Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

Get access

Charcoal
(2,140 words)

1. General significance

The making of charcoal from wood at a charcoal-burning, carbonization or pyrolysis site by means of controlled heating or burning with a regulated supply of air was already known in the high cultures of antiquity. With the spread of work with ore and metal working in the Bronze and Iron Ages charcoal became the most important fuel (cf. Fuels and illuminants) and retained this position until the middle of the 19th …

Cite this page
Bleidick, Dietmar, “Charcoal”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_021079>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160907



▲   Back to top   ▲