It all started by a mere accidental friction of the stones and shockingly came into existence. Since then, fire became the most common commodity at that time and a lot of more discoveries were made by fire. Moreover, wood, charcoals, and then coal were the main sources for producing a fire. As people developed more scientific knowledge on fuels and energy, they developed the ability to manufacture, store, and utilize fuels as needed. Hence, energy jobs were already noted in the past. In fact, the first gas company was founded in Britain in 1812. While, the first gas company in the United States was developed in Baltimore in 1817. When the oil rush started in 1859, the development of natural gas stopped. Later, another barrier to the natural gas industry came with the development of the electric light. Gas lights had been more effective and easier than kerosene, but electric lighting was far more popular. Cooking gas was the one area where popularity increased over the early years of the energy industry.
Moreover, energy opportunities increased when huge reserves of natural gas increased to 800 billion cubic feet a year. Further increases in the quantity of natural gas produced were dependent on the development of pipelines that could carry the gas to potential market areas. Production of natural gas reached a plateau by the mid-1980s at almost eighteen quadrillion BTUs (British thermal units); production totaled more than sixteen quadrillion BTUs in 1987. While the natural gas industry continued to change, other energy sources were also being developed. When the internal combustion engine was patented in 1838, the beginning had been set for gasoline to come into use as a fuel. Then, Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir built a single cylinder engine in 1860, which, by 1865, had 400 copies in use in Paris for such machines as printing presses and water pumps. While German inventors developed the two-and four-cylinder combustion engine that was used to burn gasoline and power moving vehicles.
With the development of the automobile, jobs in energy surmounted, and the demand for gasoline grew dramatically as the popularity of the auto increased. World War II increased the demand and the development of petroleum products. Energy employment for fuel for tanks, ships and other wartime vehicles allowed the industry to develop a large quantity of oil wells across the country. After the war, the surplus was used in development of gas powered farm vehicles and machinery. Refineries also developed petroleum products that would be used for synthetic rubber, medicinal oils, and explosives In the early 1950s, petroleum became the largest energy source in the United States. Coal had been the largest until then, but it would begin a decline that only began to reverse itself in the mid-1960s. Likewise, in 1970s, the Middle Eastern countries began to export huge quantities of oil to the developed nations. Demand for oil had increased to the point where western nations also made a high demand to purchase it as industrial ventures began to emerge. Later, when the Middle Eastern countries were able to control the quantity and the price of the oil being sold, the countries formed a cartel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which became one of the major influences on world on world economy. Thus, to combat the influence of OPEC, Great Britain, the United States, and other oil producing countries, increased domestic production in order to reduce the percentage of oil the world depended on from the OPEC nations. The increased production forced OPEC to reduce prices and broke the control that OPEC had held.
Energy jobs and opportunity had widened as continual increased in demand for petroleum been consistently active, as well as extensive developments of new drilling areas. Meantime, increasing the speed and quantity shipped from existing oil field became the primary goal of the industry. The efficiency of producing and delivering it would mean a great business. Then, in year 1950s, energy company jobs were in great demand as projects were made for extending the U.S. pipeline system to Alaska with the lower 48 states through a new 5,000-mile pipeline from the fuel-rich North Slope to the West Coast and the Great Lakes regions. The pipeline would be the largest single construction project with wider energy jobs ever undertaken by private industry and would provide a large source of oil and natural gas to the United States. Truly, the history of the past industrial energy undertakings, and its energy jobs had brought a big impact to the whole economy.
