An ‘Unbelievably Fun’ Scientific Biography—

‘A Sixth Sense’ Makes Sense Of The Oil Industry

By Nancy K. Crevier

In France, readers have been able to learn the story of oilfield pioneer and inventor Henri-Georges Doll since 2007, when Le Sens du Courant by Michael Oristaglio and Alexander Dorozynski was published in that country, the culmination of two years of research by Mr Oristaglio, a Newtown resident and currently a researcher with the geology and geophysics department at Yale University, and Mr Dorozynski, a science journalist and author from Portugal.

In 2009, following a limited private printing of the book by Schlumberger Research Center, translated into English by Mr Oristaglio, A Sixth Sense was published by The Overlook Press, allowing Americans a look at the life of the man Mr Oristaglio says was instrumental in the development of oil field technology in the United States and worldwide.

When people think of the oil industry, it is not Ridgefield, Conn., that comes to mind, admitted Mr Oristaglio in a recent interview. But Schlumberger Research Center in Ridgefield, tucked away on the wooded acres off of what was once called Old Dump Road, was for nearly 60 years a world renowned center focused on the development of cutting-edge technology that allowed the oil industry in the American South and West, and in foreign countries, to fine-tune methods of oil detection and recovery. It was through the steady, persistent efforts of scientist Henri-George Doll, who was director of the Schlumberger Research Center from 1948 through 1967, said Mr Oristaglio, that many pertinent industry discoveries came about.

Henri-Georges Doll was a scientific innovator. He invented the method for well logging still used today, and explained the spontaneous potential effect in oil wells, as well as inventing a number of other remote-sensing instruments to help interpret the discovery of oil. He was a businessman and a working scientist who devoted himself to the improvement of technologies for the oil business, the military, and space exploration, and as the writers discovered, did so in a thoroughly likeable manner. Following his retirement, he directed development of the first French satellites in France, and set up Doll Medical Research in New York to study the measurement of blood flow in the human body and other medical research.

The Schlumberger Research Center moved to Cambridge, Mass., in 2007, and the Ridgefield campus is now vacant. Before the center shut down, though, in 2004, Henriette de Vitry, the daughter of Henri- Georges Doll, visited the lab. A resident of France, she had grown up in Ridgefield, and so was familiar with the campus and the area.

It was during this visit that Mr Oristaglio became inspired to write the story of Mr Doll, a heroic figure in his mind, and whose life story had never been told. The Doll family was open to his suggestion, but wanting to make sure that not only the scientific brilliance of Mr Doll was illuminated, but also his personality, suggested that Mr Oristaglio pair up with author Alexander Dorozynski.

“Henriette wanted to indicate what kind of person, as well as scientist, her father was, and felt that Alex could make that happen,” said Mr Oristaglio.

Working on two sides of the ocean, with Mr Oristaglio researching the 100 patents and professional life of Mr Doll from the scientific standpoint in Newtown and Mr Dorozynski researching the person behind the scientist from Portugal, the two men put together A Sixth Sense, finally giving credit to a man who is a legend among those in the oil field industry.

The book details Mr Doll’s life and inventions, from the time the young physicist was “discovered” by Conrad Schlumberger, a French scientist of the prominent Schlumberger French textile family, to his marriage to Annette Schlumberger and subsequent involvement with the family, through his involvement in secret programs with the United States government during World War II in developing a metal detector that could be used to detect land mines, to the inventions that brought the Schlumberger family notoriety in the oil industry — a machine that could be used to find oil through the injection of electrical currents into the ground, and the ability to create logs that could determine what mineral deposit was actually in the ground being explored.

Looking Inside Rocks

As a research scientist at Schlumberger Research Center, Mr Oristaglio had read some of Mr Doll’s original works and had already developed a keen interest in the French scientist.

“My first project at the center was to develop a fourth generation tool to use electromagnetic frequency to detect minerals in the ground, also known as induction logging,” said Mr Oristaglio. The method of “looking inside the rocks” remains Mr Doll’s greatest invention, he said. Mr Doll, forced to retire by the time Mr Oristaglio began his work at the center, had moved on to experiments in medical technology, but the founding scientist did visit the lab once during the time that Mr Oristaglio worked there.

“It was a little sad. He was just beginning to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s. He seemed a little distracted, but attentive. The funny thing is, I did my presentation on a color monitor. When it was over, he looked at me and said, ‘You don’t need color. Science will come out in black and white,’” recalled Mr Oristaglio.

Research on the professional life of Henri-George Doll took Mr Oristaglio to France, the center’s first home until World War II devastation forced the research center there to temporarily shut down, to New York and Houston, where brothers Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger first did business in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, and to the many other places around the world in which Mr Doll had worked, interviewing colleagues and family members.

“One of the main sources of information for the book was at the Musee Schlumberger in Normandy,” said Mr Oristaglio, “which holds a collection of archives. We digitized the whole archives, 60 gigabytes of information.”

A Sixth Sense refers to one of the many fascinating qualities of Mr Doll, said Mr Oristaglio, that of the uncanny ability to direct those around him to select the avenue of research that would result in success.

Mr Doll’s professional persistence, focus and value to Schlumberger and the scientific world at large became obvious to both of the authors as they delved deeper into research, said Mr Oristaglio.

“He had a determination to make things work,” he said. When the Great Depression shut down the business in the United States for a period of time, it was Mr Doll who “basically saved the company” through the development of a relationship in Russia, where he really proved that the underground detection system could work, said Mr Oristaglio.

“Coming back to Houston after the Depression, he put to work what he had learned. Without his push, the oil business in the US today would be very different from what it is,” said the author.

It was also Mr Doll who shored up a discouraged Marcel Schlumberger following a disheartening trial with Halliburton over patents, in which Doll’s and Schlumberger’s patents were ruled invalid. In response to Marcel Schlumberger’s lament, “All is lost,” Henri-George Doll replied, according to legend, “No, we’ll keep doing what we do. They didn’t take away our technology and our science.”

Indeed, Standard Oil, which had turned to Halliburton for well logging, returned its business to Schlumberger within six months of the end of the trial.

Pushing The Technology

Five or six times throughout the history of Schlumberger the company could have “blinked out,” were it not for Henri-Georges Doll’s crucial involvement in continuation of the company. “He was instrumental in pushing the technology,” said Mr Oristaglio.

Mr Doll’s calm persona invaded the labs where scientists toiled to find solutions, too. The culture at the company, said Mr Oristaglio, was that while individual achievement was important, the focus was on finding the solution and getting the job done. Jay Tittman, one of the first nuclear physicists hired by Mr Doll, is quoted in the book: “[Doll] was guided by faith that practical technical success rests on scientific research and engineering of the highest quality…. Doll would often say to young scientists in the lab, ‘Don’t worry It will come! Take the time you need. It is better that it comes out right.’”

In researching the book, one thing stood out about Henri-Georges Doll, said Mr Oristaglio.

“He was a man who could have flaunted his power, but chose not to,” said the author. “No one we interviewed had a bad thing to say about Doll. He was brilliant himself, but could make others be better.”

Henri-George Doll died in 1991 at the age of 89, but he left behind a wealth of discoveries. Mr Oristaglio writes in A Sixth Sense, “One thing is sure. When tallies are made of the amount for oil reservoirs around the world, the data and calculations will rely on the ideas and methods of Henri-Georges Doll.”

A Sixth Sense is for people who like scientific biography, Mr Oristaglio said.

“It’s the history of the oil business from a personal standpoint, and shows how individuals and groups of individuals came together to do remarkable things. The Schlumberger Research Center in Ridgefield became the center for the methods of oil detection. Scientists from all over the world would visit,” he said.

Many late nights and early mornings went into the writing of A Sixth Sense, Mr Oristaglio said, “But it was unbelievably fun. Any scientist should have an opportunity to look into the history of science. The Schlumbergers and Dolls were fascinating families, it is an amazing company, and Doll,” he said, “was a wonderful man.”

A Sixth Sense is available at local bookstores and on amazon.com.