The History of Geophysics by Bill Gafford
We lost one of our valued volunteers in January when Ed Lengel passed away.
Ed was born in Wayne, Alberta, Canada in 1946, and after a variety of jobs found his calling in the geophysical world. Ed worked for a number of companies in various positions while operating seismic recording and processing systems and working in all environments in many countries. He spent time in management for several companies and then consulted for some companies in later years until he retired.
Soon after we established the GSH Geoscience Center, he volunteered to organize our inventory of geophysical artifacts into a searchable database, which also included pictures of many of the items. Ed worked with the SEG to add our museum inventory of geoscience artifacts into the SEG Wiki. He also assisted Les Denham with our Bob Sheriff Library inventory, which also includes files on a variety of contractor and manufacturer brochures and company histories. Because of his field experience over the years he was able to help explain the various parts of geophysical recording systems and survey instruments that had been stored in warehouses until the Geoscience Center was opened. Ed documented much of his work, which helps when some of our artifacts are prepared for display with accompanying identification cards. He enjoyed disassembling the instruments to reveal how they operated. Some of the stories Ed told of his adventures were hard to believe but other doodlebuggers confirmed some of them and he had pictures to prove others. He was always entertaining and enjoyed the Doodlebugger gatherings. One of his friends said he was a little rough on the outside but that he had a heart of gold. Ed will be missed.
We have a list of potential projects and need volunteers to devote some time to help work on our list. There is something that should interest just about anyone. I would like to add some of our museum items to our remote displays around town after the items are cleaned up and information signs are prepared for the items. Pictures of these displays are shown in our web page which can be found on the link below. The inventories of our Museum Collection and Bob Sheriff Library can also be found there.
Duplicate books, manuals and periodicals are available for free
This is another reminder that we still have plenty of books, manuals, and periodicals that are duplicates to our inventory and available for FREE. These include textbooks, training manuals, workshop notes, and a variety of geoscience related SEG and AAPG publications. Items in our permanent Library Collection are also available to be checked out.
Geoscience Center Hours
The Geoscience Center is usually open on Wednesday mornings from 9:00 until noon or by appointment, and visitors are always welcome. Please contact me at geogaf@hal-pc.org or 281-370-3264 for more information.