The Coldry Process was discovered and developed just north of here in a little (now closed) coal mine. In the 80s a scientist noticed that after rain the tracks in the mine that truks drove on caused a reaction within the coal that both squeezed out the water and stopped it's reabsorbtion. The process was proved and is only just now being commercialised.
It's an awesome process, it involves little energy input, works at low pressures and temperatures, the only by-product is distilled water and the result if coal as energy efficient as black coal but with less impurities, meaning less shit in the waste ash.
But the conditions of it's discovery surely could have happened at almost any time in the 20th century, and the industrial process looks embarassingly easy and hassle free.
So WI this was discovered and exploited earlier?