Showing posts with label oil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil. Show all posts
The National Oil Museum
Much like Houston in Texas, Ploieşti is a town of hidden treasures which lift the cultural, architectural and natural profile of the town well beyond that of "just an oil town". Ploieşti benefits from being on major trade routes, and has developed as a strong cultural, scientific and educational center.
Remember that Romania had the world's first oil well, first oil refinery and provided oil to light the streets of Bucharest, the first European capital to have street lighting! You should also remember that Ploieşti suffered greatly from razing by the retreating Germans in both world wars, and low-level precision bombing by the Americans, which although designed to minimize collateral damage (meaning avoiding the deaths of civilians), it nonetheless destroyed a lot of the refinery areas.
On October 8, 1961 the National Oil Museum, the only one of its kind in the country and among the few in the world was officially opened. The decision to build Muzeul Naţional al Petrolului (The National Oil Museum) happened during the Communist years, coinciding with the 1957 centenary of the founding of the Romanian oil industry. The building itself is listed as a historic monument, with the collection growing from 800 artifacts in 1961 to over 8,000 by 1994 and 11,000 today. The museum preserves documents, photography and items from the early days of oil discovery and refinery in Romania, including geological displays on ore deposits, the petrochemical refining process, and how the oil came to light the streets of Bucharest, world's first petrol-lit city (1859). The visiting public can see everything from drilling hoists, dredges, hydraulic preventers, some of which are 100 years old, geologic maps and rare photographs. The oldest exhibit , the only one of its kind in Romania, is a bailing drum dating back to 1870. "Petroleum", a book written by Cucu Starostescu in 1881 is the first specialized book on oil to have been published in the world. The first mechanical drill dates back to 1861.
The museum's well-written panels underscore the accomplishments of Romanians such as the development of solvents by Lazăr Edeleanu, as well as Romania's early contributions to the manufacture of paraffin, oils, and petrol. Geological maps and mineralogical samples round out the collections, with a artworks, ceramics and a fair few busts of famous petrochemical denizens of years past.
Muzeul Naţional al Petrolului, 8 Bagdasar Street, 09am - 05pm, closed on Mondays.
The case of Ion Basgan
Ion Basgan (June 24, 1902, Focşani - December 15, 1980, Bucharest) was a Romanian engineer and inventor, famous for the discovery of the effect that bears his name.
He obtained the high school diploma in 1920 in Iaşi. With a scholarship, under contract with the oil company "Romanian Star", Basgan followed between 1920-1925 the Upper Austria School of Mining and Metallurgy in Leoben, and after graduation he worked on construction sites of the "Astra Română" Oil Company, becoming in 1930 the director of the sites in Moldova. In 1933 he obtained a Ph.D. at Montanistische Hochschule Leoben in Austria with the thesis entitled "Die Arbeitsweise und Form des Rotary Meissels", published in 1934 at Hans Urban Publisher in Vienna with a preface written by the famous engineer and inventor Gogu Constantinescu. The same year, he followed the political economy courses of the University of London and began his teaching career as an honorary professor at the Department of Petroleum Economics at the Academy of Commercial and Industrial Advanced Studies. Between 1944 and 1949 he was director of the company "Petrolifera" Wallachia, and between 1949 and 1954 he worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, to design and execute the boreholes for water supply of cities.
The research of Ion Basgan in oil drilling with sonicity combined with the "Basgan effect" started in 1932. Essentially, he developed a system for drilling for oil which used principles of sonics to drill wells cheaper, faster, and better. The theory was that using percussive as well as rotary drilling, and a counter-weight, oil wells could be drilled extremely quickly and be perfectly straight down as well. This invention also allowed for drilling up to and exceeding 15km of depth. His most important patents are: "Method for improving the efficiency of advanced rotary drilling, by rotation percussion and the depreciation of hydro mechanic pressure", patented in Romania (Patent no. 22789/1934) and then in the U.S., "Rotary Well Drilling Apparatus", patented in U.S. (Patent no. 2103137/1937) and refined later in Romania, "Rotary Hammer Drilling" (Patent no. 37743/1945). These inventions have revolutionized the oil drilling techniques, helping US oil drillers to reduce production costs by over 30 per cent. In 1967, Basgan patented in France, USA, Portugal and United Arab Emirates the invention "Rotary and percussive drilling system with sonic frequency, limiting the effect of Archimedes pressure, and the corresponding plant and equipment", which permitted the exceeding of the critical barrier of 8000 m depth. Ion Basgan published over 60 works, consisting of articles, topics discussed at conferences and treatises on drilling equipment.
Initially, these inventions were used in Romania. Since 1937, they were applied in the U.S. by all major oil companies. During the period of the Second World War, the inventions of the Romanian engineer were seized and freed only in 1965, by the Order 838/13.10.1965 of the Ministry of Justice of the United States. Basgan died without ever receiving any money for his invention. He wanted to use the fees to help young Romanian inventors, regardless of their field of activity. Over the past few years however, Basgan's sons has been fighting in court for the reparation of royalties from 200 US oil companies, with royalties totaling $8,634,836,458.00, to fulfill his father’s dream.
He obtained the high school diploma in 1920 in Iaşi. With a scholarship, under contract with the oil company "Romanian Star", Basgan followed between 1920-1925 the Upper Austria School of Mining and Metallurgy in Leoben, and after graduation he worked on construction sites of the "Astra Română" Oil Company, becoming in 1930 the director of the sites in Moldova. In 1933 he obtained a Ph.D. at Montanistische Hochschule Leoben in Austria with the thesis entitled "Die Arbeitsweise und Form des Rotary Meissels", published in 1934 at Hans Urban Publisher in Vienna with a preface written by the famous engineer and inventor Gogu Constantinescu. The same year, he followed the political economy courses of the University of London and began his teaching career as an honorary professor at the Department of Petroleum Economics at the Academy of Commercial and Industrial Advanced Studies. Between 1944 and 1949 he was director of the company "Petrolifera" Wallachia, and between 1949 and 1954 he worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, to design and execute the boreholes for water supply of cities.
The research of Ion Basgan in oil drilling with sonicity combined with the "Basgan effect" started in 1932. Essentially, he developed a system for drilling for oil which used principles of sonics to drill wells cheaper, faster, and better. The theory was that using percussive as well as rotary drilling, and a counter-weight, oil wells could be drilled extremely quickly and be perfectly straight down as well. This invention also allowed for drilling up to and exceeding 15km of depth. His most important patents are: "Method for improving the efficiency of advanced rotary drilling, by rotation percussion and the depreciation of hydro mechanic pressure", patented in Romania (Patent no. 22789/1934) and then in the U.S., "Rotary Well Drilling Apparatus", patented in U.S. (Patent no. 2103137/1937) and refined later in Romania, "Rotary Hammer Drilling" (Patent no. 37743/1945). These inventions have revolutionized the oil drilling techniques, helping US oil drillers to reduce production costs by over 30 per cent. In 1967, Basgan patented in France, USA, Portugal and United Arab Emirates the invention "Rotary and percussive drilling system with sonic frequency, limiting the effect of Archimedes pressure, and the corresponding plant and equipment", which permitted the exceeding of the critical barrier of 8000 m depth. Ion Basgan published over 60 works, consisting of articles, topics discussed at conferences and treatises on drilling equipment.
Initially, these inventions were used in Romania. Since 1937, they were applied in the U.S. by all major oil companies. During the period of the Second World War, the inventions of the Romanian engineer were seized and freed only in 1965, by the Order 838/13.10.1965 of the Ministry of Justice of the United States. Basgan died without ever receiving any money for his invention. He wanted to use the fees to help young Romanian inventors, regardless of their field of activity. Over the past few years however, Basgan's sons has been fighting in court for the reparation of royalties from 200 US oil companies, with royalties totaling $8,634,836,458.00, to fulfill his father’s dream.
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