Why Edgar needed twice the range of later Town cruisers

Why did the Edgar class have about 10,000 nautical miles of range when later global cruisers often had roughly half that?

Edgar operated before the global coaling network matured and served as a first-class cruiser, while later Towns had more infrastructure and a different second-class role.

The Edgar class needed exceptional range when reliable coaling points were sparse, whereas later Town-class cruisers could use a much denser global support network. That infrastructure changed the endurance a navy had to purchase in each hull. American plans called for crossing the Pacific, while the British approach ran through the South China Sea, where imperial territories and possible captured bases supported a different route. The comparison is not like-for-like because Edgar was a first-class cruiser while the Towns originated as second-class cruisers built for different work.