1873 | Energy
Energy
Electricity drives machinery for the first time in history, at Vienna.
Wall Street's financial panic enables Henry Clay Frick to acquire most of the coal and coke land in the region of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, that can be operated at a profit, and when Pittsburgh steel mill operators discover that Connellsville coke is the best coke for steelmaking, the price of coke will rise from $1 per ton to $5 (see 1870). Frick will have gained control of 80 percent of the Connellsville coke output, will be a millionaire by age 30, will be offered a general managership by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and will organize the Carnegie Company, whose basic unit will be the Homestead Works (see 1892).
Thaddeus Lowe of 1866 artificial ice fame discovers a process for manufacturing water gas that will greatly enhance use of gaslight illumination (see technology [coke oven], 1897; Welsbach mantle, 1885).
Russia's Baku oil fields increase production as Alfred Nobel of 1866 dynamite fame and his brother Ludwig invest capital to build a refinery that will make Baku the world's leading petroleum producer (see 1871; 1901).