A giant drill well to the earth’s mantle from Nat Schachner’s ‘Pacifica’ from Astounding Stories July 1936. Artist uncredited

The story can be read [here](https://archive.org/details/sim_astounding-science-fiction_1936-07_17_5/page/74/mode/2up). I didn’t finish this one, but the gist seems to be that folks in the far off future year of 1985 want to drill into the earth’s mantle so they can use the laws of hydraulics to raise a new continent, thus solving the overpopulation crisis.

Gotta love pre-Golden Age scifi’s knack for inventions that are simple, straightforward, and balls-to-the-wall insane.