Geology and Oil

For much of its early history, GSI catered to the American oil industry. It created products to aid in the search for and retrieval of petroleum. Its successful production of seismographic equipment ensured that the company enjoyed a strong reputation among American oilmen. By the 1930s, GSI supported the development of oil resources outside the United States, from Southeast Asia to the Pacific.

Parked near Dallas in 1931, this seismic recording truck was undergoing a shakedown test. The car contains equipment designed by J.C. Karcher and Eugene McDermott at J. Erik Jonsson’s laboratory in New Jersey.

GSI created an array of seismographic equipment. The seismometers shown in this image were created in the 1930s and 1940s. Companies used these models as late as the 1950s.

GSI established an early reputation for supplying oil equipment across the globe. This image, taken around 1938 on the island of Java in modern Indonesia, shows workers carrying equipment from GSI to be used in search of petroleum.

Although Texas Instruments had entered the field of defense in the 1950s – and would make immense strides in computing in the ensuing decades – it never forgot its roots in geology. This advertisement from 1960s proudly overviews thirty years of seismography at Geophysical Service, Inc.

TI’s seisMAC processed seismic data. J. Fred Bucy, shown here operating the machine in 1957, later became president of Texas Instruments.