In 1972, the United States Government Filed a Patent, US3693731A
It described a machine that could melt through solid rock. Not drill, melt. Built by Los Alamos National Laboratory, powered by a nuclear reactor. A tungsten cutting head, heated to 1,700 degrees, pressed against the earth itself. The rock liquefied on contact, flowed around the machine, and cooled behind it into a glass-lined tunnel. No debris, no vibration, no surface trace. The official documents claimed it could descend tens of kilometers into the earth’s crust.
Late 1970s, the Program Went Silent
Around that same time, the Navy was building underwater habitats. Over 60 of them. Most are now decommissioned. Or at least, that’s what the public record says. Combine these two technologies, a machine that melt through solid rock without leaving a trace, and the engineering know-how to live beneath the ocean, you don’t need to drop a base from the surface anymore. You can build it from underneath, and no one above would ever know.
Patent US3693731A – Method and Apparatus for Tunneling by Melting
Abstract
A machine and method for drilling bore holes and tunnels by melting in which a housing is provided for supporting a heat source and a heated end portion and in which the necessary melting heat is delivered to the walls of the end portion at a rate sufficient to melt rock and during operation of which the molten material may be disposed adjacent the boring zone in cracks in the rock and as a vitreous wall lining of the tunnel so formed. The heat source can be electrical or nuclear but for deep drilling is preferably a nuclear reactor.
Patent US3693731A – Method and Apparatus for Tunneling by Melting
NPR – The Navy’s experimental underwater habitat
