Over 2,000 years ago, ancient Chinese miners invented deep percussion drilling to extract salt, creating downhole engineering innovations that modern energy industries still depend on today

Over 2,000 years ago, ancient Chinese miners faced a crisis. They desperately needed salt to preserve food. But rich brine sat hundreds of meters under solid rock. To reach it, they invented deep percussive drilling. They built giant bamboo rigs and pounded iron bits into the earth. By 1835, they hit 1,000 meters deep. They solved complex engineering problems centuries before modern oil companies ever existed.

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