1416 • Time Line Global Resources 450 Greek city-states begin to issue their own silver coins. 407 The gold and silver statues of the Acropolis are melted down to pay for the Athenian fleet. 400 Animal wastes are recognized as useful fertilizers. 347 Rome introduces its coinage in the form of weights of copper. 312 Romans begin construction of the Appian Way, which ultimately stretches for 600 kilometers. 283 The great Alexandrine stone lighthouse is built on the Egyptian island of Pharos. 269 Rome introduces silver coinage. 240 A bronze pipe organ is constructed at Alexandria, Egypt. 225 Emperor Cheng (also known as Shih Huang Ti) begins construction of China’s Great Wall. 214 The Great Wall of China is completed. 140 Irrigation channels are built in China. 50 The water wheel is invented in Greece and is soon also used in the Roman world. 45 Large Roman projects are begun to drain the Pontine Marshes in Italy and to cut the Corinth canal. 30 The major period of Roman road-building begins. 20 Water wheels are used to grind grain. c.e. 33 Pontius Pilate builds a major aqueduct to provide water for Jerusalem. 50 Glassblowing is well established as an art; glass is first used for windows. 74 Roman roads are built in Britain. 77 Pliny the Elder writes Historia Naturalis and laments the discovery of iron because it has made war more terrible. 80 The Roman Colosseum is finished under Titus; constructed partly of concrete, it can seat 87,000. 250 Mica plates are used as windows in houses in China. 550 Maya build great stone temples at Tikal, Mexico. 700 Windmills are used to grind grain in Iran. 850 Marks the first historical Chinese reference to gunpowder. 1000 Arab scientists develop primitive methods of oil refining. 1050 The Anasazi construct cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, New Mexico. 1100’s Marks the first historical records of windmills in Europe. 1273 Londoners complain about air pollution from coal burning. 1306 King Edward I bans the burning of coal in England. 1486 Christopher Columbus petitions Queen Isabella to support a voyage of exploration. Global Resources Time Line • 1417 1492 Christopher Columbus discovers the New World; the first Native Americans he encounters have gold nose plugs. 1494 Pope Alexander VI decrees the Line of Demarcation to divide the New World and its resources between Spain and Portugal. 1495 Christopher Columbus imposes a gold tax on all natives of Hispaniola (the island that now comprises the Dominican Republic and Haiti). 1498 John Cabot discovers North America for England. 1498 Vasco da Gama discovers a route to the Far East around the southern tip of Africa. 1509 Count Ordones de Montalvo’s book Las Sergas de Esplandian mentions an island named California that abounds with gold. 1513 Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain; Vasco Núñez de Balboa sights the Pacific. 1519 Spaniard Hernán Cortés marches into Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) to conquer the Aztecs and steal gold. 1533 Conquering Peru, Spaniard Francisco Pizarro kills Incan ruler Atahaulpa despite having been paid a $15 million ransom in gold. 1542 Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River. 1543 Oil is found in Texas by Spaniard Luis de Moscoso. 1556 Georgius Agricola publishes De Re Metallica, the first treatise on ore deposits. 1577 Explorer Sir Martin Frobisher returns to England from northern Canada with 200 tons of ore mistakenly thought to be gold. 1577-1580 Sir Francis Drake completes his around-the-world voyage. 1587 The presence of iron ore in America is reported by an English expedition on Roanoke Island. 1607 Captain Christopher Newport, after establishing the first settlers in the New World, sails to England with a load of rocks mistakenly believed to contain gold. 1644 The first blast furnace to produce iron in America is built in Braintree, Massachusetts. 1650 English farmers apply ground animal bones to their fields as fertilizer. 1652 The Pine Tree shilling, the first American colonial coin, is minted. 1679 French explorers discover the first coal beds in North America along the Illinois River. 1698 Thomas Savery develops the first steam engine, making the Industrial Revolution possible. 1710 Abraham Darby discovers a method of using coke to smelt iron. 1725 Diamonds are discovered in Brazil. 1750 The first coal is mined in the New World near Richmond, Virginia. 1756 John Smeaton discovers the formula for making cement, lost since the fall of the Roman Empire. 1759 Coal mining begins in western Pennsylvania. 1763 Platinum is separated as a metallic element, and its catalytic properties are soon recognized. 1764 Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet develops a three-tiered method of road-building in France. 1418 • Time Line Global Resources 1765 James Watt invents a condenser that leads to an improved steam engine. 1766 Henry Cavendish discovers that the element hydrogen is lighter than air. 1769 French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot develops the first steam-powered road carriage. 1769 Josiah Wedgwood opens the Etrurua pottery works near Burslem in the United Kingdom. 1772 Joseph Priestley discovers the element oxygen and recognizes that plants give off oxygen. 1775 James Watt perfects his steam engine. 1775-1779 Thomas F. Pritchard builds the first cast iron bridge at Ironbridge, Coalbookdale, Shropshire, United Kingdom. 1781 Abby S. Volta of Italy recognizes the organic origin of oil and gas. 1781 Nickel and tungsten are isolated as metals. 1782 Thomas Jefferson notes the discovery of gold in the Rappahannock River of Virginia. 1784 Henry Cavendish discovers that water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. 1784 Henry Cort’s puddling process revolutionizes the manufacture of wrought iron. 1789 Martin Klaproth discovers an oxide of uranium in pitchblende and names the element. 1790 The great canal system of England is begun to help with the transport of resources. 1797 Chromium is isolated as a metal. 1798 Philippe Lebon patents systems to heat and illuminate with coal gas. 1799 Twelve-year-old Conrad Reed discovers a 17-pound gold nugget in North Carolina. 1803 Rhodium and palladium are discovered. 1804 Robert Fulton builds his first steamboat. 1804 Commercial gold production in the United States begins in North Carolina. 1806 Sodium and potassium are isolated and identified. 1808 Major shipments of Peruvian guano are sent to Europe to be used as fertilizer. 1812 Some main streets of London are illuminated by gas lighting. 1814 George Stephenson builds the first effective steam locomotive. 1815 Sir Humphry Davy invents the miner’s lamp. 1815 John McAdam’s method of building roads with broken stone becomes standard in the United Kingdom. 1817 A street in Baltimore becomes the first in the United States to be lighted with gas. 1821 Bauxite is recognized at Les Baux in France, but it is not yet possible to extract aluminum from it. 1822 Augustin-Jean Fresnel perfects glass lenses for use in lighthouses. 1824 Joseph Aspidin makes portland cement. 1824 Silicon is recognized to be an element. Global Resources Time Line • 1419 1825 New York State’s Erie Canal opens, allowing easier transport of people and resources to and from the frontier. 1825 Hans Christian Oersted first produces metallic aluminum. 1829 George Stephenson operates the first commercially successful steam-powered railroad locomotive. 1830 The first major shipment of nitrate fertilizers is made, from northern Chile to Europe. 1830 John James Audubon publishes Birds of America. 1836 Acetylene is first made. 1839 Louis Daguerre perfects a process for producing a silver image on copper plate, ushering in the age of photography. 1841 Robert W. Bunsen invents the carbon-zinc battery. 1841 Eugene-Melchior Peligot is the first to isolate uranium metal. 1842 John Lawes develops methods using sulfuric acid to make super-phosphate fertilizers. 1843 Michael Faraday discovers how to use electricity to plate metals with nickel. 1844 Extensive Lake Superior district iron ore deposits are discovered on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 1848 Gold is discovered in California. 1848 The first production of Lake Superior iron ores occurs. 1851 Gold is discovered in Australia. 1851 John Gorrie patents the first commercial machine to make ice, facilitating transport of refrigerated goods. 1852 Peak of gold production in the California gold rush. 1854 Abraham Gesner applies for a patent for his process to manufacture kerosene from asphalt. 1856 Henry Bessemer’s process for steelmaking lowers prices. 1857 James M. Wilson digs a small oil well and builds a small refinery in Ontario. 1857 The Comstock silver lode is discovered in Nevada. 1858 A process using chlorine gas to extract gold from ores is first applied. 1859 Edwin Drake drills the first U.S. oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. 1861 The open-hearth steel furnace is developed in the United Kingdom and France. 1863 The copper-lead-zinc-bearing ores of the Bingham Canyon district, Utah, are discovered. 1866 Alfred Nobel invents dynamite. 1866 Diamonds are discovered in the bed of the Vaal River, South Africa. 1869 Gold is discovered in the Transvaal in South Africa. 1870 John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil Company. 1872 President Ulysses S. Grant signs the General Mining Law of 1872. 1420 • Time Line Global Resources 1872 Yellowstone National Park is established as the first national park in the world. 1872 Robert Smith coins the term “acid rain.” 1872 The first long-distance gas pipeline is constructed of wood in New York. 1873 The first offshore oil well is drilled at Baku on the Caspian Sea. 1876 The gold ores of the Homestake Mine, South Dakota, are discovered. 1877 Joseph Monier invents reinforced concrete beams. 1878-1880 The War of the Pacific results in Chile taking portions of Bolivia and Peru that are rich in nitrate fertilizer components and copper ores. 1879 Thomas Edison demonstrates the new incandescent lightbulb. 1879 The U.S. Geological Survey is established. 1880 The first electric-arc furnaces for making steel are introduced in England. 1880 Andrew Carnegie builds the first large steel furnace. 1880 The first streets are lighted by electricity in New York City. 1882 The rich copper ores of Butte, Montana—the “richest hill on earth”—are discovered. 1883 The world’s greatest nickel deposits are discovered at Sudbury, Ontario. 1884 Charles Parsons constructs the first practical steam turbine to make electricity. 1884 James Starley develops an improved bicycle. 1886 The great Witwatersrand gold deposits are discovered in South Africa. 1886 Charles M. Hall discovers a new process for making aluminum. 1886 Construction of hydroelectric installations is begun at Niagara Falls. 1887 The modern cyanide process for the extraction of silver and gold is patented. 1888 The diamond company DeBeers is founded by C. J. Rhodes. 1888 Large phosphate deposits are discovered in Florida. 1889 The first nickel-bearing steels are developed. 1891 Edward G. Acheson, trying to make diamonds, makes silicon carbide. 1893 The first gasoline-powered car is driven by the Duryea brothers in Springfield, Massachusetts. 1895 The first wind-powered electric systems are built in Denmark. 1896 Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity. 1896 Gold is discovered at Bonanza Creek, Yukon, leading to the Klondike gold rush. 1896 Svante August Arrhenius recognizes that the temperature at the Earth’s surface is related to the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. 1898 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin builds his first lighter-than-air airship. 1901 With the Spindletop gusher, the East Texas oil fields are discovered. 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright conduct the first successful airplane flight. Global Resources Time Line • 1421 1905 The largest diamond, the Cullinan (3,106 carats), is discovered at the Premier Mine in South Africa. 1907 World production of coal reaches 1 billion metric tons for the first time. 1908 Fritz Haber invents an industrial process to make ammonia. 1908 A huge oil gusher at Masjed Soleym3n ushers in the oil era in Persia (Iran). 1909 Henry Ford introduces the Model T. 1910 The U.S. Bureau of Mines is established. 1912 Henry Breary invents stainless steel. 1913 The modern petroleum cracking process is invented. 1924 The Teapot Dome scandal taints the U.S. oil industry. 1930’s The Dust Bowl develops in the central United States due to drought and poor farming practices. 1933 The Civilian Conservation Corps undertakes many large-scale U.S. public works projects. 1937 The Hindenburg, a German lighter-than-air airship filled with hydrogen, burns and crashes at Lakehurst, New Jersey. 1938 Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. 1942 The first sustained nuclear chain reactions are produced in Chicago. 1942 U.S. gold mines are closed to help promote production of copper. 1943 The Big Inch oil pipeline, from Texas to the Northeast, begins operation. 1945 The first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. 1946 The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is established. 1950’s Mercury poisoning occurs in the Minamata Bay area, Japan, from the dumping of wastes into the bay. 1952 Activated charcoal is used to recover gold at Cripple Creek, Colorado. 1954 General Electric first synthesizes diamonds. 1956 The first nuclear power plant goes on line at Calder Hall, United Kingdom. 1957 The first nuclear power plant in the United States begins operation. 1958 The famous Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution. 1960 The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is formed. 1960 The Geysers geothermal power plant, the largest in the world, begins operation in California. 1961 An underground coal mine fire begins and spreads slowly under Centralia, Pennsylvania, eventually causing abandonment of the town in the 1980’s. 1962 Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring. 1963 The first Clean Air Act is enacted. 1965 Oil is discovered in the North Sea. 1422 • Time Line Global Resources 1965 The first production of so-called invisible gold at Carlin, Nevada, ushers in a new era of bulk mining of low-grade gold ore. 1965 The first Clean Water Act (Federal Water Quality Act) is enacted. 1966 The first tidal power system is installed at La Rance, France. 1967 Oil is discovered on the Alaskan north slope. 1968 The first huge “supertankers” begin transporting oil. 1970 The first Earth Day is observed. 1970 The Clean Air Act is rewritten and strengthened. 1970 President Richard Nixon establishes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1970 Large-scale heap leach mining is first used to extract gold from low-grade ores at Carlin, Nevada. 1971 The Aswan High Dam on the Nile River in Egypt is dedicated. 1972 Use of the pesticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) is banned by the Environmental Protection Agency. 1972 The Clean Water Act is strengthened; limits on wastewater pollution are established. 1972 The Ocean Dumping Act regulates waste disposal in the oceans. 1973 OPEC institutes an oil embargo of Western countries, creating the first “energy crisis.” 1973 The Endangered Species Act is enacted. 1974 The Safe Drinking Water Act establishes primary drinking water standards. 1975 The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is created in salt domes of the Gulf Coast. 1975 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is established. 1975 The iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in a Lake Superior storm. 1975 Lead is eliminated from regular gasoline in the United States because of its threat to health. 1976 The Toxic Substances Control Act is enacted to protect against chemicals, asbestos, and radon. 1976 The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is established to control solid waste and hazardous waste in the United States. 1977 President Jimmy Carter calls the energy crisis the “moral equivalent of war.” 1977 Clamshell Alliance demonstrators protest at the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. 1977 The first oil passes through the Alaska pipeline. 1978 The Environmental Protection Agency bans lead from house paints. 1979 An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant leads to a partial meltdown. 1979-1981 Oil prices rise to more than $35 per barrel as OPEC tightens supplies. 1980 The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) establishes a federal fund to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites. 1980 The price of gold briefly reaches a high of $850 per troy ounce. Global Resources Time Line • 1423 1982 The United Nations Law of the Sea Conference agrees to international conventions regarding the use of the sea and its resources. 1984 Radon gas is recognized as a health problem in homes when a worker sets off radiation alarms at the Limerick nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. 1985 The Environmental Protection Agency proposes banning most asbestos-containing materials. 1986 The Chernobyl nuclear power plant at Kiev in Ukraine (in 1986 still part of the Soviet Union and known as the Ukraine) explodes and burns in the world’s worst nuclear accident. 1986 The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (Title III) requires industries to report toxic emissions. 1987 Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is designated by the U.S. government as a likely permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste. 1989 The discovery of “cold” nuclear fusion is announced by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman, but other scientists are unable to duplicate their reported results. 1989 The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 42 million liters of crude oil. 1990 Diamond-bearing kimberlites are discovered in the Northwest Territories of Canada. 1990 The United States enacts a revised Clean Air Act. 1990 The Pollution Prevention Act seeks to prevent pollution by encouraging waste reduction. 1990 The spotted owl controversy pits logging companies against environmental groups in the Northwest. 1990 European Community environmental ministers agree to limit automobile exhaust emissions. 1990-1991 Iraq invades and overruns Kuwait; allied forces attack and destroy Iraqi forces in order to regain Kuwait’s oil fields and ensure that Saudi Arabia is not endangered. 1992 The Environmental Protection Agency bans the land disposal of wastes with high mercury content. 1992 The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro sets goals for limiting pollution worldwide. 1992 The Environmental Protection Agency initiates a long-term program to remove lead from all public drinking water supplies. 1993 The oil tanker Braer runs aground between Scotland and the Shetland Islands, spilling 95 million liters of crude oil. 1994 The first genetically engineered food, the Flavr Savr tomato, reaches supermarkets. 1996 The U.S. Bureau of Mines is abolished. 1997 The Busang gold deposit in Indonesia, reported to be the largest found in one hundred years, is revealed to be a fraud—a “salted” deposit. 1997 “Dolly,” a sheep, becomes the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell; the animal dies prematurely in 2003. 1997 The Toyota Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid car, debuts on the Japanese market. 1999 NASA launches Landsat 7, the most technologically advanced remote-sensing satellite to date. 1424 • Time Line Global Resources 2003 Scientists release the first complete draft of the human genome. 2005 U.S. President George W. Bush signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which provides incentives for the development of alternative sources of energy in an attempt to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. 2005 The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty focused on reducing the threat of global warming, enters into force. 2006 By way of a presidential act, Papah3naumoku3kea, near Hawaii, becomes the first underwater national monument. 2006 Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, is completed along the Chang River (also known as the Yangtze River) in central China. 2007 Former U.S. vice president Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change receive the Nobel Peace Prize. 2008 Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a repository for numerous varieties of food crops, is opened on the remote Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. 2008 Aguçadoura Wave Park, the first commercial-scale wave-power station in the world, opens off the Portuguese coast. 2008 A severe economic recession escalates and spreads throughout the world, contracting production of many resources. 2009 In separate instances within a one-month period, Continental Airlines, Air New Zealand, and Japan Airlines demonstrate the feasibility of using biodiesel fuel to power commercial flight. Continental Airlines uses a 50/50 mixture of plants and algae, Air New Zealand uses a jatropha- based fuel, and Japan Airlines uses a mixture of oils derived from jatropha, algae, and camelina. Glossary Abrasion: Wearing away of rocks in streams by grind- ing, especially when rocks and sediment are car- ried along by stream water. Acid mine drainage: Low-pH, mineral-laden water that drains from mines or mine wastes; chemical in- teraction between water, oxygen, and iron sulfide (pyrite) causes the drainage to become acidic. Acid precipitation: Rain, snow, or fog containing un- usually high levels of sulfuric or nitric acid; the source of the acidity is polluted air. Aggregate: Gravel, crushed stone, or other hard, in- ert materials used in concrete and other construc- tion materials, as railroad ballast, and as fill mate- rial. Alloy: A metal fused with other metal(s) or non- metal(s) to form a solid substance with metallic properties. Bronze, brass, and steel are three well- known alloys. Anion: Anatom, group of atoms, or molecule that has gained electrons to become a negatively charged ion. See also Cation. Annealing: Tempering a material, such as metal or glass, by heating it and slowly cooling it, thereby making it tougher and less brittle. Anthropogenic: Produced or generated by human be- ings. Aquaculture: Commercial raising and harvesting of seafood such as fish, shellfish, or seaweed in artifi- cial ponds or in selected portions of rivers or coastal waters. Aquifer: A water-bearing body of rock, sand, or gravel that is capable of yielding substantial quantities of water to wells or springs. Asbestosis: A chronic lung inflammation caused by the prolonged inhalation of very fine particles of asbestos dust. Asthenosphere: The partially molten portion of the outer mantle that extends from the base of the lithosphere (about 100 kilometers below the sur- face) to a depth of about 350 kilometers. Atmosphere: The mobile, flowing envelope of gases, water vapor, and solid and liquid particles that sur- rounds the Earth, extending up to about 480 kilo- meters above the planet’s surface. Authorized for disposal: According to the U.S. Geo- logical Survey, “quantities that are in excess of the stockpile goal for a material, and for which Con - gress has authorized disposal over the long term at rates designed to maximize revenue but avoid un- due disruption of the usual markets and financial loss to the United States.” Barrel: The standard unit of measure for oil and pe- troleum products, equal to 42 U.S. gallons or ap- proximately 159 liters. Basalt: A dark-colored, fine-grained volcanic rock that results when lava rich in iron and magnesium and low in silica cools rapidly. Basement: The crystalline, often Precambrian, igne- ous and metamorphic rocks that occur beneath the sedimentary rock on the continents. Basin: A regionally depressed structure in which sedi- ments accumulate. Batholith: Alarge-mass igneous rock with exposure of more than 100 square kilometers and no known floor; composed of multiple related smaller bodies called plutons. Bauxite: The principal ore of aluminum; a mixture of aluminum compounds produced by prolonged weathering of bedrock in tropical or subtropical climates. Beta particle: A high-speed electron emitted from the nucleus of a radioactive element. Biodegradable: Capable of being decomposed by mi- croorganisms. Biodiversity: The variety of life, usually described in terms of the number of species present. Biofuels: Energy sources derived from recently dead organisms, most commonly plants. Biogenic sediments: The sediment particles formed from skeletons or shells of microscopic plants and animals living in seawater. Biome: Large ecosystem on a continental scale; a ter- restrial ecosystem. Specific combinations of plants and animals, known as communities, live in each biome. See also Desert; Grassland; Wetland. Biosphere: The total living material—plants and ani- mals—of the Earth; the portion of the Earth’s lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere occu- pied by living organisms. Biotechnology: Techniques that use living organisms or parts of organisms to produce a variety of prod- ucts (from medicines to industrial enzymes) to im - prove plants or animals or to develop microorgan - . hazardous waste sites. 1980 The price of gold briefly reaches a high of $850 per troy ounce. Global Resources Time Line • 1423 1982 The United Nations Law of the Sea Conference agrees to international. gravel that is capable of yielding substantial quantities of water to wells or springs. Asbestosis: A chronic lung inflammation caused by the prolonged inhalation of very fine particles of asbestos dust. Asthenosphere:. variety of life, usually described in terms of the number of species present. Biofuels: Energy sources derived from recently dead organisms, most commonly plants. Biogenic sediments: The sediment particles