The Domestic Revolution

By Ruth Goodman

Goodman is a historian and a reenact-or of history who has much experience on living with wood, peat and coal heating. In this book she digs into how different fuels influenced architecture as well as how we live.

Coal smoke is more dirty than wood smoke. As such coal heating pushed the development of chimneys and iron stoves.

Toasting and toast became more popular with coal stoves as it’s difficult to evenly toast with a wood fire.

Soap and cleaning— wood ash can be purified into lye. Wood ash and fat can make soap. The same is not true for coal ash. When wood ash was the dominant fuel, people didn’t buy soap. They made their own or just used ashes; ash on greasy dishes makes its own soap. It wasn’t until coal became dominant that people needed to buy soap.