The first step along the path to modern mining began about two and a half million years ago when humans first started using stone tools. Although stones would have been collected from the Earth's surface initially, there is evidence for some form of flint mining as early as one million years ago.
Early mining was extremely slow and labor- intensive. Although the discovery of metal and, much later, the introduction of explosives eased the process, the holes for the explosives still had to be made using hammers powered solely by brute force in order to drive a drill into the rock.
By the mid-1800s, efforts to develop a mechanical rock. drill had begun in earnest, not only to Increase the efficiency of the mining industry but also to help build tunnels for the first railways. In 1871 Simon Ingersoll (1818-1894) received a patent for his rock drill and, although not the first of its kind, it is considered to have revolutionized mining. Previous offerings were at best moderately efficient, cumbersome, and invariably unreliable. Ingersoll's drill surpassed the productivity of other drills due to its innovative lightweight design and was the first to be mounted on a tripod to resist the forces as the head recoiled. Initially steam-driven, a compressed air model was soon developed by the Ingersoll Rock Drill Company.
The increased productivity of mechanical rock drilling enabled the seemingly insatiable appetite of society for new technology, such as the construction of suspension bridges, ocean-going ships, roads, and railways, to be met.
