BERICHT UBER DIE GEODATISCHEN ARBEITEN IN UNGARN: Bestimmung der Gradienten der Schwerkraft und ihrer Niveauflachen mut Hulfe der Drehwage
Hardcover. This photostat copy of Baron Eötvös' landmark report on the use of torsion balances for geophysical purposes belonged to the prominent oil company executive, petroleum exploration geophysicist, and philanthropist Everette Lee DeGolyer (1886-56), with his ink stamp to the front flyleaf.
It was at the Fifteenth General Conference of International Earth Measurement, held on September 20-28, 1906 in Budapest, where much of the scientific community learned on Eötvös' research on torsion balances. Within a few years, several European scientists were using instruments of this sort for geodetic work (the study of measuring and representing the Earth), and Hugo de Boeck, director of the Hungarian Geological Survey, was urging that they be used for geological work as well. An Eötvös torsion balance was used in the first gravimetric survey for petroleum prospecting in 1915-16 at Egbell field in Slovakia.
DeGolyer tried to obtain an Eötvös torsion balance at that time but the First World War stymied his efforts. Later, he made the first torsion balance survey in the United States at the highly productive Spindletop oilfield, near Beaumont in South Texas. An oilfield found by DeGolyer on behalf of Rycade in Southeast Texas's Nash Dome was considered the first anywhere to be discovered using geophysics. The strike, on the flank of a salt dome in Texas's Southern Fort Bend, occurred on January 3, 1926, using the torsion balance method which utilized gravity to identify and map layers of underground rock strata, while roughly approximating their size, depth, and density.
Accompanied by a typed copy of Dr. Wilhelm Schweydar's report on the Eötvös torsion balance (5 p., in German); with Carl Bamberg, Schweydar developed a photographic torsion balance; a typed bibliography of related reports published between 1855 and 1916 (8 p., largely in English); and four photostat diagrams of torsion balance surveys conducted in Texas, with DeGolyer's ink stamp on the verso of one.
Text in German. Tall octavo: p.337-395 with a double-page table and what appears to be a supplied title page. Full black cloth binding, with gilt titles on the front panel, a small typed label affixed to the spine, and cream endpapers. The top corner of the first two leaves are clipped, perhaps to remove evidence of the Amerada Petroleum Corporation stamp which is reproduced in the margin of two later leaves (presumably this photostat was made from the copy in the Amerada library around 1916). The spine is lightly faded and leaning just a touch, with a bit of mild wear to the corners and tips. Item #76656
Price: $350.00