After World War I, many European nations no longer wanted to depend on foreign fossil fuels and sought national renewable sources. In France, inhabitants of the forest regions of south-west advocated wood as a technological alternative for fuel, envisaging the transformation of forest waste into an inexhaustible energy source for cars and trucks. Despite the lobbying efforts of political and military leaders, wood fuels failed to gain enough momentum in France. Because of the huge variety of production techniques required specially adapted machines, the challenge to the primacy of petroleum fell short. It mirrors the current debates on establishing a post-fossil fuel world as it shows that the overabundance of technological alternatives may prevent any one of them from reaching a critical mass. The article engages in a dialogue between history of technology and sustainability studies by trying to understand the promises and failures of the past alternatives to the petroleum-based technological paradigm.
...More
Article
Marianne Ryghaug;
Tomas Moe Skjølsvold;
Sara Heidenreich;
(April 2018)
Creating energy citizenship through material participation
(/isis/citation/CBB950810562/)
Article
Davis, Ged;
(Summer 2002)
Meeting Future Energy Needs: Choices and Possibilities
(/isis/citation/CBB870581570/)
Article
Jean Gecit;
(2022)
The First Steps in the Development of Solar Energy in West Africa (1960–1973)
(/isis/citation/CBB416331927/)
Article
Arunabh Ghosh;
(2022)
Multiple makings at China’s first hydroelectric power station at Shilongba, 1908–1912
(/isis/citation/CBB676652903/)
Article
Blair, Peter;
(Fall 1997)
The Evolving Role of Government in Science and Technology
(/isis/citation/CBB385269803/)
Article
Ford, Caroline;
(2008)
Reforestation, Landscape Conservation, and the Anxieties of Empire in French Colonial Algeria
(/isis/citation/CBB001030306/)
Book
Ruth Oldenziel;
Martin Emanuel;
A A Albert de la Bruhèze;;
F C A Veraart;
(2016)
Cycling Cities: The European Experience: Hundred Years of Policy and Practice
(/isis/citation/CBB463672534/)
Book
Alan P. Dobson;
(2017)
A history of international civil aviation: from its origins through transformative evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB511341992/)
Book
John L. Neufeld;
(2016)
Selling Power: Economics, Policy, and Electric Utilities Before 1940
(/isis/citation/CBB220506803/)
Chapter
Laer, Arthe Van;
Bussière, E.;
(2007)
Recherche et technologie ou la “sextuple tutelle” des États sur “la Commission, éternelle mineure”; (Research and Technology or “sextuple trust” under the States “the Commission, eternal minor”)
(/isis/citation/CBB001181581/)
Book
Malin, Stephanie A.;
(2015)
The price of nuclear power: uranium communities and environmental justice
(/isis/citation/CBB674066950/)
Book
Sambrook, Stephen C;
Köster, Roman;
Stokes, Raymond G.;
(2013)
The Business of Waste: Great Britain and Germany, 1945 to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB049551629/)
Article
Abby Spinak;
(January 2020)
"Not Quite So Freely as Air": Electrical Statecraft in North America
(/isis/citation/CBB081992401/)
Book
M. Houston Johnson;
(2019)
Taking Flight: the foundations of American commercial aviation, 1918-1938
(/isis/citation/CBB571790902/)
Article
Marten Boon;
(Spring 2019)
A Climate of Change? The Oil Industry and Decarbonization in Historical Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB981995095/)
Article
Barber, Daniel A.;
(2014)
Tomorrow's House: Solar Housing in 1940s America
(/isis/citation/CBB001421224/)
Book
Miller, Char;
(2013)
Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot
(/isis/citation/CBB001420359/)
Book
Tal, Alon;
(2013)
All the Trees of the Forest: Israel's Woodlands from the Bible to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB001420351/)
Book
Mason A. Carter;
Robert C. Kellison;
R. Scott Wallinger;
(2015)
Forestry in the U.S. South: A History
(/isis/citation/CBB270796317/)
Book
Mathews, Andrew S.;
(2011)
Instituting Nature: Authority, Expertise, and Power in Mexican Forests
(/isis/citation/CBB001221111/)
Be the first to comment!