Waterpower scarcity and coal use during the Industrial Revolution

A study combining history, economics, and fluvial geomorphology examines the causes of the adoption of coal power during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain. At the beginning of the mechanization of the textile industry in Britain, most machines were powered with waterpower. Eventually waterpower was replaced by using coal to make steam power and the causes of this shift have long been debated. One influential hypothesis has been that waterpower became scarce in the industrial heartland of northwest England during the early 19th century, as all available suitable sites were already fitted with watermills. To test that hypothesis, Tara Jonell and colleagues evaluated the availability of waterpower resources across mainland Britain during the water-to-steam transition, which spanned about 1770–1840. The authors used 19th century climate and meteorological observations as well as a cartographic mill census data as inputs to geomorphological flow-routing to estimate river discharge and waterpower potential. The authors conclude that on a national scale, waterpower remained significantly underutilized, but that at key local scales, such as the major cotton textile production region north and east of Manchester, sometimes called “Cottonopolis,” waterpower was scarce by 1838, if not earlier. According to the authors, limited waterpower should be considered one of the major drivers that encouraged the adoption of the use of coal for steam power by area manufacturers.

Credit: Tara N Jonell.