Top ST Sales. Valley Division. 1952.

What is this fancy pen holder on my desk?

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.