Before the Industrial Revolution of the 1890s, human beings had only a moderate need for energy. Man mostly relied on the energy from brute animal strength to do work.
Man first learn to control fire around 1 million BC. Man has used fire to cook food and to warm his shelters ever since. Fire also served as protection against animals. Thousands of years ago, human beings also learned how to use wind as an energy source. Wind is produced by an uneven heating by the sun on the surface of the earth because of the different specific heats of land and water. Hot air has lower pressure than cold air and since high pressure tries to equalize with low pressure the current called wind is produced. Around 1200 BC, in Polynesia, people learned to use this wind energy as a propulsive force for their boats by using a sail.
About 5 thousand years ago, magnetic energy was discovered in China. Magnetic force pulled iron objects and it also provided useful information to navigators since it always pointed North because of the Earth’s magnetic field. Electric energy was discovered by a Greek philosopher named Thales, about 2500 years ago. Thales found that, when rubbing fur against a piece of amber, a static force that would attract dust and other particles to the amber was produced which now we know as the “electrostatic force”.
Around 1000 BC, the Chinese found coal and started using it as a fuel. It burned slower and longer than wood and gave off more heat. It served as an excellent fuel and continued to be used for centuries thereafter. When Marco Polo returned to Italy after an exploration to China in 1275, he introduce coal to the Western world.