You could say today is the anniversary of the creation of the invention that fueled the Industrial Revolution.  You could also say it’s the anniversary of the start of climate change.  You would be right on both parts because 215 years ago today, in a small settlement known as Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Judge Jesse Fell tested a new furnace grate that maximized the heat generated by burning anthracite, or “hard,” coal, increasing its efficiency in manufacturing as well as making it useable as a home heating fuel.

Fell’s invention led to changes across society:  families had an affordable compact heat source better than wood; industrial furnaces could burn hotter; and the small outpost in northeast Pennsylvania which had about 900 people exploded to a regional hub as Wilkes-Barre’s population topped 50,000 a century later as German, Polish and Eastern European immigrants came to work in the region’s mines.  Resorts sprung up on nearby lakes to entertain the new coal barons.

The tavern and inn where Fell first installed the grate came to be known as the Old Fell House, and decades after Judge Fell was gone, my family purchased it and ran it for three-quarters of a century.  With stories about hearing coal miners working under the ground of their homes, my older relatives told me about their feeling that the grate represented the prosperity of the city, and the stewardship of the history to the next generation was their duty.  Long after the coal mines shut down, the Fell House grate symbolized power and innovation.  That is, until the late 1980s when the Old Fell House was torn down to make room for a hospital parking lot and the world-changing grate was sent to the county historical society.

Now more than two centuries after Judge Fell helped power the growth of the nation, we know what price that growth cost.  As the coal was harvested, thousands died in mining accidents; thousands more would be injured or maimed.  Those who didn’t die in the mines frequently lost their lives to “black lung disease.”  Landscapes were scarred; mountains were literally moved.  And now, we know the long-term impact of coal use:  dangerous changes to the climate.

Just as the Old Fell House’s day has long gone by, so now must we move on from the legacy industry it left behind.  As of 2021, more than 90% of the power generated by burning coal goes to electricity production, but coal produces around 1/5th of all electricity.  As the number of producing mines in the US decreases–there is less than half the number of mines operating in 2021 as there were in 2010–the sources of coal become scarcer, and other more economical power sources rise.

Meanwhile, renewable energy continues its rise:  even the mountains that gave millions of tons of anthracite now have wind turbines dotting them.  Coal had its day when we had no other options available.  We have options now.