Energy grades and economic growth

In 1709 William Darby invented the coking process that led to the use of coal in eighteenth century England. From an economic standpoint, one could say that this event more than any other ushered in the industrial revolution with its dependence on coal and steel produced with coal. However, from an engineering perspective, there is another cause of the industrial revolution that is more subtle-the physical makeup of the energy resources available to England. According to Simon Kuznets, an economic epoch, i.e., a period of time defined by rapid population increase for a given region, {open_quotes}is determined and shaped by the application and ramification of an {open_quote}epochal{close_quote} innovation{close_quotes}, in other words, new significant technologies.