The following is an excerpt from Rendered Obsolete: Energy Culture and the Afterlife of US Whaling by Jamie L. Jones which is available now wherever books are sold. "Rendered Obsolete provides a compelling perspective on the history of whaling and how we understand energy consumption." Hester Blum, Penn State University Underground Whales: An Energy Archaeology The Pennsylvania oil fields were full of whales. Reporters at the site of the United States’ first oil boom in the 1860s wrote that oil wells “spouted” like whales coming up for air, and oil shot through pipes from the well...