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The development of the service sector as a result of fewer people being needed to produce basic necessities such as food and clothing.

Economic growth and energy intensity -- and urbanization, which has its own effects upon energy generation and utilization.

Patterns of growth in various industries. Moore's Law and its effect upon information technology. Comparing cell phones and automobiles. Looking at ordinary things in new ways.

The development of modern communications systems, especially telephony and radio.

Electricity and transportation

How the Industrial Revolution was more of a process than an event. Not a sharp break, but evolutionary development

The growing importance of *control* of transportation and other technology. A runaway team of horses could cause damage but a runaway train or an airplane crash could cause widespread havoc because of the far greater amounts of energy involved, requiring procedural rules to prevent such disasters.

The growth in the size and capacity of jet airliners (with the Concorde as an outlier), as power to mass ratios of engines improved.

Development of modern electrical grids and of hydrocarbon fuel transmission pipeline networks. The development of hydroelectric generation from Westinghouse's first generators at Niagra Falls. The beginning of nuclear energy in the wartime effort to produce a weapon of unparalleled power by releasing the binding energy of the nucleus, as opposed to chemical energy of electron bonds.

Tesla's critical AC patents, which are the foundation of the modern electrical grid.

The development of electricity as a primary energy source. Edison's light bulb, the transformer, and the War of the Currents.

The development of flight, which is heavily dependent upon compact, lightweight energy sources. The new gasoline engine proved perfect for this job. But even with all these new applications for ICE's, the steam engine did not vanish altogether.

The beginnings of the modern car -- and how it would remain an elite item until Henry Ford produced his Model T, and in the process created the modern assembly line.

The maturation of the steam engine, and the development of the internal combustion engine, particularly as petroleum provided a more energy-dense fuel than producer gas or other alternatives.

Barriers on the development of steam transportation.

The earliest versions of the steam engine, and how James Watt made the modifications that produced the practical steam engine design which would be the basis of all further steam engines,

From metallurgy to warfare, and how until the introduction of gunpowder, all weapons (save fire) were muscle-powered -- the source of our expression "arms" for weapons, because the arm that wielded the sword or lance powered it. Even bows and catapults were powered by human energy put into a mechanism, be it a length of wood under tension or a coiled rope.

Early iron smelting. The blooming furnace, which produces a mass of iron that can be subsequently worked to beat out the impurities -- but uses so much charcoal that whole regions are deforested to produce relatively small numbers of iron weapons and tools. And then the beginnings of the modern blast furnace and pig iron (the origin of the expression "sweat like a pig" -- it's an ingot, not an animal).

The beginnings of metalworking, and the problem of using up all the wood in an area to make charcoal for smelting metals from ore.

The use of tools in public works, and particularly the construction of monumental buildings. How were the giant blocks that compose the Pyramids of Giza moved into position? Giant ramps and rollers, or some form of levers? The Roman invention of concrete, and the creation of the Pantheon with its dome. Technologies that wouldn't reappear until the Industrial Age and Portland cement.

Sailing ships vs. ships using fossil fuels

The development of the sailing ship and the ability to sail in unfavorable winds. It reached its apex just as the steamship became able to cross oceans.

How the bicycle went from dangerous curiosity to one of the most efficient forms of body-powered transportation. The development of canals, particularly the development of locks to move barges between high and low water levels.

Human gaits and their energy costs. The building of roads in various civilizations.

Pre-industrial methods of heating. For much of history open fires have been the norm, but at times we see such things as hypocausts (warm air drawn from a fire through under-floor passages) and various types of stoves, mostly brick or ceramic. Lighting also weak and flickering, based upon combustion.

Waterwheels and windmills -- humanity's first non-biological energy source for getting work done. But both depend upon environmental factors not under human control. Various kinds of water wheels, horizontal and vertical, and the necessities of managing water flow for maximum output. Their replacement by water turbines in the Nineteenth Century. Early Dutch and other windmills...

The urban horse, and the horrific conditions these animals had to toil under -- and the sheer volume of waste they produced.

The Nineteenth Century sees sophisticated scientific measurements of human muscle power vs horse and other animals. Unsurprising, given this is also the century of the steam engine, with railroads, steamboats and the earliest steam traction engines. But steam is tricky to handle and hard to subdivide into small engines for farming and household use. So muscle power remains important.

The limits of muscle power -- including the fact that you can't turn the prime movers on and off at need, so you have to feed and shelter them all year even if you only need them a few months. The use of various simple machines -- wheels, levers, etc. -- to gain more work out of the same amount of effort.

As farming becomes more intensive, draft animals need more and better food -- putting them in competition with the humans they're working for. Improvements in tools, such as the Prairie Queen, can do only so much as long as they're dependent upon muscle power -- but early steam engines are unsuitable for field work. Intensive human labor can actually reduce the quality of diets, until things backslide.