In early August of 2010, the world’s spotlight turned to, of all places, the Chilean desert of South America, specifically to a mine more than a century old with a notorious history known to virtually no one in the Northern Hemisphere.

Geological instability and a long record of safety violations by the mine’s owners had culminated in a cave-in that trapped 33 men almost a half-mile underground.

With no rescue plan in place and the chances of the miners’ survival diminishing with each passing day, the Chilean president put out a call for help.

His people were reeling, as it was only months after an earthquake and the tsunami it produced had ravaged the nation.

International media had descended upon the scene. Some experts thought it would take nothing short of a miracle for the miners to ever again see the light of day.

Turns out that it took less divine intervention and more of the tools of a family-oriented business right here in Chester County.

Enter Schramm, Inc., a manufacturer of hydraulic drilling equipment from seemingly a world away that had been in business for as long as the Chilean mine had been in operation. Founded in 1900 and headquartered in West Chester on East Virginia Avenue, the company’s brass knew it could help.

The history of Schramm, Inc. is marked by the very traits the miners would need in order to survive their harrowing ordeal: teamwork and the ability to adapt to change.

At the dawn of the 20th century, Christian Schramm, a German immigrant, opened a modest business that repaired small gasoline engines. A few years later, he began manufacturing both portable air compressors to power jackhammers and the winches that controlled the observation balloons used during the first World War.

In 1917, Christian and his son, Henry, sold stock in their company in order to acquire the building and land where the company remains to this day. By the 1950s, they were assembling drilling rigs as air compressors were first used to power them.

The company blossomed during the ensuing golden years of the drilling industry, despite the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of oil and gas exploration. It continues to thrive in that arena, as well as in the geothermal and water-well sectors. Through it all, the process has become digitized and more energy-efficient.

Today, Schramm, Inc. is one of the area’s few industrial firms that survived the transformative 20th century. It employs almost 200 people and generates an annual revenue north of $100 million.

Schramm’s track record for success, no doubt, gave hope to the families of the Chilean miners. When August turned to September, Schramm’s self-propelled rig, weighing 100,000 pounds, was rolled out on a five-vehicle convoy amidst cheers and flag-waving.

“They just happened to have the right rig in the right place at the right time,” Frank Gabriel, then the vice president of sales, said of the T130XD. The rig was being used only 600 miles away, drilling bore holes for water extraction at another mine site.

Jeff Roten, now Schramm’s lead service technician, was there in Chile as one of many members of the international rescue team, and he did not let the language barrier deter him.

“You figure out a way to communicate,” said Roten, who oversaw the undertaking for 36 days. “You learn to draw pictures really well. I was the only mechanic on site, so in the middle of the desert, I was often reading the plans at 3 a.m.”

Roten lived in a shipping container with a mattress and could only shower every three days.

“It was a stressful month,” he said. “We never had an issue with the rig, but the map of the mine was a little off, and rescuers had to zigzag through the earth to reach the bottom. It was like a roller coaster.”

Five years later, we all know how the story ended. How each of the miners was lifted to safety in just 69 days, almost two months ahead of projections. The event is now dramatized for posterity with the recent release of The 33, the film that will preserve Schramm’s role in world history.

Schramm’s technical expertise was harnessed to ultimately drill the miners to freedom, and it dispels the modern myth of America’s manufacturing inferiority.

“We make products for the betterment of mankind,” said Ed Breiner, Schramm’s recently retired president and chief executive officer.

In 2005, Dick Schramm, the now 80-year-old great grandson of Christian, passed the majority of ownership to a number of the company’s senior executives. (It’s now controlled by a private equity firm.)

For years, the company has employed several husband-and-wife tandems and the children and grandchildren of past employees.

One hundred and fifteen years after Schramm Inc.’s birth, the global boom in fracking – the practice of injecting sand, water, and chemicals deep underground to release oil and gas – has kept its phones ringing.

In addition to its 26 acres in West Chester, the company recently opened up an office in Houston to keep up with demand. Its rigs sell for between $350,000 and $1 million apiece, and the average price is more than half a million.

For Schramm, business is good. In fact, it’s never been better.

And it all started in Chester County.