| THE HISTORY OF GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING |    |
| PART TEN - MARLAND AND MINTROP | |
Foremost in the reeord of geophysical achievement stand the names of E. L. De Golyer, Ludger Mintrop and J. C. Karcher. De Golyer's widespread knowledge of books and man gave his word, written or spoken, a princely quality never achieved by anyone else in earth science. Untrained in anything beyond the rudiments of mathematics and physics, De Golyer selected J. C. Karcher to be his right hand because Karcher was strong and assured within the realrn of basic science.
Primarily a mining engineer, Mintrop's understanding of geology was sound and adequate. Furthermore he had sufficient comprehension of physics to visualize what was needed in the way of an instrument that would be an aid to the solution of mining and geological problems. Add to this the knowhow to build a recording seismograph and you have the complete geophysicist for those early days. In this respect Mintrop was unique for his time. Emil Wiechert could have done it except that Dr. Wiechert was not of a temperament to mix in the trials and buffets of a commercial enterprise. The early physicists of the geophysical world had only a vague idea of geology. The early geologists of the geophysical world had not the foggiest notion of how to put together a set of working instruments or how to use them if they were designed by someone else. Mintrop, with a good foundation in both physical and geological principles, had the natural endowment to bring about the first big victory in the conquest of the subsurface.
De Golyer, Mintrop and Karcher were all super-salesmen. When Geophysical Service, Inc. came into being, J. C. Karcher sold ten reflection seismograph contracts to ten different oil companies in less than half a month. De Golyer put across a large variety of fabulous deals. Yet it is quite possible that Ludger Mintrop was the greatest salesman of them all.
Ludger Mintrop was born in Essen-Werden in the Ruhr district of Germany on July 18,1880. Ludger first attended the Academy of Mines in Berlin and then the School of Technology at Aachen. In 1905, he took a job as mine surveyor and in the same period served at the School of Technology as an assistant to Professor Haussmann in teaching mine-surveying. At the end of the year 1907, Mintrop was attracted to the University of Goettingen by the reputation of its eminent seismologist, Dr. Emil Wiechert. Ludger Mintrop entered the Geophysical Institute of the University of Goettingen, where his life long interest and aptitude were firmly fixed and fashioned under the able and inspirational teaching of Dr. Wiechert, head of the Geophysical Institute.
Throughout the period, 1907-1911. Mintrop divided his time between taking courses under Emil Wiechert and in filling the position as a teacher in the School of Mines in Bochum. In 1911 Mintrop presented his thesis and received his doctor's degree in geophysics at Goettingen. His dissertation was on the propagation of sound waves. Up to this time the Mintrop experimentation had been largely confined to artificial earthquakes produced by the dropping of a heavy mass. Mintrop continued as a professor at the Bochum School of Mines until Germany entered the war in 1914, when he joined the army. His first assignment was to the air-ship command and his first service was as an observer in a balloon attached to the ground by a cable near the front lines, certainly a most hazardous position.
For two full years Mintrop tried to interest General Headquarters in the practical value of portable seismographs as a means of spotting the location of enemy guns. He could make no headway with his idea. Other German scientists also tried and failed. When the battle of the Somme ended with serious reverses for the German plans, General Ludendorff, Chief of Staff for von Hindenburg, asked every German officer who had an idea that might improve the war effort to submit that idea to Ludendorff's personal attention. Mintrop once more handed in his sound-ranging idea to General Headquarters and this time his brain child found favor with General Ludendorff. A colonel from Ludendorff's staff visited Mintrop and after a general discussion of the merits of his pet scheme, he was told to be in readiness to make a demonstration.
At the very end of 1916, Mintrop and his equipment were moved to an artillery range near Wahn in northwest Germany. The demonstration of Mintrop's sound-ranging technique was highly successful. Early in 1917, Mintrop was ordered to start building sound-ranging seismographs. Material and technical assistance were hard to find and the construction of the sound-ranging equipment went slowly. General Ludendorff had ordered that 100 seismic troops be placed in the field in 1917 but German sound-ranging did not approach that figure until weIl into 1918. Ludger Mintrop sought to gain the position as head of the army sound-raning division but he was destined to play only a minor role. Only a small number of Mintrop seismographs came into use in tha sound-range division. Nevertheless, it was the Mintrop demonstration at Wahn that supplied the impetus to bring German sound-ranging into existence. In 1919, Mintrop made some improvements on his war-time mechanical seismograph and before the year was over he and Professor K. Lehmann had done some work on the depth of brown coal deposits in the Rhineland. These results checked quite weIl against information gained from bore holes. Highly encouraged, Ludger Mintrop filed for German patent # 371963, on "Method for the Determination of Rock Structures." The date was December 7, 1919.
At a meeting of the German Geological Society in Hannover on August 15, 1920, Mintrop delivered a paper on his method for the investigation of underground structure. The next six months found Mintrop embarking on the first of his highly successful ventures into the art of salesmanship. With some help from two of his friends, K. Lehmann and Fritz Baum, he managed to persuade five of the largest of the steel and metallurgical companies in Germany to finance his ideas for geophysical exploration with the founding on April 4, 1921, of Seismos Limited in Hannover. The steel and metallurgical firms backing the new corporation were Deutseh-Luxemburgische, Gelsenkirchener, Phoenix , Hoeseh plus the company of Thyssen and Rheinstahl. Ludger Mintrop was head man for this organization whieh had been formed for the purpose of "exploration of geological strata and mineral deposits“.
During the period 1920-1921, Mintrop shot test lines across two known German salt domes, Speremberg near Berlin and Wietze near Hannover. From Wietze, Mintrop started a profile across country intent on picking up an unknown salt dome. This he succeeded in accomplishing with the discovery of nearby Meissendorf salt dome. Though this find had no comrnercial significance, its discovery was still remarkable as the first salt dome found by seismic means in the history of the world.
From 1922 until 1930, Ludger Mintrop composed a series of pamphlets on the glories of geophysics. According to the claims advanced, the mechanical refraction seismograph could solve all the problems of mining and geology. We know in retrospect that the mechanical seismograph has but one important economic function, which is to locate salt domes. Still, the optimistic tone seemed to be what was needed to inspire the oil companies to experiment with the seismograph. Eventually, the salt dome region of the United States came under scrutiny. Mintrop's initial success, at the Orchard dome in Fort Bend County, Texas, was the biggest event in geophysical exploration history, for it put the contracting seismograph company in business to stay. Thus the Mintrop seismograph was responsible for finding both the first salt dome, Meissendorf, and the first oil-rich salt dome, Orchard.
Dr. Otto Geussenhainer, also a student of Emil Wiechert at Goettingen, was party chief of Seismos Limited Party #1 throughout its career. He is considered to be Mintrop's ablest lieutenant with no peer in refraction interpretation. Today, at 73, Geussenhainer still works for Seismos in Hannover as Librarian. Seismos refraction contracting work came to a virtual standstill in 1930. Seismos Limited was reorganized in 1934 and in the same year began its initial reflection surveys. Sister company, Prakla, was incorporated in 1937 as a part of the German Reich and shortly thereafter the State also took over Seismos Limited. At the present time Prakla and Seismos occupy the same building in Hannover.
Seismos Limited Party #1 started working for the Mexican Eagle Oil Company (Shell) in the Golden Lane area of Mexico in March of 1923 and continued Mexican operations for approximately a year. In the spring of 1924, Party #1 went to work for the Gulf Production Company in the Texas coastal region. In June of 1924, Geussenhainer was able to report to Gulf that he had found the Orchard dome. In the year 1925, Dr. Geussenhainer found two more salt domes for Gulf; Hawkinsville in Matagorda County, Texas, and Fannett in Jefferson County, Texas. In May, 1925, Party #1 returned to Mexico. The year 1927 saw this party in the Middle East working for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in the wild Bakthiari Mountains of Persia. The Turkish Petroleum Company contracted for Party #1 in 1929 to survey the northwest portion of Iraq and in the same year the party did a job for the Egyptian Government on the Red Sea coast near Hurghada.
Seismos Limited Party #2, with Ludger Mintrop as party chief together with Mr. Weitershagen and Mr. Schwiening as technical assistants, went to work for the Marland Oil Company in July of 1923 in northern Oklahoma. Later in 1923, the scene of operations shifted to East Texas. From March, 1924, until November, 1925, Party #2 operated in the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana without finding any salt domes. At the end of this period, the Marland Oil Company relinquished the crew. Seismos Limited Party #2 was reorganized and began operations for the Shell Oil Company in May of 1926 with Dr. Frederick Trappe as Party Chief. The seismic operations of this crew continued for Shell until 1930, discovering four salt domes; White Castle in Iberville Parish, Louisiana; Danbury in Brazoria County, Texas; plus Clemens and Allen domes in Matagorda County, Texas. A second Seismos party for Shell went into operation in November of 1926 under Mr. E. Thomas as Party Chief. This party continued operations until 1928, discovering Black Bayou in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, and Cedar Bayou in Harris County, Texas.
A second Seismos party for Gulf was organized under Dr. Ernst Cloos which discovered the Starks salt dome in Calcasieu Parish in 1925, and the Fausse Point dome in Iberia and St. Martins Parishes; Louisiana, in 1926. This crew continued to operate for the Gulf Production Company until late in 1929.
A Seismos party working for a joint combination of the Union Sulphur ....
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