was aware of. He had a good instinct there then! I think Wrigley has also mentioned it, and it certainly featured in Nef’s work in the 30s-50s, which is where I noticed just how prominent it could have been. Coal specialists are aware. But it’s the lack of quantitative analysis by the economic historians that bothers me. We ought to have estimates of its effects!
Very interesting historical research as always. Just a couple of questions. You state , ",,,the actual inventors involved are still a bit of a mystery. It’s something I need to return to, as “lots of anonymous people just invented through trial and error and adaptation” just doesn’t cut it for me — I’ve never found such stories to be true upon closer investigation." What evidence do you have that prior to the eighteenth century new discoveries were not shared and adapted within a community rather than a 'light bulb' moment of ingenuity through one inventor. A second question: When writing this piece for Nesta were you asked to consider what impact any of this rapid industrialisation had on the environment and what lessons we could learn from past environmental mistakes? A very interesting book on this question is by Jarring and Le Roux 'Contamination of the Earth'. The purpose of today's energy transition after all is premised on anthropogenic harm not just shortage of supplies and opportunities for further industrial growth.
On 1) I don’t think I ever characterise invention as some lightbulb moment, but rather as a series of incremental steps by lots of people - lots of sharing and adaptation, as you say. But that’s not the same as “well a group just did it”, which I often see when the source of a change is somewhat mysterious. In those cases, upon digging deeper, I have almost always been able to identify a handful of people driving that process of improvement within the group, and always a smaller number than one would think. Improvement always takes initiative from *some*one.
2) Not part of my brief because it’s already so obvious and well-known: we already know the environmental harm from the rise of fossil fuels. The brief was about what energy abundance looks like, in terms of the economic as well as environmental opportunities of the shift to renewables.
hello anton i sent you something by return email does that get to you?
I’m afraid I did not receive it, though usually it ought to work
Hello Anton tried again
Aha under a different name then - yes that's really interesting from the Abergavenny museum. The stuffed one is so small!