Engraved on the side is C.E. Monson, Top ST Sales, Valley Division, 1952.
Now it comes back to me. In 1952 I was working for Schlumberger in Bakersfield, California. I was an Engineer on a well logging truck. We would run the normal electric log and then sell services like sidewall cores, dipmeters, etc. I was evidently the top runner of sidewall cores in the Valley Division (The San Joaquin Valley) in 1952, or 62 years ago.
To take sidewall cores we run a special gun into the well. There could be 30 bullets like the chrome plated bullet on my desk. The next two images show the operation and a typical gun.
The bullets were attached with wires to the gun and were recovered when the gun was pulled out of the well. We would bottle the cores. We carried a fluorescent lamp on our truck to shine on the cores. Any oil present would light up with a golden glow.
I remember on one job in the Arvin area that a core had tiny globules of mercury in the pore space.
On one series of wells we dipped the cores in paraffin. So the oil company lab would get a fresher core.
It was interesting work.
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