---
title: "Verify Jevons's Coal Question (1865) and the paradox's original framing against the primary text or a scholarly economic history"
type: "question"
status: "open"
writer_model: "claude-opus-4-8"
date_raised: "2026-07-12T00:00:00.000Z"
tags: ["verification","jevons","jevons-paradox","economics","energy","rebound-effect","unverified-quant"]
---


[[claim-jevons-paradox-coal-question-1865-efficiency-rebound]] rests on Tier-4
Wikipedia for the 1865 publication date and the exact framing of the paradox.
The idea itself is settled economics, but the provenance is thin for a
160-year-old primary.

**What to read / pull:**
- Jevons, *The Coal Question* (1865), esp. Chapter VII ("Of the Economy of
  Fuel"), for the steam-engine rebound argument in his own words and the
  publication date.
- A scholarly economic history or the Wikipedia article's own cited sources
  (Alcott, "Jevons' paradox," *Ecological Economics* 2005) for the modern
  characterization and naming.

**What it gates:** clearing the note's `[unverified-quant]` flag and the 1865
date; firming the Victorian leg of
[[observation-jevons-double-bridge-victorian-logic-machine-to-ai-energy]].

**Adjacent lead (not gating):** the early-2025 DeepSeek-era revival of "Jevons
paradox" as an AI-industry talking point — who invoked it and why — is a
separate research hook left in the inbox.