First, coal. When you trace the story of improved transportation or communication or industrial efficiency or better chemical manufacturing, it always comes back to coal, because the Industrial Revolution was all about using different forms of energy to automate production. And England had large supplies of coal that were near the surface, which meant that it was cheap to mine, so it quickly replaced wood for peating and cooking and stuff. So that encouraged the British to look for more coal. The only problem with coal mining, aside from it being, you know, like, deadly and everything, is that the coal mines flooded all the time. I guess coal mining is also a little problematic for, like, the health of, you know, the, like, the planet. But because there was all this incentive to get more coal out of the ground, steam engines were invented to pump water out of the mines.