How humans have long used animal energy

Fossil (coal, oil, natural gas), nuclear, renewable or carbon-free (wind, photovoltaic, hydraulic): all these energies have become essential to power the machines that allow us to produce, move, and heat ourselves. But to create this industrial civilization, another source of energy was widely mobilized in France and around the world: that provided by horses, oxen, donkeys and even dogs.

In this special episode of “Knowledge Factory” energy, a podcast from World held in collaboration with the Energy Night 2024 organized by the Ecole Normale Supérieure, meeting with the historian François Jarrige, professor of contemporary history at the University of Burgundy, specialist in the history of industrialization and author of The Round of the Beasts. The animal engine and the construction of modernitypublished by La Découverte.

the 19th^my This century is often considered the “coal century.”. In representations, it is associated with steam engines, internal combustion engines and the beginnings of electrification. Is this story of innovation and progress true to reality?

Only partially. The history of energy has often been written in a linear way: it is said that animal power (and that of man) became obsolete with industrialization and fossil engines, then coal became obsolete with the arrival of oil, etc. But given the urgency to decarbonize and, therefore, to find a replacement for fossil fuels, we realize that the history of energy is not a question of substitution. It is rather a question of sum, a symbiotic story where different energy sources intertwine and accumulate. In my book, The Round of the BeastsI wanted to reposition a type of motor, a source of energy ultimately obvious and little present in this story: the animal motor, called “animated”, in the 19th century.^my century. At that time, as industrialization developed, horse-drawn transport was not replaced: it increased tenfold. The train facilitates mobility over long distances but increases the need to make short journeys, with the feet of walkers and traction animals. In factories and in many sectors of activity, animals are increasingly numerous. Therefore, coal accompanied the exploitation and putting animals to work.

What animals are affected and how are they used?

First of all, horses (already domesticated for more than ten thousand years). Until the 18th^my century, they were mainly used for wars and to transport elites. Then, there is suddenly a democratization of the horse due to its intensive use, on farms and in agricultural work, but also on the roads of cities and the countryside, and in workshops, in mines, to perform different tasks: transportation of goods, lifting. loading, operating machines, crushing materials. They are used to carry out all types of actions that increase work productivity, while at the same time lightening the burden on men.

Dogs are also very present. In the countryside, they take care of the flocks, they serve to turn the wheels of cutlers or nailers, for example, all these craftsmen who need a small motor. They replace children and servants. At the time, textiles were at the heart of the emerging capitalist system. Theorist Friedrich Engels focuses his attention on the great factories of Manchester, with their chimneys and the black smoke produced by coal and steam engines, but in reality many of the textile factories were initially powered by hydraulic machines. And when there is no water, we use the strength of humans and animals, both of which are increasingly exploited.

How are these “proletarian animals”, as you call them, considered by men? Are they companions, colleagues, machines?

There is no need to idealize, but animals are respected. They are quite expensive capital. Therefore, there is no point in putting too much pressure on them. Around 1830, doctors confirmed that, in the factories, the workers worked ten to twelve hours a day – which they reported – and the horses worked no more than six hours. The Society for the Protection of Animals was also created in 1845. Very soon, the work of the dog became scandalous, while that of the horse or ox remained legitimate. A debate arises about the suffering of animals at work, and certain professions are stigmatized for the treatment they inflict, such as coachmen, who whip horses in public spaces, in full view of everyone. So some economists, hygienists and socialists begin to ask a question: just as we begin to recognize the rights of human workers, what about the rights of animal workers?

For what other reasons are we going to stop putting animals to work?

We are not going to stop making them work, but their work will evolve. Horses, for example, were already used on the surface of mines since the 16th century.^my century for coal extraction: systems operate that transport goods. At the beginning of the 19th century^my In the 19th century, the first more powerful steam engines were installed. That’s when the horses go down to the mine. They will gradually disappear in the most capital-intensive sectors, such as coal and textiles, but for all rural activity their use will last until the beginning of the 20th century.^my century in Europe. Then the animal will become a source of energy, this time food, for the populations…

In retrospect, can we consider that animal energy was essential for what we call “industrialization”?

In many sectors of activity during the 19th century^my During the 19th century, putting animals to work was a phase of the process of concentration, of capital accumulation. It made it possible to intensify the energy available to create and produce goods and, therefore, created the possibility of moving to the next phase, that is, to the use of fossil fuels.

Can this story help us think about and overcome the dependence on fossil fuels we find ourselves in today?

Obviously, we will not replace the considerable fossil energy we consume today with animal energy. We often hear that “we are going to decarbonize the economy”, but this is an abstract discourse. My historical work on animals shows that there was first a phase of optimization of non-fossil energies precisely to avoid entering an entirely fossil world. But we went in anyway. Therefore, we must change our lifestyles to support an energy decline in which hydraulic and wind systems will be necessary… but also animal labor. The question is: what could it be to work with animals that isn’t pure exploitation?