THE HISTORY OF GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING
PART SIX - DREAMS AND DOODLEBUGS

Chapter 16  -  New Laws of Nature and the Little Black Box

The petroleum geophysicist makes his living by interpreting the readings or tapes of complex instruments, which record changes in some physical property or condition of the earth strata which he hopes will reveal areas that will be favorable to the accumulation of oil and gas. He has yet to find any means of getting the oil itself or the gas itself to register any notice of its presence through thousands of feet of overburden.

The doodlebug has more faith in oil revealing its whereabouts by means of some quality of the oil itself. More often than not the instrument he uses to detect the accumulation of oil at depth is a little black box, or a big black box. Regardless of the size of the apparatus, which sometimes fills a whole truck, there are dials, or beIls or indicators of some sort or other. How the black box operates is a secret and what is contained within the black box is a secret, which the doodlebug considers his stock-in-trade, not to be revealed or divulged to the oil company representative whom he is trying to interest in his invention.

 One pair of doodlebuggers, who operated at Smackover and other Arkansas oilfields, used a sedan chair device. One of the operators was carried along in the chair by two porters over the area to be surveyed. The chair would make a ticking noise throughout its journey. When the end of the survey was reached, a crank was turned and out would come a card upon which was printed the extend of the oilfield, the depth, daily yield in barrels and the specific gravity of the oil.

Many doodlebugs believe that they are picking up some kind of radiation from the oil. Some devices require batteries strapped to the operator’s person; some sound horns when over an oilfield, which become silent once off structure. Bells may furnish the alarm instead of horns. However, a dial that revolves or an indicator that points, remains the most popular means of informing the operator about the presence of an oilfield.

Biologically, a doodlebug is the larva of an ant king. When one geophysicist calls another geophysicist "a doodlebug" it is a mark of good natured esteem. When an outsider is dubbed "a doodlebug," the meaning of the descriptive term in this instance relates to an operator of any unscientific device with which it is claimed that minerals may be located. H. H. Adams of the United States Department of Justice believed that all doodlebugs are conscious frauds. However, most investigators of the genus doodlebug are of the opinion that many and quite possibly the vast majority of such individuals are completely sincere. There is nothing new about a man being hypnotized by his own propaganda.

The petroleum fraternity has grown callous to the pretensions of the doodlebug. In the near future or the far future a man may appear with a little black box that will do what he says it will do but in all probability he will not receive a decent hearing.

The United States Air Force takes no such chances. No matter how wild a scheme happens to sound or how dubious the invention, Air Force Intelligence wants to know all about it before turning it down. In 1960, Air Force Intelligence in Houston, Texas, was paid a visit by a man named Manson. He carried in his briefcase a manuscript entitled "Out of the Gray Mist." You could hold a contest and never come up with a better title than that one. Manson and his manuscript were both "Something Out of the Gray Mist." Manson said his manuscript was concerned with "advanced concepts of gravitation." His conclusions and processes will be of interest to geophysicists.

According to Manson, the moon, contrary to popular belief, has practically no effect on tidal force because the moon has very little mass, having in actuality the form of a very thin meniscus with its convex side turned toward the earth. The major part of the tidal force Manson attributed to the planet Venus. He then produced oscillograph tracings made by some very secret instruments of his invention, which he said showed tidal forces over a period of several days. The tracings ran along rather smoothly for a few inches and then would present a high amplitude blip. Following this was another few inches of smoothness at a slightly different level from the first part and then another blip. Manson had time in hours and days marked off on the traces and the blips were labeled "Venus Rises" and "Venus Sets," respectively. Lovers may be able to interpret the deep significance of these goings-on of Venus but the mere scientist is left in the "Gray Mist" of a deep fog.

Thirty years ago Dr. Ludwig Blau published an account of his many encounters with a variety of doodlebugs. Dr. Blau's conclusions indicate that the doodlebugs want to rewrite more of the laws of nature than just the gravitational laws. One man came to Blau with an alleged radiation-sensitive device tuned to the detection of salt and thus useful for locating Gulf Coast salt domes. The man had read about artificial radioactivity and that sodium could be made radioactive by bombarding it with highspeed electrons. The only difference between sodium and salt is a little chlorine, reasoned this inventor; hence salt, sodium chloride, sends out radiations of the same wave length as sodium and all he needed was a device for tuning to them. His inxxxx genius soon solved that problem as he related with all modesty.

One inventor found after exhaustive research that oil exhibits female characteristics. Having made that startling discovery his next problem was to find a male substance, preferably liquid, which could be used in locating oil. The presence of oil could then be shown by the response of a suitably connected indicator. After additional years of painstaking investigation this man had discovered such a liquid. He had brought a jug of it with him.

The doodlebug was still going strong in 1964. In July of that year, in middle the middle of a long series of "dog days," with the temperature weIl over the 100 degree mark, a geophysical contracting company in the Mid-Continent received a refreshing invitation which made the day worthwhile. It was a bid to go into partnership with an eloquent doodlebug. Let me quote verbatim from portions of the letter, which was written in longhand:

"I was called by this Mr. Hollenkamp to examine the field as I have an Electrical Invention that can locate Oil and Gas in place without drilfing. But he told me not to mention my Device lest people resent me as a doodlebuger.

"But this invention I have compiled and perfected can locate oil and gas in place correctly and to the very accurate depth and capacity and either oil by itself or gas by itself or where they are together. Where there is a dome or pool or reef or where there is a conces,sion of Veins, such as the Wapella area field for that is a concession of 5 Veins. And I can show you correctly, as I showed this Hollenkamp. It seems a shame that an Instuitiational farsighted Inventor, gets such a poor response or help in the scientifical devices of his Gift or Talents as is spoken of in the Scriptures. But that has been since Fulton and Edison and all the others that has contributed so much to our modern devices and the Techoloogy of Science in the Geophisical and Geological fields. For it is the scientific approach and method of the Seismographical anomaly and the gravity profiles that has lead to the greater discoveries of oil and gas.

"For I have found that the greater part of this, oil and gas is in Veins or Contours in the strata of the earth like rivers on its surface only these lay usually several in a group at varying widths and spaces apart. And I can show you why dry holes in the midst of a supposedly Pool area.

"This I have done to several people in the Oil Industry but they claim they just cant believe that oil lays or travels in Veins, so consequencily I get no help yet. All I need is financial help and I can prove to the depth I tell you of, even the depth of pay zone. I am not trying to belittle or degrade the Geologist or Geophysics for I am not one myself but I need them in a big way. I only wish I were one myself. But since I am not  I do need them working with me as I could locate the oil and gas and plot it off with them so there would be no dry holes. Then they could do all the analists work plotting and interpreting the Electric logs and such which is their work and all together we could be a 100% production team with no dry holes ever. This may seem crazy to you but I can take you through all these oil fields in this section of the country and prove this instrument to you beyond a shadow of a doubt down to 4500 feet, as I have not found any wells deeper than that to check this instrument by, to prove its working accuracy any deeper. But in some places here in some of these big broken reefs I can show you as many as 12 pay zones with several thousands of barrels of oil and several million cubic feet of gas per weIl and these have never been tapped as yet. Just waiting for someone to help me. I can show you some of these big reefs that very from 1/4 to 4 miles wide and 75 to 100 and more miles long and some of these big Veins of oil that very in thickness from 15 to 20 feet to over 200 feet and around three miles wide. These I have traversed back and forth for many miles and are still there on both ends. How much further they go I dont know.

"I have had this invention for 7 years and worn out 4 good cars traveling somewhere around 4 to 500,000 miles checking and rechecking to make sure before I tried to get helping hands to produce it. But if your desire is to locate these Stratagraphie traps or faults and go it in a big way please help me and I can help you complete your desire. This instrument does work perfectly I assure you."