Posted by Mick B1 on 10/08/2021 11:21:52:
I guess what it does bring into focus is the truly vast practical superiority of internal combustion engines over solid-fuel external combustion.
And the backbreaking, disciplined, numbingly tedious manual labour many of the population would have to take on in order to return to that technology on any substantial scale.
There is no contest really, or even a comparison. Oil would have replaced coal after a few years and now LPG would likely be used as fuel. They would require a lot more water than fuel.🙂
BUT, either no masses of individual transport or horrendously accelerated use of fossil fuels (and hence climate change). At least internal combustion engines have reached 25-30% energy efficiency and (mostly) without the air pollution of a coal fire.