Petroleum, coal, and natural gas are major fossil fuels.
During the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels seemed to be the ideal energy source. Steam locomotives, the quintessential machines of the Industrial Revolution, used coal as a fuel source from early on to compensate for a lack of firewood and charcoal. Not only was a seemingly inexhaustible supply of coal available from easily exploited seams near the surface, but it could be used in its natural form. Japanese governments in the Meiji era (1868-1912), realizing that the use of coal was synonymous with industrialization, encouraged the development of coal mines.