Three meters, six meters, twenty. And he kept going down. He bamboothat for many does not go from being a high and hollow floor that feeds the Panda bears, it became for centuries in the backbone of an engineering system that had nothing rudimentary.
He resisted pressures, leaked liquids, guided gases underground and, the most curious, it was not easily departed. His elasticity and lightness made him ideal for form a network of pipes that ran kilometers without a single metal joint. A network that, with the centuries, changed the way of extracting energy in an entire region.
Zigong, a city that was already industrial ahead of time
In the nineteenth century, when in other corners of the planet they were just drilling wells with iron technology, the Chinese city of Zigong It was already working as a large industrial center around the sal. But the most surprising thing was not only the scale of the process, but the materials with which it had been built.
The conduits were almost entirely bamboo. Dozens of kilometers of pipes They transported brine and natural gassealed with braided rope and tung oila mixture that guaranteed pond for years. In 1950 there were still more than 90 operating kilometers.
Extraction was not just a matter of brute force. From the period of Combatant kingdomsthe workers devised complex forms of drilling with towers also built in bamboo, pulleys and specialized tools.
During the Tang dynastythe 250 meters deep were reached, and by the mid -nineteenth century the pozo Shenghai exceeded 1,000 meters. Each drill had a different shape, adapted to the type of rock they found. In some cases, silver linge -shaped heads were used, in others, similar to a fish tail.
The problem was that everything did not always go as expected. When a drill broke or a well collapsed, the technicians of the time took advantage of equally ingenious solutions: bamboo tubes with fin valves, sealing with expanded straw or cements made with a mixture of oil and lime. For many of these processes, especially from the eleventh century, flexible bamboo cables were used that simplified the operation and allowed to extract stuck tools or detect compromised areas.
Natural gas went from hindrance to energy source
At one point, the drilling stopped focusing alone on the brine. The workers began to find natural gas bags that at first they were considered a discomfort. The change came when it was discovered that this gas could be used to feed the boilers that evaporated the brine. The firewood was scarce and the gas offered an abundant and constant source of energy. This resulted in the creation of devices such as Tambor Kang Pencapable of separating brine and gas in the same operation.
The geology of the region also favored the process. Sichuanan old marine basin, was full of salt and gas deposits. The perforators knew that the valleys contained brine and that the gas accumulated in high areas. That practical experience allowed Organize continuous exploitation That, over time, it became one of the most efficient industrial systems in the premodern world.
Over the centuries, the system grew so much that it required rotary shifts, written contracts and commercial associations To keep it going. Many of these contracts are considered as some of the first legal documents of the country. The complexity of the system was such that it demanded constant coordination between different working groups, from the perforators to those who collected the salt processed or monitored the conduits.
In this way, something that began as a salt search ended by generating a unprecedented energy transport networkbuilt with one of the most abundant and versatile materials in the country. The bamboo not only served to manufacture pipes or towers: it was also key in the structure of cables, valves and lifting systems.
Nothing else was needed. Therefore, when today there is talk of the beginning of the energy industry, it is often forgotten that China had already managed to pierce deeper than anyone using only wood, rope and a lot of ingenuity.
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