|
AnaLog Services, Inc. can repair and/or modify most equipment manufactured by Gearhart-Owen Industries, Inc., Gearhart Industries, Inc. (The GO Company), Mineral Logging Systems, Inc. (MLS), Well Reconnaissance, Widco, and just about every other brand of logging equipment ever made, and we have a huge inventory of repair parts in stock. GO / GOI / MLS was without a doubt the most prolific manufacturer of equipment for the well logging industry, and much of it remains in service to this day. What follows is a brief history of GO / GOI / MLS.
Click
AnaLog Services, Inc. Home Page to go there now.
In early 1955, Marvin Gearhart and Harold D. Owen started a logging company in a tin shed at 554 West Seminary in
Fort Worth. Both were former Welex (originator of the jet perforator) employees; Gearhart, Chief Logging Engineer,
and Owen, Chief Explosives Engineer (1951-1953). Each man put in $3,000.00 and his family car. Welex sued
the new company when they developed their own perforating charges; Welex finally lost in 1962. In 1964, GO
acquired Electronic Instruments, Inc. The name was changed from GO Oil Well Services, Inc. to
Gearhart-Owen Industries (GOI) in 1965 when the company went public. In 1966, GOI bought Widco Mandrel Industries;
Pengo Manufacturing and Peterson Engineering in 1967; and
Well Reconnaissance in 1979. But friction began to develop between the two men who had before almost always
agreed on everything. Gearhart did not like selling torpedoes and hand grenade fuses to the military, but
there were also other disagreements about the future direction of GOI. In July, 1973, three explosions at
the GO ordnance plant in Cleburne, Texas injured 29 people, leaving three dead. In 1978, Marvin Gearhart
and Harold Owen parted company. Owen got the non-wireline part of the company which was spun off as
Pengo Industries and later founded Owen Oil Tools (1983).
In 1980, Gearhart renamed his company "Gearhart Industries, Inc. - The GO Company". The Mineral Logging Division
was incorporated as a separate entity in 1981, Mineral Logging Systems, Inc. (MLS). In 1985, Gearhart acquired
Geosource, and as a result briefly owned SIE. The Geosource acquisition coupled with the collapse in oil prices
resulted in a 230 million dollar loss in 1986. In 1989, Halliburton
acquired Gearhart and would eventually close the doors at MLS, a horrible stab in the back to the independent well
logging industry. In 1999, Halliburton Logging Services (HLS) moved
out of the old Fort Worth Gearhart complex, consolidating wireline research and manufacturing in Houston; it is now
impossible to purchase any parts or supplies from them for old GO or MLS equipment. Lonnie Wyatt, a former MLS
employee, established WIDCO (later called AAERO) to serve MLS customers left out in the cold by Halliburton.
He was able to register and defend the WIDCO trademark due to an oversight on the part of Gearhart, and eventually
managed to acquire a huge amount of old MLS inventory when Halliburton got tired of storing it in Fort Worth.
In early 2008, AnaLog Services, Inc. acquired the stock of
WIDCO / AAERO.
|
|
