Gabriel I. Năstase

ION BASGAN

A Romanian Inventor

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan

(1902-1981)

Gabriel I. Năstase

ION BASGAN

A Romanian

Inventor

“Personalities of Science and Technics” Series

AGIR RAPANA

Publishing House Publishing House

Bucharest - 2000THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS IN ROMANIA

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The original edition:

Gabriel I. Năstase, Ion Basgan : Un inventator de geniu

English Translation by Daniela Stoicescu

EDITION CD-ROM, 2002

Publishing Adviser: Gabriel I. Năstase, Dan Bogdan

Front and Back Cover: Camelia Bogoi

Computer editing: Aurel Alexandru

Edited: 25.08.2000; Printing Sheets: 11,75

AGIR Publishing House

ISBN 973-99296-5-6

RAPANA Publishing House

ISBN 973-96815-5-7

FOREWORD

I have heard long ago speaking about Ion Şt. Basgan and hiswork, but only now there was written a biography, in the true sense ofthe word.

To the credit of Mr. Gabriel I. Năstase and his family, we cannow enjoy reading it.

The book did not captivate me from the very start: but, soon,

after the first pages, I had the curiosity to carefully read the whole

book, in which I found interesting elements concerning his work and

tragical elements concerning his relationships.

Ion Şt. Basgan (b. on 24 June 1902, in Focşani – d. on 15December 1980, in Bucharest) comes from a family of priests, whosespiritual exercise had been present throughout generations. However,he dedicated his life to science and technology and succeded to writean unbelievable legend of his own self.

The pages to come speak in detail about his evolution. Wewould have to point aut that on 18 May 1934 he gets the Romanianpatent no. 22.789, and on 21 December 1937 the American patent no.2.103.137, covering the heavy proportional pipes drilling and thesonic drilling, thats is „rotor-percution drilling”.

The inventions of the Romanian engineer Ion Şt. Basganconcern the progress of all types of drilling and they effectively putthem into practice.

On 27 December 1941, the USA gouvernment blocked thepatent of the Romanian citizen. It is very curious that, withinAmerican oil industry, Ion Basgan ideas are applied, bringingfabulous sums of money to the oil industry companies. He would havehad the right to cash 8,6 billion US dollars, as copyright, according toan expertise dating from 1965.

In 1961, Ion Basgan starts a recuperation trial for hisinventor rights (he had paid the taxes for the protection of hisAmerican patent for 17 years), charging 118 American oil companies.

Nowadays, we begin to understand „the Americandemocracy”, favouring the theft of his rights.

He was told that the patent no. 2.103.137 had been and wasstill blocked; the poor man fights with the US Administration and on13 October 1965, the State Department of Justice unbocked thepatent, which had a symbol effect. World War II ended twenty years

ago, but the blockage of the patent was still valid, for the benefit ofAmerican companies.

This late gesture had its „legal” reason, since in 1961, the oilcompanies had shown a death certificate in front of the Americanjustice, of the medical doctor Ion Basgan (the inventor’s cousin)asserting that the inventor had died and that the trial should havebean declared closed.

A justice system which does not check the papers does notdeserve our respect.

Ma. E. Ion Şt. Basgan spent a long time abroad, during 1966,1967, 1969, 1971, 1974, a.s.o., in order to set up his defence, andwasted much energy and hope.

Everything was futile. The is a fact that the Romanianinventor understood, step by step.

In 1967, an anonymous engineer from Dallas told him inLondon: „We shall be in court with you for years, and afterwards withyour sons, but we shall never pay back!”.

While in Rome, in 1966, he was proposed by the JewishOrganization „Saint” to become an Israeli citizen, for the sum of 10million US dollars, so that he might get the help to recuperate those8.6 billion US dollars and bring them to Israel (Bild am Sonntag, 25-26 May 1969).

On 2 January 1973, Ion Şt. Basgan was making a TVdeclaration for the editor Cornel Rusu: „I found in the USA a specialtarget enterprise dealing with acquiring inventions made in theEastern Europe. There I was told that it is common knowledge that thegreat majority and the most interesting inventions came fromRomania”.

Nevertheless, Ion Şt. Basgan is pursuing his way: on 11 June1974, he sends the USA government a request, including 21documents and claiming for his inventor right. The answer wasnegative.

At his proposal to set up in USA a foundation including 34sections (hydrotechnics, sonics, oil-industry, water duction, a.s.o.)with the money he could get from his copyright, the USA, governmentdid not bother to answer.

Let’s see together that „the editor Balcar from München, afterobtaining a few of the Romanian inventor’s papers, claims exageratedfinancial rights in order to give them back to the owner! Moreover,

Ion Basgan understands that those papers werw used in technical andscientific espionage, in favour of an American oil company”.

Ion Şt. Basgan had no chance. Any of his attempts to defendhis invention was blocked by the American „democratic”mechanisms, which allow the theft under the cover of some slogans,and, afterwards, it givers the theft the legal authority, through specificinstitutions.

Therefore, a great world power is stealing in fine style andafterwards it proves that it was „right” to do it.

This method had been applied to other Romanian citizens aswell. I remember the famous case of Nicola Tesla (Nicolae Teslea), anextraordinary Romanian engineer, whose inventions brought the USAhuge incomes, as well as the status of „an advanced technologycountry”. Poor Tesla! He was declared to be insane; his laboratorywas put on fire and he died in a hotel room; he had not evensucceeded to build himself a house. Now, the Tesla technologies areup to date again. But the USA are not obliged to pay for benefitingfrom the 900 patents of Nicola Tesla.

The great powers are stealing, everything and the tragedy ofIon Şt. Basgan draws us the attention, once more, on the goodintentions with which hell is paved and wich are put forward in frontof the curtain pompously called „democracy”.

The name of Basgan raises the problem of its ethimology andwe fiind the answer in this book: his name comes from the village andthe river in the county of Bacău – Bazga, code 5.531.

I have been several times in the village of Stroieşti, in theregion of Râbniţa, in Transnistria. Its citizens know that, at the end ofthe 19 century, a so-called Mazgan built a water-mill in their village,but they do not know his origin. They also want to write a monograpyof their village, but they do not have documents any more, because theRussian invaders stole them and destroyed them, with a specialpurpose.

I am not aware that in our country, especially in Ardeal, therecould be a village or a river called Mazga, but the words: mâzgă

(slime), mâzgălitură (scribbling), a mâzgăli, mâzgăleală (scribble)a.s.o. could be an answer to our question.

Moreover, in the Bucharest telephone directory there arenames like: Mazga (2), Mâzgăneanu (8), and Mâzgăreanu (3), as wellas: Bazga (2), Bazgan (7), Nazgă (2), Bazgu (1), Bâzgă (1), Bâzgan

(3) and Bâzgă (3). We can conclude that these names have the same

ethimology and come from the Romanian territory. This must beknown by the citizens of Stroieşti from Transnistria!

They should also know that the great empires are stealing infine style, if they did not fiind this aut till now! Moreover, afterstealing, they proceed to forgery, through cosmetical operations, andwork aut false histories, force-imposed, as „sacred truths!” theRomanian thesaurus is still in Moscow from 1917 after an agreementbetween two allied governments and we are sill waiting for it to bereturned. In front of the great powers, which are stealing us, thoselittle peoples, we have the moral duty to defend ourselves and tomemoriye everything nothing should be forgotten.

There will come a time when history will be re-written underreal coordinates and history does not forgive. Thus, one can find autwho was the inventor and who stole the invention who worked hardand who robbed; who was the bad guy at a given moment, in a givenspace.

Profesor Ma. E. Nicolae P. LeonăchescuPresident of the Romanian Society of Thermotechnicians

Bucharest, 6 March 1997

REMEMBER ION BASGAN

I often remember Basgan… A very pround man, shy, quiet,

who could talk in an odd rhythm of silences, a deprived man, maybe

too often, but refusing to ever blame those who made his life hard

with their injustice.

I remember him, firstly, when he talked about himself, notwith-out hesitations (and only after much insistence) and when heagreed to speak with me, with a new-born hope (and a sheer trust) inthose acknow-ledgements, usually late, of Time and Life, written in a

recuperating cycle of history, which still finds those deprived alive,very rarely. He wanted to believe that the long postponed day ofmoral recuperation, due to a certain period of time refractory to the“Basgan modality” – and all those periods of time, at plural – toomany and full of people, and too tight-handed to personalityappraisal, that the long postponed day had arrived, secretly, to hishouse and was determined to ring the bell.

It was by the end of June 1975. then, he lived in the block offlats Leonida – and he was 73 years old – and a big lawyears housefrom the USA, with many famous names on the front of its legal fame(among them there was Nixon’s father-in-law) was ready to start atrial for a legal recuperation of those 8 billions US dollars, to whichBasgan was entitled for his patents, largely used until 1945 and whichthe American Administration had blocked in banks, when the USAentered the World War II. (And there were so many people aroundBasgan, who were interested to help him!).

Today he would have been 95 years old and he would havebeen still disappointed by the obscure ways of human justice. And,sometimes, why not say it?, of human beings…

From the very beginning, during our first meeting, confessedto Basgan that I was working on a book (and I am still working on it)about the Romanian great scientists I had the luck to meet in their fullpower of creation – Onicescu, Macovschi, Moisil – and Ion Basgancould not have he been forgotten from the memories to come which Iwas ever interested to publish…

“And what do you want to write about me?”asked Basgan,with a soft smile.

My intention was very clear, and yet equally confused was myattempt to anticipate the future disclosure…

I told him, or at least I tried to answer him, that would write“about our ancient temptation, so human, to penetrate the greatdepths of our Terra…”, about our need (and thriving) to be able toexploit sometime the huge oil deposits, beyond the temporaryboundary of 2,000 metres, to which science and technology stopped inthe 30 30 before a young engineer, absolutely courageous, who hardlywas, in 1935, older than the great foreseers (he was 33 years old)could stagger the inertia of his time, bringing about an essentialrevolution in drilling…

“I wasn’t a foreseer, he protested. I have calculatedabsolutely everything, very rigorously…

All the foreseer check rigorously their great provisions, instrange kind of mathematics, unknown to us…”.

We had talked much and several times, before publishing – on12 July 1975 – my first essay on Basgan and his dreams – I called it“Towards the Depths of Earth” – an essay which, when I reread itnow, after more than two decades, I still find it appropriate and realand maybe less coded that could have been forced to do it, against myown will, by “the sonic drilling” and the explanation of “the Basganeffect”. I wrote that there was a time when “geological maps still paida tribute to improvisation and estimation, and the pure drilling, thepenetration to areas hopefully extractive did not exceed – at least untilthe 4’th decade of our century – the 2,000 meters of depth!”.

“May I call it the boundary of impotence?” – I asked Basgan.“The boundary of inertia – preferred Basgan. The boundary

stimulating the self-surpassing…”.And now that I brought about that essay of July 1975… The

fact that deepened then, at the middle of the 3rd decade, the lack ofsatisfaction of those who worked in drilling was not only theunsatisfactory level of 2,000 meters, but also the special difficultiesencountered: “the penetration of drilling equipment, even to thisdepth, clearly poor, could not avoid the serious direction deviations(15-20 degrees against the vertical), the permanent column bendings,the dangerous pipe breaks, the quick ruining of the extraction hooks.

Did we reach – there were some voices – the limits of science?Did Earth itself was against this geo-investigation and thesaurusattacks to the depth fortune of its deposits? Modern equipment whichallows today to geo-physicists and geo-chemists to unveil the secret ofEarth, from measurements of various charact6eristics of the gravityfield, from constant recordings of same radiations and vibrationreflexion, from detecting of important particles… did not exist then.And even if we admitted it existed, the modern world eas increasinglyrequesting the exploitation of newer and newer deposits… Mankindreached – as 1 told him then – one of those limit situation which putsthe, basis of a drama in science – as in art.

“Do you write plays? Basgan asked me.I tried and wrote a play starting from such a case, having the

topic of drilling: “If love didn’t exist…”, being obsessed by thequestion (and the song): “What girls would do / If love didn’t exist? /They’d die like leaves / In autumn, like white-frost”. Otherwise: Whatwe, people, could do, without our great passions?…

“We2d die suffocated by inertia, by obtusities, stricken by ourown indecisions” – Basgan continued my thought.

I remembered well his last words, which I used in the end ofthat essay, about a creator who could confirm his call, exactly bydecidedly refusing to fall into conformism, into “the already-known”,into the “we cannot do it otherwise”. The only way in science, as inlife – due to an original scientific interpretation – towards a truly newsolution and – referring to Basgan – towards the one the mostimportant aquirements of this century.

I quote again from this first essay: “Reconsidering the wholeprocess and phenomenon, interpreting the principle of Archimedesfrom the applicative angle of great depths at which drilling isperformed”, declaring very simply what the specialty literature callstoday: “the Basgan effect” and thus setting up the heavy metallicproportional pipes drilling, modern science succeds in penetratingdown to 9,000 meters depth! Transmitted in its general lines, since thefirst world oil congress (in 1933), patented in Romania in 1934, andin the USA in 1937, this paper is world-wide known. But Ion Basganwouldn’t stop here, at “this bundary of 9,000 meters”. “Starting fromthe principle of remote transmission and capture of sonic energy(founded by George Constantinescu), Basgan succeeds in adding tothe old Rotary drilling system the advantages of vertical penetrationof the sonic drilling system. The new patent, registered back in 1967,allowed theoretically the spectacular penetration towards depths oh –who would even suspect it 60 years ago? – 15.000 meters. What isgoing to happen next? And when? Beyond and above any economicadvantage, this penetration towards big depths had the role tocertainly complete, through an appropiate information, theunderstanding suggested today by geomagnetic and gravimetricresearchers, the study of emissions of radioactive origin, the modernseismology and – why not? – the volcanology. Let’s think therefore –we invite our readers – to this permanent progress of humanknowledge and to this fascinating penetration toward’s when speakingof Basgan’s merit – “with a feeling of pride”.

Let’s go back now to my wonderful companion in the summerof 1975, to what Ion Basgan was…

I remember that he told me about his school years and aboutthat spiritual toughness he was to acquire during his entire life, aboutthe innocence and special education acquirements, about the happylife spent in the Internal High-School in Iaşi, a school of will, of

perseverance and of devotion for an ideal… Since nobody graduatedthis school without having an ideal. About his departure to theSuperior Mining and Metallurgy School in Loeben (Austria), in 1920,where he made himself known through his native potential, then abouthis doctor degree which foreshadowed the revolution of the ancientRotary drilling system, about the prize “Ma. E. Cornel Nicoară” ofthe Romanian Academy, in 1936, about which I found something, andabout which Basgan felt obliged to admit… that he was awarded.During our conversation I made up in my mind those seven difficultyears – 1925-1932 – during which he acquired a productiveexperience, absolutely determining, at the famous, at that time,“Steaua Română”, a school-enterprise of new extractive technologies.

“I think you care much about those seven years, very difficultyears, which foresaw those seven years which were to bring arevolution in the drilling…”.

“Which renwed the other years, he corrected me. Whichchanged them, which directed them on other coordinates. As for therest…”. “The seven difficult years” parable, in science, at least, is notnecessarily accompanied by the seven happy years… In science – althe years are difficult! And coming back to the years of my thought:there is something else which surprised me and it still surprises me…

Undoubtedly, Basgan was also a very good economist. He hadbright ideas at that time – however unaccepted – about which he usedto speak shyly, as about a common fact, which could not be avoided tohappen, despite his deep conviction that those ideas, essentiallyreforming, would be the necessary capital for important changes inthe economic life of our country. When he was only 30 or 31 yearsold, he already founded, together with Gogu Constantinescu, “TheEconomic Association for the Study of Conjuncture … At the sametime Academy of High Commercial and Economic Studies inBucharest … And there are still many things to be mentioned hereabout the new tools and equipments, many of them extremely original,which he was to present and manufacture, during 50-70, discoveringthus new oil deposits, experimenting various extractive installationsinto the hard rocks of Dobrogea. However, we put a full stop to ourlong “remember”…

Today, there is, finally, in the town of Focşani, the town whereBasgan was born, on 24 June 1902, a street bearing his name…Maybe, there will be a memorial plate in Iaşi, sometime … Maybeanother one in Bucharest: “Here there lived between…” Hopefully

there will be founded a “Basgan prize” of the Romanian Academy.But all these late acknowledgements will only immortalize a name andwill speak too little about the unique character of Basgan, about thecourage of his ideas and about that injustice of the world whichdeprives sometimes a researcher, years after years, of his own merits.I am greeting this book – is a holy initiative for reminding a spirit –and a noble thriving of a son – and I mention the engineer Ion Basgan– to snatch the name of his father from silence and oblivion.

Dorel Dorian

Bucharest, 24 June 1997

MEMORIES

ON THE ROMANIAN INVENTOR

MA. E. ION BASGAN

Such a well-documented and valuable paper dedicated by Ma.E. Gabriel I. Năstase to the great scientist, the engineer Ion Basgan, isdoomed to wake up my most remote memories.

I had the honour to be introduced to the oil-industry engineerIon Basgan, in January 1945, during the foundation of the StudiesCircle of the National Liberal Party, in the house of Sabina

Cantacuzino, in 37, C.A. Rosetti Street, the headquarters of the club ofthe above mentioned party since 27 August 1944.

Amourg hundreds of the National Liberal Party and of theFărcăşanu, there were present the three great members of theBrătianu family: Dinu, the President of the party; Constantin (Bebe),the Secretary-General; and the great historian I.I.C. Brătianu, thevice-president of the party, who delivered the opening speech.

Welcomed enthusiastically almost at every and of the exposedproblem, Professor Gheorghe Brătianu formulated the new prospectsof the liberal doctrine within economic problems. After widelyreferring to the world economic situation, after the devastating WorldWar II, Professor Brătianu stated:

“Within the new world economic policy situation, my opinionis that, in a dried and exhausted Romania, the traditional andhistorical formula of our party, concerning the economic problems:“Through ourselves…” when stating this formula, the audiencestarted to strongly applaude. But, following the idea of hisargumentation, I knew what he was going to say and I could hardlystop from laughing. When the enthusiastic applause stopped,Professor Brătianu continued his thought, mostly embarrassed …“must be forgotten”.

In my capacity as president of the Studies Circle of theNational Liberal Youth, I used to often take part in the seriousspeciality studies as well. Almost at the same time the LeberalEngineers Circle “Vintilă Brătianu” was also founded. This circlewas named in the memory of the energetic and uncorruptible leader ofthe economic policy of the party, Vintilă Brătianu. Then, the engineerBasgan told me that he had several opportunities to put his technicalknowledge to the benefit of the Liberal Party and that he was verymuch appreciated by Vintilă Brătianu. This declaration wasconfirmed by my father-inlaw, the lawyer Gheorghe Lazăr, who wasalso a member of the economists circle, lead by the President of theNational Liberal Party.

Strictly referring to the present paper, I remember that out ofthe mission mentioned by the author, on the page 237, I met ProfessorGrigore Vasilescu (with whom I used to play bridge), engineerBasgan, and I was a close friend with the civil engineer GeorgelVeniamin, today living in Paris. I also met the lawyer C. DinuPopescu-Galaţi, who was a member of the Brussells Bar Associationand who died several, years ago. At the page 246 of the biography,

where the matter came about Dinu, the author makes anextraordinary synthesis of the engineer Ion Basgan, concerning theeconomic programme of the National Liberal Party, which wascentered on a trade supported by a healthy agriculture, with the targetto stimulate production, importations, exportations and industry, incase there were material and intellectual conditions.

The reversing of the priorities by the communists (a naturalreversing, as matter of fact, because the heavy industry was absolutelynecessary for Rusia in order to fill up the catastrophic technologicalgap after World War II) was destroying Romania, as did the reversingof staff election, starting from a healthy origin and not from a value.

Another problem is to be noticed in the well-documentedbiographical paper of Ma. E. Gabriel I. Năstase, that is the turninginto account of the creative intelligence of Romanians of the Europeanstates.

Starting from the beginning of 18th century – the IlluminationCentury – for the orthodoxe, vegetative and corrupt Europe – allforeign observers of Romanian realities, starting with Antonio Mariade Chiaro, were amazed, one by one, by the cleverness of theRomanian people, especially by its intellectual smartness whichallows it to easily grasp, in a very quick period of time, any know-howtaken from foreigners, irrespective of its sophistication and domain.

This special gift does not stop to be compromised those daysin Romania by the obscure medium: ideological, bureaucratic,orthodoxe and corrupt. However, abroad, in amedium good forcreativity, the Romanians can make miracles, even today.

The lesson is finite: we have the duty to put at the disposal ofthe Romanians, situated intellectually above the average, allopportunities available, from special schools to universities and to thenecessary material incentives. Otherwise, they will emigrate, the waythose 700.000 Romanians emigrated, between 1990-2000, out ofwhich at least half of them were above the average.

In the well-documented paper of Professors AlexanderHellemans and Bryan Bunch (recently translated into Romanian byDiana Constantinescu and published by Orizonturi Publishing House)we fiind only two Romanian world scientists: Henri Coandă and GoguConstantinescu.

The huge economies obtained through the exceptionaltechnological innovation, experimented on a huge scale and due to theengineer Ion Basgan did not bring profit either him or the Romanian

people, but to the world economic system, whether capitalist orcommunist. The two antinomic systems have two elements in common:a permanent one, that is the corrupt bureaucracy (exploiting duringcommunism, sometimes limited during capitalism) and anotherelement experienced between 1940-1980, that is the concept of LordKeyness, synthesized in the profundly non-liberal formula: Full-

employment.

The great wealth obtained in the USA between 1983-2000 isvery much due to the initiative of the great president, Ronald Reagan,under the double influence of the conservatory experience in GreatBritain of Lady Margaret Thatcher and that of the Chile President,Augusto Pinochet, that is the replacement of the Keynessian systemwith the managerial monetarism of James Burnham and MiltonFriedman.

A society, either capitalist or communist, which does notrespect its commitments and which does not rightly encourage thecreative and the innovation activity of individuals who are born inthat society, is a descalifying and obscurantist society and, to betterexpress the idea, is an underdeveloped society. In other words, thesociety is blocked, regressive, bankrupting and backwarded.

This is the way Romania has been for half a century and wehardly could see that is has an intention to get off the darkness andmoors in which it arrived with communism.

Yet, an American society which does not understand to fulfillits commitments, the most elementary ones, towards creative peoplesand towards creative individuals, who work for this society, has thesame odd shadow.

Senator D.A. Lăzărescu

Bucharest, 21 July 2000

I dedicate this book to those who guided my steps through thewilderness of life, who gave me a peaceful home and a happychildhood, with all the tenderness of their heart. Their behaviour andcouncils taught me to appreciate and promote authentic values thatare to be found in our fellow men, sometimes offer us generously: thehappiness of creation.

I dedicate this book therefore to my mother, Maria Năstaseand to the memory of my first teachers: my father Ion Năstase,mygrandfather Ştefan Năstase and my uncle, Nicolae Năstase.

I hereby bring my acknowledgements to all those who werenear me to confort and to counsel me, with all their heart, in the hardtimes of my life.

G. I. Năstase

I N T R O D U C T I O N

redestinated to offer Romanian science and technology aseries of far reaching achievements in the domain of oil-drilling improvement, Ion Basgan was, still is and shall

remain one of the most brilliant Romanian inventors. Inspired bythe new ideas of sonicity, Prof. Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan produced over50 technical and scientific works that were printed in severalspecialized technical publications of various countries.

As a disciple and collaborator of the father of sonicity, GoguConstantinescu, Ion Basgan, the oil – industry engineer, distinguishedhimself in the realm of technical and scientific creation by manifoldexceptional achievements, in the domain of oil industry, that laterbecame world-wide priorities.

His special achievements pertaining to the oil-drilling techniquewere appreciated by George (Gogu) Constantinescu, the father ofsonicity, as well as by other Romanian and foreign specialists:‘Method for improving the output and perfecting rotary oil-drilling, bypercussion-rotation and hydro-mechanical pressures absorption’(Romanian Patent No. 22.789/1934) and ‘A new oil-drilling systemtaking into account hydrostatic pressure and long-distance sonicenergy transmission by means of proportional heavy oil drilling rodsand sonic oil drilling (USA Patent No. 2.103.137/1937).

Ion Basgan was born at the beginning of this century on the 24th

of June, 1902 in Focsani, an old town in Vrancea county, South ofMoldavia, in an over three hundred year - old family. His mother wasknown to be the offspring of an old Transylvanian shepherds’ family.The peaceful life of this honorable family and its offsprings is in itselfa living example of the general truth that native intelligence hasalways been a state of the spirit of the Romanian nation and a symbolof its perenial existence.

Endowed with an authentic intellectual capacity that wassustained by an unusual spiritual strength and a strong determination

P

to study, Ion Basgan had graduated the Primary School No. 2 ofFocsani and then attended the Secondary ‘Boarding’ School of Iaşi.As a pupil, he would always receive scholarship grants and prizes: hispropensity for study allowed him to receive outstanding schoolperformances. On the 5th of June 1920, he graduated the secondaryschool and was awarded a ‘Steaua Română’ (‘Romanian Star’)scholarship for the courses of the Superior School of Mines andMetallurgy (Montanistische Hochschule 5, Leoben, Austria) between1920 and 1925. In 1933, he was awarded the doctor degree in technicalsciences. Ion Basgan became famous thanks to the applications of hisRotary drilling method that became the most extensively utilizedmethod in all the oil – producing countries.

Based upon the principle of sonicity, the new drilling systembrought about a technical revolution for the American oil industry.That was how the American economy would substantially increase itsprofit, through yearly savings of 1.8 billion dollars. Unfortunately, IonBasgan, who died at 15th December, 1980 and his descendants did notbenefit from the Patent ownership rights, to say nothing of the factthat the Romanian Academy (that awarded Ion Basgan the Dr. CornelNicoară prize in 1935), the Institute of Oil and Gas, as well as the‘Politehnica’ University of Bucharest have failed on many occasionsto render the due homage to Ion Basgan, the Romanian scholar whohad dedicated his life and work for the Romanian science and not only.His entire existence was a living proof that native intelligence is adominant feature of the Romanian nation and not a mere accident of fate.

Many of the technical achievements of Ion Basgan, the inventor,represented the topic of extended debates in several periodicals andtreaties, while they were also sources of inspiration for other specialistsin their attempt to improve the oil drilling technique. The Foreword toone of Ion Basgan’s works that had been published in the formerUSSR, in 1935, mentioned the following assertion of Prof. K. Tiscenkoregarding the outstanding practical results that were obtained inoil production by former USSR and USA when applying Basgan’sinvention: ‘compelling the oil – boring system to vibrate during rotarydrilling and thus setting an alternative dynamic load on the base, asignificant increase of the driller travel can be achieved. A.Z.N.I.I.tested this principle and proved that the driller starts to operate againunder the action of longitudinal vibration, at the end of its travel. In1938, this principle was practically tested in Romania at the oil wellno. 471 of the Ghirdoveni oil field. Positive results were obtained

when testing the implementation of the Basgan method, that confirmedthe high drilling speed, its costs reduction and higher quality, throughperfectly vertical boring.

Essentially, the Basgan method is based on two principles,namely: the sonic oil drilling and the technique of heavy proportionaloil rods. Therefore, the percussion rotary drilling, that is the sonicdrilling permits the driller to perform percussion on the oil drillerbottom, while the driller still rotates. The percussion shocks are a resultof the sonic effect, inducing a certain level of the driller vibrations. Themethod of the sonic drilling as applied in other countries also is basedon the vibrations produced by mud pumps into the oil rig and the longdistance transmission of energy through the drilling rigs, withoutbottom vibration apparatus.

Ion Basgan emphasized the importance of utilizing heavyproportional rods at drilling rigs, whose load is equal to the loadapplied on the driller in order to avoid deviation of drilling bores androds brake. The above mentioned process enables the oil producer toperform vertical drilling with a 30 to 50 % economic output, ascompared to that of previously applied oil drilling methods.

Scientific works of American scientists, Murray Hawkingsand Norman Lamont of the Louisiana University (California, USA),American, French, German and Russian university courses (of Prof.Moore, Prof. Evescenko, Prof. S.I. Siscenko, etc.) have focused on theoriginality of the Romanian conception, namely Ion Basgan’s idea, aswell as on its contribution to the development of the Romanian science.

After thorough research, studies and calculation, Ion Basganproved that with the field method, the application point of theArchimede force lies at the lower end of the drilling installation andnot at the gravity center of the drilling rig that is introduced into thedrilling mud.

Thanks to his inventions (patented in Romania and USA), thatare of great importance as a result of their practical economic effects,namely: drilling by means of heavy proportional rods and the sonicdrilling, Ion Basgan’s name is written on the panoply of renownedRomanian inventors. This is how through Prof. Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan,Romania has contributed one of its most valuable inventions to thetechnical and scientific international patrimony.

The outline of the professional carrier of the Romanian scientistmay be rounded up by adding to it a further dimension, that of asubtle observer of the political events, although he never got involved

in the deeper political interplay, in spite of the frequent demands ofcontemporary politicians. His existence was mainly marked by hispropensity for technical and scientific creativity less than for politicalincertitude. Nevertheless, his fine political contribution proved hislove of his people and the national interests of his country.

Ion Basgan was and still remains, through his work andcreativity, an inventor of genius for the Romanian people, whoseundying creation already belongs to the entire world.

I am indebted for the completion of this monographic descriptionto Dipl. Eng. Ion (Ginel) I. Basgan, the son of the inventor Dr. Eng.Ion St. Basgan, for his kindly permitting me to study the documentsof the family archive, which I found to be a valuable support for adocumented description. I express my gratitude to Dipl. Eng. Ion Basganfor his beautiful words that came as a conclusion of Ion Basgan’smoral image as a remarkable Romanian scientist and technician.

‘At last the time has come to bring forth and pay for the debtsof our nation towards my father. It is to be regretted the fact thatthe Romanian Academy, the Politehnica University of Bucharest, theTechnical University of Constructions of Bucharest, the TechnicalMuseum “Dimitrie Leonida”, the Institute of Oil and Gas and othershave failed to remember my father for a commemoration or ananniversary to the memory of he who was brilliant inventor, aspecialist who has brought about a revolution in the deep drillingtechnique. The only people to remember that Dr. Ion Basgan has beenthe son of this country were the citizens of Focsani, his native town.

Since the reader shall find a lot of information regarding myfather’s life and work, I would rather share with those who takeinterest in the personality of this man, a few ideas that might round upthe picture of the personality of the inventor. No matter how beautifuland full of fruit may be the crown of a tree, one can fully appreciate itprovided one also knows how deep its roots are in the soil whichsustains and ensures its life. I shall always cherish in my heart themoral testament that has been handed in by one generation to theother of the Basgan family. This moral dowry has been committed tous also through the permanent concern of our father for the educationof his children by continuous instruction and respect for work andhonest earning.

He was apparently a tough man, to the extant that to him thevery presence at the table at the right time when dinner was servedwas a part of the every day education. He was not at all indifferent to

the way we learnt, how we did our homework. He had noticed forinstance my early practical natural dispositions for technique. Now,not only do I take interest in such activities, but they represent a realrelaxation and refuge from everyday life. When I was a school boy, hestarted sharing with me some of his preoccupations and the problemshe had to face in the achievement of his inventions.

Unfortunately, life brought to our family also unpleasant difficultmoments, such as the repression of the communist regime, that weregenerated by the aberration of this political system. The contemporarysituation and the events of Hungary had been hanging over andthreatening the peaceful life of our family. My father would have tosearch for new jobs, to get rid of the persecution from the part of theRomanian repressive organizations. The family felt his anxiety andrevolt. Generally, when a man is harassed, he cannot either work orcreate as he would under normal living conditions. Nevertheless, myfather succeeded through tremendous efforts to prove that he was andremained a man involved in science and technique, who takes nospecial interest in politics, yet takes part in political events when he isrequired to pass a specialist’s judgement, because he was persuadedthat when deprived of a competent scientific, technical and economicsupport, political decisions can become an extremely dangerousweapon against the people and his country. That is why the functionof adviser which he had to perform on various occasions implied a lotof responsibility and it had a significant professional effect incontemporary political decisions.

Although he had had the chance to live in other countries forthe rest of his life, where special material and spiritual advantageswere offered to him, my father denied every such of opportunity,because he had never imagined that he could live far away from hisnative land and work for the prosperity of other nation. With thisconception in view and an unusual moral strength, for almost half acentury he had suffered humiliation and degrading by citizens of hisown and by strangers. That which most made him strong and fit forfacing life was: family, real friends, work and the thought that hisachievements were one more proof that Romanians are endowed withan exceptional creative force who has often opened new ways for theprogress and civilization of mankind during its entire history.

Unfortunately, my father could not fully enjoy the fruit of hiscreative work. After he had died, there were some signs of the recognitionof his creative activity and original achievements in drilling, to say

nothing more of the financial benefits that have been and are stillobtained as a result of applying his inventions, that entered into banksother than the Romanian banks, with unknown destinations.

I can say, honestly, that the universal dimension of my father’spersonality had a positive effect on my life, as did the love that weshared in our family and the trust we put in God almighty.

The spirit that characterized my familiy existence was a realblessing to me and made me understand that honest work and lovetowards mankind are the way to real success in life, that man aloneis capable to create and gain a place for himself in the everlastingmemory of mankind.

That is why, this work represents a special event to me, and asuccessful tentative editorial event to Dr. Gabriel I. Nastase, a youngman of science and spirit’.

Unfortunately, a lot of the family documents, including photos,were either lost after the earthquake of 4th March, 1977, or had beenconfiscated by the state security, as Ion (Ginel) Basgan, the son,declared, which could add even more to the real picture of Ion Basgan.

Dr. Gabriel I. Năstase

LIFE AND WORK

on Basgan was born on the 24th of June in 1902, in Focsani, a

town in the Vrancea region, South of Moldavia, under the

star of creativity, of the spirit of truth and beauty. He was

going to grow into one of the most remarkable figures of the

Romanian science and technology, as well as a restless fighter for the

defence of national interests. As nothing happens by chance on this

Romanian land overthrown by passions, neither was the almost

divinely birth of this man on a legendary shepherds’ land. The history

of the Basgan family has deep roots in the Romanian land and each

new generation had added to the dower of the new - born child Ion

Basgan.

It is admitted that the name of “Basgan”1 comes, by analogy to

other names, from “Bazga”, a place located by the river with the same

name, in the northern part of the Falciu district, north of Raducaneni.

It seems that the etymological origin of the name, though no

longer to be found in the dictionary is ‘buzzing’ or humming.

Old documents of the Saint Bishopric of Husi (that are kept by

the State Archives in Bucharest and Iasi, the Biographic Journal and

1 The first ‘Bazgans’ spelled their name with a ‘z’ instead of ‘s’. The

change was initiated by the three priests, the sons of Ion Basgan’s grand father,

priest Ion Bazgan the 3rd

.

I

the Genealogy of the “Bazgan”2 family) are attesting the ancestral

presence of the Basgan family in Romania, namely ‘priest Bazga’ is

mentioned to make the part of his estate of Bunesti – Falciu a donation

to Neariul, the contemporary Minister for Internal Affairs. Bazga

priest’s donation was confirmed by the voivode Moisa Moghila on the

17th January, 1631 (7139 from the making of the world). A later

attestation is that of the 17th July, 1654, when it is mentioned that

Varvara, the daughter of priest Bazga sold their part of estate from

Bucharest and Cobisesti to Darie Spataru.

In 1780, the priest Ion Bazgan the 1st was born, whose

documentary presence was attested only in 1826.

In 1800, the priest Ionita Bazgan the 2nd

was born. He married

Simina of Davidesti, Falciu district in 1823. His earthly life ended in

1830 and his wife Simina died in 1863.

The priest Ion Bazgan III, the son of Ionita and Simina Bazgan,

was born in 1824. He grew as an orphan from the age of 6 and was

educated by mother Simina. His spiritual education was marked by the

years that he passed in her company and his steps were guided

towards the ecclesiastical seminary of Socola – Iasi. Then he would

marry Elinca, the daughter of Vasile Zugravu and have 10 children by

her. Ion Bazgan III, the grandfather of the brilliant scientist Ion

Basgan lived to the end of his life (the 28th April, 1876) in the village

Armasani, county Averesti, in the Falciu Distirct.

The tenth son of the priest Ion Bazgan III, called Stefan Basgan,

was born on the 30th of June, 1874 in Averesti county, in Armasani

village, the Falciu district. He attended the primary theological school

and the seminary at Husi and he ended he theological studies with a

scholarship at the Seminary ‘Veniamin Costache’ of Iasi. He attended

the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest between 1896 and 1900 with a

scholorship at the Theological Boarding School. Stefan Basgan IV had

lived in Focsani as a priest, a member and the president of the

Spiritual Consistory of the Roman Diocese, as well as a member of

the Diocesan Assembly until the 15th of February, 1974, the day when

he shall be parted for ever from the earthly world.

On the 5th September, 1901 he had married Maria (born in

1882), the daughter of the priest Vasile Ban of Gagesti, Vrancea, who

2 Ludovic Cosma, The Bigraphic Journal and the Genealogy of the

Bazgan Family, the Romanian Printing House, Galati, 1944.

was the descendant of a shepherds’ family who had come to Vrancea

from Transilvania across the Carpathian mountains. Stefan Basgan

shall have five children (three boys and two girls).

His first - born child was Ion Stefan Basgan.

*

* *

Ion Ştefan Basgan graduated the Primary School No. 2 of

Focşani and would be awarded school prizes during all these years.

Between 1909 and 1913, he attended the courses of the Boarding High

School in Iaşi, with a scholarship and obtained the graduation diploma

no. 1.295. He had been learning mathematics from Gheorghe Lascăr

and Ion Roianu, and natural science from Teodor Bădărau, the

Headmaster of the High School. These and other teachers of the time

had been for the young man Ion Basgan a symbol of the work for

truth, beauty, determination and creativity.

Between 1920 and 1925, Ion Basgan would attend the courses

of the Superior School of Mines and Metallurgy in Leoben – Austria

with a scholarship and he obtained the graduation Diploma 10 on the

17th of July, 1925).

While still a student he would be the president of the Romanian

Society ‘Sonda’ (Oil Well) of Leoben and he would carry out the

student practice in 1924, at the oil mines of Pechelbronn (Alsacia –

France), where he would study the oil exploitation process through the

mine galleries.

Born as it were under a lucky star, Ion Basgan came out sane of

two duels to which he was challenged in the first and the fourth year

of study, as well as out of a railroad accident (as a result of the

collision of two trains at his arrival in Pachelbronn).

Mention shoud be made here of an apparently insignificant, yet

relevant event to the spiritual character of the young Ion Basgan: in

1922, when he was the president of the students’ ‘Sonda’ society, he

refused to join in the right – wing students’ movement. Other students

of this society followed him in his attitude. Soon after this event, the

great historian of the Romanian nation, Nicolae Iorga, would appreciate

their attitude in a letter which he sent to the young student personally.

Later in July, 1929 the engineer Ion Basgan, who at that time

was the chief in charge of the Scaiosi field, would meet Nicolae Iorga,

a representative personality of both the Romanian and the universal

culture, who was then visiting the site. He remembered Ion Basgan

and would invite him to hold a lecture on ‘Oil Industry’ at his

University in Valenii de Munte in July, 1929.

Ion Basgan, a student at the Superior School of Minesand Metallurgy in Leoben – Austria.

When he was back in Romania, in 1925, Ion Basgan would

work as an engineer on the fields of the ‘Steaua Româna’ Society and

in December, 1925 he attended the courses of the Military School of

Artillery Officers in reserve in Craiova. He shall do the military service

at the 4th Regiment of Heavy Artillery in Focsani. In July, 1926 he

resumed his work on the Moreni field, that belonged to the ‘Steaua

Română’ Society, together with other outstanding contemporary

engineers, such as: Victor Dumitrescu, Cardas I. And Marinescu C. In

Dr. Ion Basgan when attending thecourses of the Military Sc

hool of Artilery Officers in Reserve(Craiova, 1925).

August, 1926 he shall pass his exam for the function of chief of

exploration in the oil industry and natural gas (Patent no. 39).

At this time, the lucky star of his destiny would shine to

lead him towards even deeper research studies in geology and

hydro-technics. Under these favorable conditions to his

profession, Ion Basgan would intuitively remark that the activities

that had been performed in oil drilling before were rather

empirical. In August, 1926, he published his first work in the

Annals of Mines No. 8/1926 on the ‘Oil Region of Moreni Gura

Ocnitei’, in both Romanian and French, in collaboration with the

engineer I. Cardas.

Yet, as life is not made of lucky moments only, sadness,

troubles and hardships made their way into the early days of the

young scientist: Ion Basgan was deeply hurt by the death of his

brother Vasile Basgan, by a tragical accident in Lion, France.

Ion Basgan’s brother Vasile Stefan Basgan was born in

Focsani in 1908. He attended the primary school courses in

Focsani, and the secondary courses in Iasi, at the Boarding

High School, which he graduated when he was only 16 years

old (in 1924), by passing two- years exams in one year. Then

he joined his brother Costica Stefan Basgan in Lion and

attended the chemistry engineering university courses. Just a

few days before his graduation, the young Vasile Basgan died

by electrocution in his bath, on Easters day, in 1929.

The short life of Vasile Basgan had been a case in his epoch,

both sensational and tragical. Ion Basgan had to gather his strength to

bring back from France the body of his brother, so that he may find a

restful place for it on the land of his country, in Focsani.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan together with his parents, Stefan andMaria Basgan, when he was attending the courses

of the Military School of Artillery Officers in reserve (Craiova,1925).

G. G. Longinescu wrote about the untimely death of Vasile

Basgan in the ‘NATURE’ review of science dissemination (year XVII,

no. 6, the 15th of June, 1928) the following words to comfort the

family: ‘Let God not give man the full measure of what he can bear.

God forbid that one should ever drink the cup of bitterness that the

priest Stefan Basgan of Focsani had to drink. He lost Vasilic, a dear

son of him, on the first Easter day, who died as if thunder stricken in a

bath of Lyon by an electrical circuit. That was a deep sorrow to his

parents and a great loss to our people. The readers of ‘NATURE’ have

already been acquainted with the brilliancy of this worthy young man

from his letters of gratitude to his professor, N. Negru of the Boarding

Hich School of Iasi. They are sparkingly witty writings testifying for a

strong determination to work by a young man as we need today. It is

rather strange how this nation is deprived of its educated young man,

of its men of valour quite at the time when we need them more: two

years ago, we lost Emanuel Sudan, the winner of the swimming

contests, who died while swimming heartily in the Black Sea, at

Balcic. One year ago, Preda Bratasanu, the electician engineer with a

University degree in mathematics, which he had obtained at twenty

years only in Paris, was falling down from an industrial rig to die an

unknown death, instead of living to be one of the brilliant engineers of

Romania. And now, fourty days ago, we lost a distinguished young

man who had graduated from high school when he was only seventeen

and was studying Industrial Chemistry in Lyon with Victor Grignard,

the renowned chemist, the Nobel prize winner and a good friend of the

Romanian people. After only three years of study, when he had

obtained brilliant results, he received the Diploma in mathematics and

chemistry. He died at 20, at a time when other young men of his age

were just graduating from high school. An awful accident has stiffled

his life in the bud. The tree of his life was not allowed to bring forth

fruit and thus be a joy to the teachers who had made him grow. His

father had to taste of bitterness instead of sharing the delight of his

son’s professional ascension to the highest position that he would have

deserved. No human words can ever express the grief of parents when

their child is lost and that of the entire nation who shall read them. Let

God comfort the berieved father and give a peaceful place to his

innocent son.

Having surpassed this difficult moment of his life, Ion Basgan

undertook the management of the Scaiosi field in the Teleajen Valley

that belonged to the ‘Steaua Română’ society, where he carried out a

series of exploitation works of the fields in this area. In June, 1929 he

published in the Romanian Annals of Mines No. 6 and No.11 a record

of the first tests in the country of the explosion engines in drilling:

‘Motoare Waukesha in the rotary drilling’ (‘Waukesha Engines in

Rotary Drilling’). As alredy mentioned before, the renowned Romanian

historian and patriot, professor Nicolae Iorga, had been from the very

beginning aware of the real ability of the young Basgan and in July,

1929 he invited him to hold a lecture on the topic ‘Oil Industry’ at the

‘Nicolae Iorga’ University in Valenii de Munte. In October, 1930 Ion

Basgan published his work ‘Exploatarile Petrolifere de pe Valea

Teleajenului’ (‘Oil Exploitation in the Teleajen Valley’) in the Annals

of Mines. In the same year he was appointed director on the ‘Steaua

Româna fields of Moinesti. Taking advantage on the position he had

earned, he kept working even more intensely in the field of hydro-

technics and sonicity research with applications in the drilling technique.

One year later, in 1931, he was appointed deputy of the Inspectorate

of Oil Drilling on all the filds of the ‘Steaua Româna’ Society.

On the 15th December of the same year, as a result of a

premeditated murder that took place in the Hospital of Valea Rea in

the city of Bacau, another brother of his died, the physician Constantin

Stefan Basgan, who had graduated from the Faculty of Medicin of

Lion, France. He had been born in 1904, in Focsani. He attended the

primary school courses and a part of the secondary school courses

there, which he continued at the Boarding High School of Iasi. When

he had passed his high school graduation examination, Constantin

Basgan subscribed to the Medicine Faculty of Bucharest. Because of

the students’ movement of 1922, he would leave to Germany, later to

France, intending to cross the Ocean into America. Professor Bonnet

asked him to remain in Lion. When he was back in his country, he was

appointed chief physician of the Valea Rea Hospital, in the Bacau

District. Unfortunately, his life ended there with a sudden death by a

deadly shot from an insane post master.

As soon as he recovered his strength after his brother’s death,

on the 31st December, Basgan decided to withdraw from the ‘Steaua

Româna’ Society, in order to dedicate himself to the publication of the

results of his technical and scientific research and to sustain his

doctor’s degree.

With this end in view, he settles down in Bucharest in 1932,

working out the first theoretical notions of the Basgan effect, as well

as the new laws of the Archimede principole and the sonic drilling.

Ion Basgan together with his master, George Constantinescu, with

Nicolae Malaxa, Alexandru Perieteanu and others founded the

‘Association for the Study of the Romanian Economic Situation’. He

would work as a referent and the leader of the oil and mines section,

publishing on this occasion economic reports and syntheses.

The objective of this association was to study the relations

between the private companies and the state industry. His personal

attitude regarding the state policy in oil industry shall be reflected in a

series of publications containing documents in which he stipulated the

development framework of the Romanian oil industry and the country

industrialisation, while taking into account the material and power

resources existing in the soil of his country. He would recommend the

nationalization of the oil industry and the total industrialization of the

country, focusing on the role of the state as compared to the private

initiative. The uncompliant spirit of the young Basgan was not at all

appretiated by the private financial providers of the Association, who

shall finally withdraw their financial support of the association. Since

the fall of 1933, the ‘oxigen baloon’ of the association activity had

been provided by the National Bank for a certain period of time.

In the same year, the Romanian Academy published his work

entitled ‘Form and Operation of the Rotary Drill in the Oil - Bearing

Formations of Romania’ with an Introduction by Prof. Eng.Ficsinescu.

This work was introduced to the Academy specialists by its President,

Prof. L. Mrazec.

In 1933, the Romanian Academy published his work ‘Vibrating

Phenomena and Their Effect on the Drill Operation in the Rotary

Drilling System’, when Prof. Nicolae Vasilescu – Karpen had made its

presentation in high terms.

In April, in the framework of the lectures cycle organized by

IRE at the ‘Politehnica’ Society, Ion Basgan held a lecture on the

topic ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the Situation of Oil Exploration and

the Fuel Question’.

Upon the request of the Association of the Mining Engineers,

Ion Basgan would hold the same lecture in Moreni, in front of certain

specialists who were particularly interested in the new achievements

in the domain of the Romanian science and technology.

In May, 1933 Ion Basgan held a conference lecture at the

‘Politehnica’ Society in Calea Victoriei, on the topic ‘Technique and

Scientific Interpretation of the Rotary Drilling System’.

On the 7th of July, 1933 Ion Basgan would hold his Doctorate

dissertation at the Montanistische Hochschule of Leoben, Austria.

Caius Brediceanu the Romanian Secretary of State in Vienna had also

joined in the solemn ceremony.

Ion Basgan delivering his lectureat the first World Oil Congress (London, 1933).

On the 20th of July 1933 Ion Basgan shall join in the first World

Oil Congress in London, by his appointment as the official delegate of

Romania, through the Ministery Decision No. 34.555/1933.

Ion Basgan would speak in the name of his country at the

opening session of the Congress and hold the lecture ‘Scientific

Consideration of the Technics of Modern Drilling’.

In August and September 1933 he attended the summer courses

of Political Economy of the London University.

In September 1933 he was appointed honorific professor at the

Department of ‘Oil Study’ of the Academy of Higher Commercial and

Industrial Studies. In November 1933 his article ‘Technics and a

Scientific Approach of the Rotary Drilling System’ was published in

the AGIR Bulletin and the Annals of Mines. In the same month he had

a radio interview ‘Comments on the Occasion of the World Oil

Congress of London’. Later, L’Independance Roumaine would publish

his speech.

In April, 1934 his Doctor degree work entitled ‘Die Arbeitsweise

und Form des Rotary Meissels’3 was published at Vienna with an

Introduction by Dr. Eng. George Constantinescu., the father of sonicity,

containing the following report on the scientific research contained

herein:

‘The treatise that Mr. Basgan presented us on the vibration

phenomena of the rotary drilling has introduced us to an important

problem whose solution seems to be out of reach at the first sight.

It may be said that the problem was solved, while admitting

in advance that the described phenomena represent the result of a

continuous harmonic vibrating phenomenon with one or two

frequencies, yet in reality it could be a changing phenomenon, with

multiple frequencies and even changing frequencies, eluding therefore

mathematical analysis.

When reading this treatise, one should not misregard the fact

that Mr. Basgan started, as a result of his practical experience, from

the analysis of the results he has obtained and which proved that in

reality it is a continuous vibrating phenomenon that is manifest and

corresponds to his own calculations on the basis of the results of thesonic theory.

This is an important step forward, because when including the

remarks, that one derives from practical experience, into a simple

mathematical theory, one may easily calculate something that practical

experience never shows.

In our case, for instance, one can predict frequencies, rod

lengths and drill loads at which drill rods may brake. This is a step

forward, a serious and deeply thought work in a domain that has been

totally neglected by now’.

In the same month, Ion Basgan would hold a conference lecture

on the topic ‘Scientific Rotary Drilling’ at the Association for Science

Progress in Romania.

3 Ion Basgan, Operation and Form of Rotary Drills, Hans Urban Printing

House, Vienna, 1934.

In May, 1934 Ion Basgan’s Patent No. 22.789 ‘Heavy

Proportional Rods Drilling and Sonic Drilling’, including the

application of the Basgan effect was registered in Romania.

Romanian Patent no. 22.789, May, 1934.

In August, 1934 Ion Basgan shall receive and be a leader of the

visit of the professors and students of Leoben in Romania.

On the 15th of December, 1934 he undertook the leadership of the

Romanian Oil Society of the group ‘Mica Redeventa’(‘Small Due’).

Since 1935, Ion Basgan had been applying the new Basgan

drilling methods on the oil fields of the Romanian Oil Society with

exeptional results.

The same year, his work ‘Scientific Grounds of Modern Drilling

Methods’ was published by the Mejdunarodnaia Kniga Publishing

House in Moscow and Baku of the former USSR, with an Introduction

by the renowned scientist S. I. Siscenko.

In 1936 his article ‘Important Factors in the Achievement of a

National Oil Policy’ was published in the Industry and Commerce

Magazine of the 31st of March, 1936.

Ion Basgan was awarded the Nicoara Prize at the suggestion of

President L. Mrazec for the former’s work ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with

the Situation of Oil Exploitation and the Fuel Question’.

Basgan violently accuses the contemporary government of lack

of patriotic feeling, regarding their economic policy: ‘the state has not

carried out exploitation works and the resources that were legally

allowed to this particular purpose have been embezzled and used to

other purposes’.

Mention should be made here of Ion Basgan’s position

concerning the activity of certain anonimous mining companies: ‘a

possible nationalization of the anonimous mining companies would

have brought about the increase of the national capital and therefore

the state would have had a leading role in the management of the

companies, resulting in a support to the national economic interests in

the sense of a better management of the resources and rendering them

profitable. Industrialization of the country is essential in this respect.’

Professor L. Mrazec would drew a report on the above

mentioned work in which the following aspects are mentioned: ‘It is a

brochure of 51 pages that was published in the IRE Bulletin,

Romanian National Institute for the study of fitting out and

exploitation of energy resources, 3rd

year, no. 4.

The brochure is in fact the extension of a conference topic held

on the 19th of April, 1935 within the cycle of conferences that were

organised by IRE, in which mostly the technical youth would come up

to speak their own mind. It is a draft presenting the economic situation

of our country, while focusing mostly on the national character of the

problem.

The author, who is a member of the Institute of Economic

Situation and a referent in oil, has access to numerous precise data.

Statistical tables and several diagrams are a key to the understanding of

the text. The work is divided in several chapters dealing with various

aspects of the oil problem, from the international and national point of

view. There is a right appreciation of the principles of the law of mines

of 1924 that have set the oil policy on the path of rational

nationalization and increase of the national welfare, that was abandoned

in 1929. The author mentions as a conclusion the main shortcomings of

the natural resources policy, oil policy in particular, while focusing also

on the competition between oil and coal in our country, as one of the

many-sided shortcomings of our economic policy under all governments.

The text is a good mirror to a sense that we generally see in our

engineering body to be stronger that with politicians and economists

in our country. It is that national sense and sincere patriotism from

which a revolt against the general indifference stems out regarding

Romanian oil policy. This particular optimistic attitude gives the

conference a specific character.

It is to be encouraged this attitude of an engineer who is

employed in a private enterprise to tell the truth and be confident that

at least some of the achievements that were ruined by the latest seven

years policy may be still recovered.

In October, 1936 Ion Basgan published his work ‘The Role of

the State in Industrialization’ in the AGIR Bulletin, no. 10 and the

report he had presented together with engineer Rusu Abrudeanu on the

industrialization of the country was published in the AGIR Bulletin,

no. 9 and 11.

After a trip that had been organized by AGIR to Poland, Basgan

published the article ‘La Pologne Productive’ in the Annals of Mines.

On the 6th of June, 1937 Ion Basgan married Anisoara

Frunzescu. Their wedding trip included Austria, Germany and France,

the Rin Valley. At the end of the wedding trip, Ion Basgan joined the

2nd

World Oil Congress in Paris and he presented his work ‘The Role

and the Required Weight of Heavy Rods for Drilling’, that would be

published in the Congress Works.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan and his wife Anisoara Basgan (Frunzescu)on their wedding ceremony (in Sinaia, 1937).

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan with his wife Anisoara Basgan.

In the same year, he would present at the Mining Congress of

Leoben, Austria, his work ‘New Oil Fields in Romania’ that would be

published in the Annals of Mines no. 10/1937, at the Mining Congress

of Leoben and Bohrtechnicker Zeitung – Vienna and reviewed in

USA, Germany and other countries.

r.Eng. Ion Basgan with his wife Anisoara Basgan

and Pache Protopopescu (in Moreni, 1937).

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan and his wife Anisoara Basganat the oil rig Moreni – Piscuri.

On the 21st of December, 1937 he was granted the Patent

No. 2.103.137 by the USA for the Basgan heavy rods drilling, the

sonic drilling applying the Basgan effect and the transmission of the

sonic energy through drilling rigs.

American Patent No. 2.103.137 of 1937.

Principle diagram of the oil drilling solutionas described in Patent No. 2.103.137 of 1937.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan with his wife Anisoara Basganand their son Ginel.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan at the baptism of his son Ion (Ginel) Basgan

and the latter’s godfather, the engineer Grozescu.

On the 16th of June, 1938 the Basgan family witnesses the birth

of their first son Ion I. Basgan (Ginel). In the same year, Basgan starts

on his own the first research and geological explorations in Vrancea

and Bacau in search for oil, gold and sulfur.

In February, 1938 Ion Basgan concluded contracts for the imple-

mentation of his invention ‘Drilling by means of heavy proportional

rods’ at several Romanian oil companies: ‘Petroliera Româna (Agree-

ment No. 17.833 of February 1938; Redeventa (Agreement No.

29.545.26 of February, 1938), Comitetul Geologic, Sovromcar-

bune, Societatea Mica and the Ministry of Metallurgy.

On the 8th of February, the Romanian Oil Society and ‘Redeventa’

Society were certifying to Ion Basgan that his Patent (No. 22.789 of

18 May, 1934) was utilized by the above mentioned societies.

In May, 1939 Ion Basgan presented on the occasion of the

Congress of the Association of Engineers and Technicians of the

Mining Industry (A.I.T.I.M.) the Economic Report of the oil section.

This report would later be published in the contemporary daily magazines

and quoted by Prof. Virgil Madgearu in his work ‘The Evolution of

the Romanian Economy’.

In the same year, he was called up as sub – lieutenant to an

artillery regiment in the city of Tg. Mures and in the village Apa –

Satu Mare.

Upon the braking up of the second world war, on the 1st of

Septembre, 1939 Mr. Rabe, an American, came up to Bucharest with

the intention to buy Ion Basgan’s USA Patent

As a result of a misunderstanding regarding the payment of

Basgan’s Patent application, he entered an action against the ‘Steaua

Română’ society. It is surprising to have the result of the expert

appraisal of Prof. D. Germani, who would stand in defense of the

classical interpretation of the Archimede Principle instead of mentioning

the progress brought about by Basgan’s invention.

In 1940 Basgan would intensify the recovery of oil waste and

the production of oqokerity and petrolatum wax by means of vacuum

distillation. With this end in view he founded the Igenco society for

the export of this product.

In June 1940, he was concentrated at the Fortifications Direction

of the War Ministry in Mărăşeşti, then at the Engineer Troops

Direction for the management of exploration wells of Dobrudja in

search of drinking water.

On the 12th

of October, 1940 the Öl Und Kohle magazine,

no. 40 of Berlin published his article ‘Charakteristic Des Rumänischen

Erdöl es’.

Ion Basgan as well as other Romanians were deeply impressed

by the murder of the two Romanian scientists, Nicolae Iorga and

Virgil Madgearu by the legionaries on the 27th of November, 1940.

Life nevertheless goes on: Ion Basgan and his family joyfully

welcome their second son, Constantin (Dinu) Basgan who was born

on the 23rd

of February, 1941.

On the 22 of June, 1941 Romania would join in the world war.

The Basgan family had to take refuge to Sinaia and Slănic Prahova.

More diligently than ever, under war conditions, Basgan shall

intensify his activity as a leader of the working procedures of the

Igenco and Romanian Oil Societies, as well as of the drilling

operations from the Engineer Troops Direction in Dobrudja in search

for drinking water.

In 1942, he undertook the leadership of the actions that were

taking place within the National Union of the Oil Industry (UNIP),

that aimed to annul the ‘Romania - Germany’ Fischer Protocol and the

introduction of favourable amendments to the National Oil Industry

into the New Oil Law.

He therefore starts a series of negotiations with the small oil

producers, in order to create a large national oil enterprise, in keeping

with the new Decree - Law of Oil and National Capital.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan and his dear ones (Focsani, 1941).

The frilling of ten water wells in Dobrudja was finished and

they were stopped up in order to be used by the Romanian army later

in the war. Even later, these wells would be put into service again by

the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Committee of Waters after

1954 and were used for the green area revival on the Romanian Black

Sea Shore.

He shall intensify oil wells exploration within the Romanian Oil

Society of Răsvad, Dragomiresti – Targoviste and other sites. Basgan

will also undertake graphite explorations on his own at various

locations in Gorj and Hunedoara Districts.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan with his father Stefan Basganand his son Ion (Ginel) Basgan (Focsani, 1941).

When he noticed the importance of the oil exploitation by large

oil companies, Basgan would take steps for providing material

incentives to these enterprises, while also paying the farmer owners

for their subsoil exploitation.

In 1943, Ion Basgan was appointed technical adviser of the

‘Mica’ industrial group for the exploitation of its oil structures and

fields.

On the 20th

of October, 1943 Ion Basgan received the

notification regarding the Blocking Order (Distraint) No. 2.427,

according to the USA legislation, of the 17th of December 1941.

On the 10th

of September, 1945, Prof. P. Moore of USA

published Ion Basgan’s article The Effect of Archimede Pressure onthe Drilling Oil rig in ‘Oil and Gas Journal’. That was a further

scientific recognition of the Basgan effect as it had been described in

his Patents of 1934.

On the 18th of October, 1945 he received a certificate from the

Romanian Academy attesting his collaboration with this remarkable

institution.

In February, 1946 in the wake of a correspondence with Prof.

D. Germani, Ion Basgan received a favourable answer from him

regarding the expert appraisal that was carried out in 1939 on Ion

Basgan’s Patent of 1934. This letter entitled Ion Basgan to continue

the law suit with the oil magnates.

In the same year, Bernhard Paris published a thorough work in

which mention was made of the Romanian scientist and the

importance of the Basgan effect, in the Bulletin of the French

Association of Oil Technicians (No. 60/1964, p. 67, Paris).

On the 30th

January, 1947 Ion Basgan’s Romanian Patent

No. 37.743 ‘drilling by means of Rotary Hammer’ was registered and

in July he opened again the law suit with the ‘Steaua Română’

Society. In July, the experts Prof. A. Beles, Prof. G. Mardan and Prof.

C. Teodorescu confirmed through the expert appraisal, which they had

handed in, the progress brought about by Ion Basgan’s Patent of 1934

to the drilling science and technique.

In 1948, Ion Basgan was appointed General director of the

Golden Society. As a result, in a few months he succeeded to increase

approx. 8 times the yearly mercury production by substantial changes

that he brought about to the society organisation and by a shut down

of unprofitable gold explorations.

In July, 1948 after the nationalisation of gold and silver

exploitaiton, he was appointed president of the Commission for the

Inventory of the mining assets that had been nationalised in the

Brad area, including the exploitation fields of Banat and Ardeal

(Transilvania).

On the 8th of February, 1949, the professors of Luisiana

University of USA Hawkins Murray and Lamont published in the

A.P.I Drilling and Production Practice a study document which, in

fact, through its wide laboratory experience brought about a

confirmation of the Basgan effect and the importance of the Patents.

In 1950, as a result of the activity which he was carrying

out at Sovromcarbune, he undertook a series of work trips to the

coal fields of the Valea Jiului, where he opened up several mines and

implemented his innovations as an application, in practical drilling.

In June, 1951 he got a transfer to Industrial – Export, then in

march 1952, he joined the General Direction of Supply and Sales of

the Ministry of the Oil Industry and in October 1952 he was

transferred to Sovromutilajpetrolifer, as a specialist in drilling, in

order to direct and approve the design and production of drilling

equipment for export. He was also appointed Head of Quality Control

over the nine Romanian metallurgy factories.

In 1953 he was called out of production and appointed a

member of the Ministry of Metallurgy for the organisation of the

Industrial Exhibition ‘The Planned Economy of the Popular Republic

of Romania in Full Progress’.

On the 1st of November, 1953 Ion Basgan was a member of the

Board at the Drilling National Conference in Ploiesti when the Soviet

adviser Ghevinian showed to the audience the way Basgan drilling

methods were applied at Baku, in USSR. On this occasion the Soviet

adviser offered him a book written by Basgan himself and published

in USSR.

On the 7th of December, 1953 Basgan was appointed the

President of the Commission for the Approval of Internal Norms of

the Ministry Metallurgical Sector by the Order No. 1.909.

The 18th of December, 1953 was an ill-fated day for Ion Basgan

and his family. The death of his wife Anisoara Basgan filled their

souls with grief and mourning.

In 1954, Ion Basgan was appointed by the Central Committee

of the Romanian Woking Party to join the Commission for the

examination of the heavy dill rods and their supply to the oil industry.

In the same year, he would publish his article ‘The Quality of Sovrom-

utilajpetrolifer Products’ in the ‘Metallurgy’ magazine of the Ministry.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan with his wife Anisoara Basganand their children Ion (Ginel) and Constantin (Dinu).

Thanks to his inquiring spirit and his propensity for the creative

activity, Ion Basgan would start preparing his examination to be a

lecturer at the Oil and Gas Institute. He received the lecturer

certificate on the 10th of February, 1954 from Sovromutilajpetrolifer.

In November, 1954 Sovromutilajpetrolifer was dissolved and he

was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture as a specialist in oil and

water drilling. Mention should be made that for his innovation ‘Heavy

pipes for wells drilling’, Basgan would receive an incentive which had

much more an emotional and moral value rather than a material one.

It was the official recognition of a special effort in the sphere of

technical and scientific conception which he did for his country.

For 12 years, Basgan carried out his activity at the Ministry of

Agriculture and the State Committee of Waters as a designer,

producer of drilling works and a president of the national Commission

of Water Drilling Coordination.

He was the manager and co-ordinator of about 1000 water wells

all over the country, of which about 300 in Dobrudja. On this occasion

he made an inventory of the water layers and resources that was to be

used for the development of this field.

Ion Basgan with his family: Ion (Ginel) Basgan, Constantin (Dinu) Basgan,Sorin Basgan, Angela Basgan, (born Cazaciuc), his second wife, Angelica NicolBasgan (Ion Basgan’s niece, the daughter of (Ginel) Basgan) and Florentina

(Tita) Basgan, the wife of Ion (Ginel) Basgan

On the 13th of April, 1955 he would marry Angela Cazaciuc and

on the 16th of March his third son was born, Sorin Basgan.

In May, 1957 he held the conference ‘Drinking Water Supply in

Dobrudja’ at the Ministry of Agriculture, ASIT. This conference

would be published later in the magazine of the Agriculture Ministry

and in the ASIT magazine, ‘Hidrotehnica’ no. 1/1958 and in the

Documentary of the Design Institute for Land Improvement.

In June, Ion Basgan received from the Foreign Affairs Ministry

a Certificate attesting that he was the victim of political persecution

from fascist governments, as a consequence of the responsible

patriotic policy regarding the national welfare that Ion Basgan had

been leading during the Second World War.

On the 15th of July, 1957 Ion Basgan held a lecture at the

‘Science and Technics Courses of the Romanian Popular Republic’ on

the topic sonicity in ‘Oil Explitation and Water Supply’.

One of his articles, confirming the weight calculation of the

heavy drilling rods of the 1934 and 1937 Patents, was published in the

World Oil magazine no. 4 of the USA.

In October, 1958 Ion Basgan held another lecture at the

Agriculture Ministry, ASIT on the topic ‘Drinking Water Supply in

the Country’.

One year later, his work ‘Drinking Water Supply in the Country’

would be published in the ‘Hidrotehnica’ magazine no. 8/1959. Ion

Basgan also carried out ‘The Technical and Economic Memorial.

Drinking Water Supply in Baragan’.

On the basis of the Notification no. 3.439 of the 15th of

September, The County Council of Constanta addressed the Ministry

of Agriculture in order to solicit Ion Basgan as an assistant in the

execution of some works for rising the living standard of Dobrudja

and the seaside by supplying drinking water, as a confirmation of the

special contribution that Ion Basgan had had in 1941 to the discovery

of water sources in Dobrudja.

In January, 1960 Ion Basgan notified the Romanian Government

on his Patent property rights, when the Romanian and American

negotiations started.

In March, 1960 the Romanian and American Agreement is

concluded for the regulation of accounts, without taking into account

Basgan rights. As a result of this event, on the 16th of September the

193rd

session of the Scientific Council took place at the Oil Ministry,

under the leadership of the Minister Mihail Florescu.

On the 27th of December, 1960 the first reaction is registered in

the USA magazines, namely by Mrs. Virginea M. Mc. Cann.

Basgan’s colleagues from the Agriculture Ministry also

supported him in his fight for gaining his author rights.

In 1961, when the legal procedures started, the oil companies

brought in front of the American law court a death certificate of the

physician Ion Basgan, the inventor’s cousin. Therefore, the law suits

were suspended: Basgan, the inventor, was no longer alive. Furthermore,

evidence was brought by the American court that the USA Patent

No. 2,103,137 that was Basgan’s property was still under distraint by

the American Government since the second world war and con-

sequently its author had no right to claim the due royalties. This was

the end of an epoch in Basgan’s attempt to claim his author rights.

THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE USA

For the Civil Action File … No. …

Having as object the claim against the infringement of Patent No. 2,103,137

Claimant: Ion Basgan

against the defendants: (the names of the 118 defendant companies).

The claimant Ion Basgan summons to judgement all the above mentioned persons and respectfully claims

that:

1. This action is for the infringement of the Patent right and the jurisdiction is based upon the

Law of the USA Patents, the Act of the 19th of July, 1952, c. 950, 66 Stat. 799, Title 55 of the

USA Code, including Sections 281, 283, 284, 285 and 209 of this title and Title 20 of the USA

Code, Section 1400 (b). According to our information and belief, the infringement against which

we are claiming in the present action has been and still is taking place in … and in other areas of

the USA.

2. According to our information and belief, all the above mentioned defendants have regular and

stable headquarters for their affairs in … and /or have their residence in …

3. On the 21st of December, 1937 the claimant received Patent No. 2,103,137 for the rotary

drilling apparata of oil wells with all legal forms fulfilled and since that date the claimant has been

and still is the owner of this Patent.

4. Every one of the above mentioned defendants had been infringing the above mentioned

Patent in the past for an extended period of time by manufacturing, selling and using the oil wells

rotary drilling apparata that make the object of that Patent.

5. According to our information and belief, each of the above mentioned defendants was duly

notified that he infringed Patent No. 2,103,137.

Therefore the claimant requires that each of the above mentioned defendants should be compelled to

pay damages amounting to five hundred thousand dollars, excepting those that are mentioned on the list

below, for which our claims of payment are higher (as mentioned for each of them). We also require that

law suit expenses should be paid for us.

STANDARD OIL COMPANY (NEW JERSEY) twenty million dollars

THE TEXAS CO. ten million dollars

GULF OIL CORPORATION five million dollars

STANDARD OIL COMPANY (INDIANA) five million dollars

SHELL OIL COMPANY five million dollars

SOCONY MOBIL OIL COMPANY five million dollars

STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA five million dollars

CONTINENTAL OIL COMPANY four million dollars

In the same year, his works ‘Simultaneous Rotary PercussionDrilling - Sonic Drilling’ was published in the ‘Petrol and Gas’

magazine, No. 3 and the ‘Drilling by Means of Heavy ProportionalDrilling Rods’ in the ‘Petrol and Gas’ magazine No. 4.

Both works were handed in at the Romanian Academy Board

(with the Registration No. 37,540 on the 6th of December, 1961 and

1,666 of the 19th of January, 1961.

In the meantime, the Oil Ministry undertook the testing of the

Basgan method at Roşiori - Râmnicu Sărat, by drilling two similar oil

wells, of which one was based on the Basgan drilling methods at

2,300 meters. The well that was drilled by applying the Basgan method

was drilled in 56 days with no technical incident that would cause

material damages, while the other well was drilled in 70 days to the

effect that the drilling rig was broken and 1,100 drilled meters were lost.

After a correspondence that Ion Basgan had held with the

renowned inventor, the engineer Gogu Constantinescu, the latter accepted

the invitation of the Romanian Academy to hold the conference

‘Debates in Sonicity’ on the 5th of October in the Romanian Academy

Hall. On this occasion, Gogu Constantinescu would share his joy with

the inventor Ion Basgan for the success that the Basgan sonic drilling

had registered in America.

On the 22nd

of December, 1961 Ion Basgan held a lecture on the

topic ‘Applications of Sonicity in Drilling and Extraction’ at the Science

and Technics Courses of the Academy of the Popular Republic of

Romania.

On the 17th of September, 1962 Ion Basgan presented the

Report No.599 to Mihail Florescu, the minister of Oil with the real

results of the testing of the Basgan drilling methods at Roşiori. The

SINCLAIR OIL CORPORATION two million dollars

SUN OIL COMPANY two million dollars

UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION one million dollars

XOUNGSTOWN SHEET & TUBE COMPANY one million dollars

HUGHES TOOL COMPANY one million dollars

FOSTER WHEELER CORPORATION one million dollars

REED ROLLER BIT COMPANY one million dollars

SUPERIOR OIL COMPANY one million dollars

LAWYER OF THE CLAIMANT,

report also maintains the misinterpretations of several engineers from

the Oil Ministry regarding the above mentioned testing.

In 1964 the American specialist U. T. Okon published his

Doctorate thesis under the guidance of Prof. P. Moore. His work,

which contained a series of remarks regarding Archimede’s pressure

on the drilling rig and the importance of drillcolars, would confirm

Basgan’s discoveries and inventions and their implementation would

put an end to the controversy regarding this problem.

In the same year, as a director of studies and professor, Ion

Basgan would organize courses in drinking water supply for specialists

all over the country, at the Agronomic Institute.

In 1965, in the framework of the State Committee of Waters

(I.P.A.C.H.), Ion Basgan elaborated the Technical Instructions

Regarding Design, Execution, Exploitation And Maintenance of the

Network of Hydrological Survey Wells for Hydro - Amelioration

Works’ (published by C.S.A., I.D. 24 - 65).

On the 13th of October, 1965 the USA State Department of

Justice issued the Divesting Order SA 838 that stipulated the

restitution of the Patent No. 2,103,137/1937 to Ion Basgan and his

restoration to his rights, as a result of the discussions that had been

held by the Romanian delegation under the leadership of Gh. Gh. Dej

with Lyndon Johnson, the President of the USA. In December he

receives the Address No. 20,530 of the Ministry of Justice of the USA

(of the 30th of November, 1965), through which he is informed on the

Divesting Order SA 838 and the restoration decisions.

On the 4th of May, 1966 he met Eng. Daniel Farcaş, a delegate

of the German group Lommen - Reiter - Dresner - Bank in order to

conclude a co-operation agreement, for the recovery of his rights in

the USA. On the 21st of May, consul D. Stancu from the Foreign

Affairs Ministry required that the agreement should be concluded with

engineer D. Farcaş of Western Germany. On the 16th of June, the

Council of Ministers ratifies the authentication of the agreement with

engineer D. Farcaş. The convention stipulated the obligation that Ion

Basgan should receive one million DM.

From that moment, events take place rapidly, as follows: on the

22nd

of June a session takes place at the Romanian National Bank with

the American lawyer John Vintilă; on the 23rd

of June, the managerial

staff of I.S.P.I.F. approves of a time out of production for Ion Basgan

to defend his cause abroad. On the 8th of July, engineer D. Farcaş

informs Ion Basgan about the expert appraisal that had been carried

out by the German group in the U.S.A., evaluating his author rights at

8.7 billion dollars.

Because of bureaucratic time-consuming procedures, on the 16th

of July it was the deadline for the front payment of the DM amount of

money with no money being paid at all.

Institute of Hydro-Technical Studies and Research (I.S.C.H.).

In the forefront: Eng. Ion Iacovache (Office of Standards, Inventions and

Marks), Prof. Dimitrie Leonida, scientist George (Gogu) Constntinescu,

Dr. Eng. Sorin Dumitrescu (Director of I.S.C.H.) and Director of the Water

Direction of UNESCO between 1969 - 1989, Matei Marinescu, member of

the Academy, Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan, Prof. Dr. Eng. Dumitru Cioc.

In the second row: Technician Stefan Popa, Dr. Eng. Alexandru Măruţă,

Engineer Dumitru Cristea and master Tudor Ardeleanu.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan attending to the explanations of Dr. Eng. Alexandru

Măruţă to the Romanian scientist George (Gogu) Constantinescu, at a test

stand of I.S.C.H. in the domain of sonicity applications, and pulsating sonic

pumps, in particular, following the ideas of Gheorghe Hossu, the President of

the State Committee of Waters (Bucharest, 1963).

Iosif Constantin Drăgan who was at that time in Spain at Palma

de Mallorca wired Ion Basgan, informing him that he agreed to join in

defending his case from the 22nd

of August. In this sense, Iosif

Constantin Drăgan required a short presentation of this situation that

had caused so much controversy. Luckily for Ion Basgan, for his state

of his spirit, Constantin Drăgan was not the only person that offered to

help him: on the 10th January, 1967 the Beckers of R.F.G. visited Ion

Basgan in Milano and offered him a support in his case.

On the 24th of January, Ion Basgan arrived in Conniston and

joined Mrs. Eva Constantinescu, the widow of George Constantinescu

in a memorial procession at the scientist’s tomb. There also the

audience was very much deceived because the tomb had neither cross,

nor memorial plate. This was another example of ingratitude of the

living Romanians towards their forerunners and the renowned scientist

George (Gogu) Constantinescu, in particular.

On the 13th of March he sent the dissertation ‘Limitation of the

Effect of Archimedes’ Pressure and Sonic Energy - Essential Conditionsfor the Future of Deep Drilling’ to the French Institute of Oil and to

the 7th Congress of oil in Mexic (April, 1967). His Congress dissertation

focused on the idea that the future of deep drilling would be

represented by the simultaneous rotary percussion drilling. As a result

of the success he had with this lecture, Ion Basgan decided to apply

for another Patent containing an improvement of the former regarding

deep drilling. This Patent would be registered in Romania, Italy, France,

USA and Portugal. As a matter of fact, this new embodiment of the

technical conception would create a new perspective in the field of deep

drilling and offer a chance that man could dream to the achievement

of new methods that should enable him to break through the

lithosphere and explore the interior of the earth down to the so-called

‘Mohorovici layer’, where he may find extended oil fields supplies.

The Trade Chamber of Bucharest published in its ‘Romanian

Engineering’ magazine the article ‘Romanian Contributions to theDevelopment of Theory and Practice of Modern Drilling’, about the

inventions, the work and the contribution of Ion Basgan.

On the 29th of March, Ion Basgan would join the Congress of

the Inter-Parliamentary Union, where he had the occasion to meet

Prof. Tudor Drăgan, Eng. Ion Iliescu and Constantin Stătescu.

On the 5th of April, Ion Basgan would join Dr. Iosif C. Drăgan

and engineer Morariu at the general session of the ‘Oil Union’ in Rome.

On the 7th of April, Ion Basgan returned to Milano, where he

started to elaborate his new Patent on the sonic drilling at 15 km.

Later, on the 18th of April, Ion Basgan would be utterly

surprised by the conduct of his former colleague, the engineer Eng.

Rică Georgescu, in his initiative to publish the translation of his book

on the Archimedes’ Principle. According to the Basgans’ documents,

‘intrigues and obstacles’ would arise from the American oil group

under the leadership of engineer Rică Georgescu. On the 16th of May

Ion Basgan would apply at the Dominicis company for registration of

his new Patent on sonic drilling at 15 km, in Italy, France, USA and

Portugal.

On the 29th of May, the Dominicis company would cash in the

registration fees for his Patents’ files in the above mentioned countries.

After several months, on the 4th of July, he would meet the

Romanian delegation of the Agriculture Ministry under the leadership

of engineers Montz and Lăzărescu Ion. On this occasion he discussed

the documents and the projects of hydro - amelioration and irrigation

that had been provided for Romania by Italy.

On the 5th of July, Ion Basgan had a meeting in Milano with Dr.

Iosif C. Drăgan and the lawyer E. Minolli, discussing the possibility to

open legal actions in the USA for his author rights.

This attempt would be a failure, because Dr. Iosif C. Drăgan

required hardly acceptable collaboration conditions, arguing that trial

expenses were rather high.

On the 16th of August Ion Basgan hold a lecture about his

inventions at the Galusta Gulbenchian Foundation.

On the 6th of October he joint Aristide Sain in Paris to discuss

with the ambassador V. Dimitriu, who would hand in a memorial to

the finance minister of France on the Basgan case for its support in

the USA.

After ten days he met the president of the oil group M.A.R.E.P.,

François Emanuelli, where he was received together with Guy Henry

and in the evening he would visit engineer Wallace, a specialist in

American patents. The M.A.R.E.P. meeting where he had handed in

the documentation regarding his inventions aimed at a possible future

collaboration on the oil fields of France.

When he was back in Bucharest, on the 8th of November he was

received at the Ministry of Foreign affairs by the deputy minister

George Macovescu. At the discussions that he had on the 14th of

November with engineer Tuzu Constantin, General Director of

Inventions, the latter speaking more or less in earnest expressed his

regret that Ion Basgan was still alive, because otherwise the Romanian

state might have been a little more concerned with him and at least

would have built him a statue in Bucharest. Engineer Tuzu was

aware of the Romanian psychology, his character and his way of

appreciating the remarkable people of its nation. He knew very

well that several generations would deal with Ion Basgan’s work until

the national and why not the international public opinion would

appreciate his crucial inventions in the domain of drilling.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan and Iosif Constantin Drăgan.

Back in Romania again, he would be fully engaged in his

creative activity and submitted on the 24th of November a new Patent

on sonicity No. 50,615. On the 29th of November, he held the

fascinating lecture in the Ministry of Agriculture ‘To the Centre of theEarth’ in front of an extended audience.

On the 30th of November, the academician Remus Răduleţ

informed Ion Basgan that his discoveries would bring about a change

to the written information already existing in the Encyclopaedia and

the specialized treatises.

The 1st of December, 1967 was a noteworthy day for Ion

Basgan: his article ‘To the Centre of the Earth’ was published in the

‘Informaţia’ newspaper in Romania, while in Italy, he received the

Italian Patent No. 796,419 for the sonic drilling at 15 km.

The following day he received the visit of a Portuguese

delegation under the leadership of the ambassador Calveltt Magalhaies

and Dr. Saraga.

On the 20th of December the consul D. Stancu from the Ministry

of Foreign Affairs would require detailed information from Ion

Basgan regarding his international activity and as a consequence the

daily magazines would besiege with questions the ministries and the

government in defense of his case. Unfortunately, there was a little

effect that did not match by far the effort that had been deployed by all

those who had understood that a great injustice was being done to Ion

Basgan and to Romania.

On the 26th of December, the lawyer John Vintilă came to

Romania from the USA, in order to state the case for the Romanian

inventor. The same day, his invention No. 50,912 was registered about

the exploitation of salt by means of upward salt pits.

On the 29th of December, after he had spent some time to study,

Ion Basgan elaborated the monograph of the Prof. Eng. D. Leonida.

On the 29th of January, 1968 engineer Dan Bodnărescu held a

lecture on the ‘Basgan effect’ and its applications at the Ministry of

Mines in front of an extended audience of specialists.

During the lecture several Directors from the managerial staff

of the Ministry confirmed the advantages of Basgan’s discovery.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan, his wife Angela and their son,

Sorin Basgan.

Yet, on the 7th of February, a group of oil-industry workers of

low professional and moral standards ‘discreetly’ submitted a written

Note to the Council of Ministers against Basgan’s inventions, about

which Ion Basgan would only learn two years later.

Ion Basgan had understood by then that he had been fighting a

loosing battle and that there were tremendously high interests at stake,

unfortunately not in Romania but somewhere abroad. This was also

confirmed at the session of the Council of Ministers under the

leadership of the vice prime-minister Gaston Marin and some

‘reassuring’ measures were taken to uphold Basgan’s case.

On the 29th of February, 1968 the State Office for Inventions –

The General Direction of Standards and Inventions that was represented

by engineer Boabă, engineer Bujor Almăjan and engineer Tuzu

Constantin acknowledged the application in Romania and the USA of

the Basgan methods of his Patents No. 22,799 of 1934 and 2,103,137

of 1937.

On the 1st of March, 1968 Ion Basgan applied for his retiring on

a pension from I.P.I.F. with the aim of gathering strength in order to

fight for his moral and material rights.

Although there was much rumor about Ion Basgan’s achievements

in the technical and scientific domains and the spectacular results of

the applications of his inventions, the case of Ion Basgan was still kept

within the ‘theoretical boundaries’. At a more concrete practical level,

his rights were systematically eluded and he himself was treated with

indifference. Moreover, on the 27th of May, the managers of I.P.I.F.

meanly required him to return the wages he had cashed during his

sojourn in Italy, on account that the financial procedures had not been

performed on a regular basis.

On the 15th of October, Ion Basgan received the visit of the

editor Gian Carlo Bussoli of Sweden, together with a delegate from the

Foreign Affairs Ministry. He informed Basgan that he was proposed for

being awarded the Nobel prize and in this sense, he intended to have

an interview with Basgan on his inventions. The interview was

broadcast on the radio station ‘Voce del Mondo’ of Rome. The

broadcasting of this interview had a wide international effect.

In 1968, Basgan was glad to learn about his being mentioned in

the book ‘Passion of Science’, a work written by the remarkable

historians of the Romanian science and technique, Dinu Moroianu and

I.M. Ştefan. This book included a presentation of the main steps in the

achievement of Ion Basgan’s inventions, as well as a synthesis of the

way in which they had been carried out. This presentation was a

synthesis written by Ion Basgan in his beautiful, clear and romantic

style that was specific to whatever he did.

On the 29th of January, 1969 Basgan met engineer Zadic, the

representative of a German company who was interested in a

collaboration to uphold his cause.

The success he had in the domain of his professional relations

fortified his spirit and made the inventor much more confident in his

fight against cheating and injustice.

Yet, even higher obstacles made him the more skeptical about

ever recovering his author rights.

Moreover, most of the contacts that he would establish were

more often than not underlined by hidden, selfish, unfair interests.

The inventor squandered away his strength, stepping down from

the stage of creation, going deep into actions and discussions that were

meant to ruin his health and waste his time.

He was invited to join dinner protocols at various embassies:

that helped him to become even more renowned and appreciated for

his special achievements, that had brought a revolution to the drilling

science and technique.

In fact, Ion Basgan would only have the opportunity to find out

that the world around is tough, unjust and inhospitable, because it has

always been governed by money.

In spite of the contacts that the Romanian inventor Ion Basgan

had at the top and the relations he had established, his case would still

remain unsolved, a wish that could not come true. The more Ion

Basgan traveled in order to settle his case, the more he would become

aware that everything was lost to him. Nevertheless, what he gained

indeed it was friendship ties that he established and made to grow

firm, which proved a real support to him while fighting injustice.

Moreover, he succeeded to understand how intricate it was the

mechanism of trials in democratic countries and how unfair there had

often been the decisions of law courts when the interests of third

parties were at stake.

On the 28th of June, 1969 he had once again the opportunity to

see how far the interplay of occult interests can reach. The editor

Balçar, getting hold of certain works of the Romanian inventor, would

require incredibly high fees in return. Ion Basgan would learn that the

above mentioned works were a source of information in the technical

and scientific espionage in favor of an American group of oil-magnates.

As a matter of fact, Ion Basgan had been engaged in a solitary

battle, the risks of which he had been ignoring. He had disregarded the

fact that in democratic countries the economic competition assumed

the toughest forms of manifestation. The agreements he had concluded

with various lawyers’ companies would not come to their term, because

of their exaggerated financial claims and the brigandist tendencies that

were manifested by some of their representatives in their relations

with Ion Basgan.

On the 22nd

of July, 1969 Ion Basgan still had the strength to be

enthusiastic about the remarkable achievement of the USA, namely

the moon flight by APOLLO XI: he sent a congratulation message by

wire to the White House in the USA.

He would wire to the Romanian Government, in order to have

his claims made open to the USA on the occasion of the visit of

Richard Nixon, the American President, to Romania.

On this occasion, he would become aware of a similar attitude

in Romania regarding the recognition of his author rights. Everything

he had written and done in support of his case were but a useless

‘concert’ of his own claims.

He had lost his hope of the recognition of his own rights, when

Sarchiz Halajian of New York informed him on the 21st of February,

1970 that certain USA oil companies had made a deposition of a

substantial amount of money in a secret account for a possible future

payment for the utilization of the Basgan Patent.

A network of schemes would be built up around this new

situation and further obstacles were ‘raised’ when the good and the

evil forces would clutch again, while using the whole range of

proceedings: from espionage to the art of diplomatic eloquence.

Whose case would such actions defend? Definitely not that of, either

Romania, or Ion Basgan.

The 25th

of August was a day for the Romanian inventor in

which he shall meet again a true friend, a man who believed that

honor was the highest form of the manifestation for the human

character: he received the visit of Jean Thibaudet Philbert, the vice-

mayor of Lyon, France. During the war, in order to enable the

proceedings of the Divesting Order SA 838 in the USA and be

restored to his rights, Ion Basgan had registered his own USA Patent

on the latter’s name, which Philbert returned him before 1965.

A few sun rays appeared on the murky sky of the Romanian

inventor. By that time in Romania, the campaign in favor of backing

up Basgan’s case attained higher proportions. The range of those who

were fighting for the recovery of his rights extended from Nicolae

Ceauşescu, the Romanian president down to the engineers who were

in charge of the oil extraction works on the oil-fields. Sonic drilling at

15 km was tested and it was taken the decision of producing the

Basgan drilling installation in Romania.

The USA Patents were issued with a governmental security and

a 17-year validity. Therefore, Patent 2,103,137 had legal validity from

1937 to 1954 and Patent 3,507,341, from 1970 to 1987 4.

Annuities were paid for 17 years for both patents. As we have

already mentioned, the beginning of war would lead to the divesting

of Patent 2,103,137 by the USA government until 1975, when the

administration of the President L. Johnson annulled the divesting

order that had been laid on the Patent. Ion Basgan came into his own

rights through the Divesting Order SA 838, with the following issue:

‘All the rights, titles and interests of Ion Basgan for and ensuing from

the Patent No. 2,103,137, including all those resulting from royalties,

as well as all the damages and profits that may be recovered according

to the law or equity, that had been made through retroactive

infringements’. On the basis of the economic agreement that was

concluded between Romania and the USA on the 30th of March, 1960

and the Notice of the Oil Ministry that was passed by the scientific

council no. 193 of the 16th of September, 1960, as well as according to

the state lawyers, 118 files were opened in the USA in the name of Ion

Basgan through the Chamber of Commerce for claiming minimum

125 million dollars. These files were closed by the American law

courts, with the objection that the Patent was still under the Divesting

Order at that time.

Ion Basgan negotiated with Western-Germany lawyers and

engineers of the Dresdner Bank group the recovery of rights and the

financing of this action. They assimilated these rights to the Hebrew

rights that had been confiscated by Germany during the war and

which Germany had to pay back entirely after the war. Western-

Germany engineers estimated an economic contribution amounting to

30% of the economic profit that resulted from the utilization of heavy

proportional rods in drilling, and made a technical and economic expert

appraisal while taking into account the extent of the drilled areas in

the USA. They confirmed that Basgan’s drilling method had been

90 % applied in oil, mining and other drilling industries in the USA.

The Western-Germany expert appraisal showed that, according

to the official statistics of the USA, about 60 million meters were

yearly drilled by applying the Basgan drilling methods, that would

result in an output of 30 % (namely, at least 30 dollars / sq m). That

4 The case of these Patents was undertaken to be continued by the three

sons of Ion Basgan: Ion I. Basgan, Dinu I. Basgan and Sorin I. Basgan.

amounted to a saving of 30 billion dollars that the Basgan Patent

would bring to the American economy in 17 years.

As a result of the Western-Germany expert appraisal, it was

decided that a royalty of at least 10% of these savings was due to the

Romanian inventor and, according to the Divesting Order SA 838

there were added also interests, gains, damages, effective losses,

including interests, honorariums and charges. It was stated as a

conclusion that the rights of Ion Basgan amounted to about 8.6 billion

dollars in the USA.

The most important Printing House of the Federal Republic of

Germany, Springer Verlag backed up the conclusions of this expert

appraisal by publishing an entire page in the Bild am Sonntag of the

25th and 26

th of May, 1969 in order to state Ion Basgan’s case, that had

become a European case, as well as an interview with the Romanian

inventor.

DOCUMENTARY NOTE

Ref: Project 7/66, USA Patent 2,103,137

1- A Romanian citizen has an invention, that the entire world oil industry has

been using since 1934 up to the present.

1/1- This invention was registered in 1934 at the American Patent Office

1/2- Upon the registration, he paid all the taxes for 17 years of Patent protection.

1/3- On the 21.12.1937, the inventor received the Patent granting letter, ‘Letters

Patent 2,103,137’, from the ‘City of Washington USA’ Patent Office.

1/4- In this ‘LETTERS PATENT’, that is in German ‘Patent granting letter’,

America as a state governed by the rule of law guarantees and protects by its

own legislation the author and the patent owner against any abusive

utilization of the Patent (see 1st page of the USA Patent).

1/5- All the companies, either large or small, that made deep drilling for oil, natural

gas, ore and water utilized this patent against the law and without payment,

that is to say, they have consciously ignored and broken Patent granting laws.

2- In 1939 / 190, the author and owner of the Patent tried to sell globally this

Patent to an American company. The sales procedures were interrupted

under war conditions.

2/1- He tried again to sell this Patent through 2 advertisements in the specialized

magazine “OIL AND GAS” of 8.04 and 22.04,1948, but with no favorable

results.

3- On the 20.10.1943, this Patent, including all its pending rights and

obligations, was put under distraint through the Blocking Order No. 2,427,

according to the USA Law of the 17th of December, 1941.

4- As a result of the intervention of the author and owner of the Patent to the

American Ministry of Justice, at the United States Department of Justice,

the Foreign Properties Office, the Blocking Order No. 2,427 of 20.10.1943

was declared void through the Deblocking Order SA 838 of October 1965

and the author of the Patent received back all his legally acceptable rights;

the following are textually specified:

a) Accumulated author rights, 17 years of Patent protection + 4 years of war

+ 18 months of prolongation according to the Peace Treaty of February,

1947, that is 22 and a half years of Patent protection until 1963.

b) Interests

c) Lost revenue

d) Compensation for damages

e) Expenses, honorariums, charges, etc.

5- The author and owner of the USA Patent 2,103,137, through the contract of

the 16th of June, 1966 and by agreement with his Government, according to

the legislation of his country has appointed me, the engineer Daniel

Farkasch to turn to account his rights irrevocably by either collection of

payments, agreement, assignment or sale.

6- The USA Patent 2,103,137 was utilized illegally and without payment at a

rate of 90% by the American oil companies, therefore committing a flagrant

breach of the American Patent legislation.

7- The payment claims are as follows:

7/1- It was established that the American oil companies performed 1.011.130

drillings = 1,182,770,80 m from 1938 to 1963, that is in 22 and a half years

of Patent protection.

7/2- The average cost per one-meter of drilled area amounted to 78.72 US dollars / m

between 1938 and 1963 for carrying out deep drilling in Louisiana, Texas

and California.

7/3- The cost savings that were brought about by the USA Patent 2,103,137 as

admitted by the specialists are at least 30% per one-meter of drilled area,

with reference to the costs per one-meter of drilled area by applying the old

drilling methods.

7/4- Author rights are usually established by negotiation. Yet, international

practices and law courts would acknowledge and award at least 10% of the

cost savings to the author and owner of the Patent.

7/5- Summary:7/5a- Actually drilled meters x average cost

1,182,770,480 m x 78.72 dollars / m ……… 93,107,692,185.000 - dollars

7/5b- 30% cost savings obtained through the application of the USA Patent 2,103,137

93,107,692,185.000 x 30% ………………… 27,932,307,655.000 - dollars

Claims of the Patent owner

7/5c- author rights: 10% of the savings

27,932,307,655.000 …………………………….. 2,793,230,765.000 dollars

7/5d- interests: 5% per year x 22 ½ years = 112.5% …. 3,142,384,605.000 dollars

5,935,615,370.000 dollars

7/5e- delivered gains: 10% ……………………………... 593,561,537.000 dollars

6,529,176,907.000 dollars

7/5f- loss compensation: 15% ………………………….. 979,376,555.000 dollars

7,508,553,442.000 dollars

7/5g- 15% expenses, honorariums, taxes, etc. …………1,126,283,016.000 dollars

7/5h- Global legal claims ………………………….…. 8,634,836,458.000 dollars

8- This global calculation regarding the drilled surface expressed in meters in

the USA extends to all the Oil Companies that have carried out drilling

directly or indirectly.

9- These global legal claims amounting to 8,634,836,458.000 dollars are

addressed to the 150 to 200 American oil companies and are expressed in a

percentage, according to their effectively drilled surface expressed in

meters.

10- Taking into account the fact that the United States of America are also a

State governed by the rule of law, it would be impossible, even out of the

question that, the American legislators should be aware of and allow this

Patent infringement by their own oil companies, namely that they still

utilize this method illegally and without payment.

11- It is generally admitted that American companies themselves are the biggest

hunters of Patent infringe. No sooner have they heard about their Patents

being infringed, than they institute legal proceedings and huge claims.

12- The importance and significance of this Patent has already resulted from the

fact that the USA laid a distraint upon the above mentioned Patent at the

beginning of the war, according to the USA Law of the 17th of December,

1941 as a property of the enemy, through the Blocking Order No. 2,427 of

the 20th of October, 1943. The latter is acceptable also according to the

International Law.

13- When the legal claims of the author and owner of the Patent 2,103,137

where confirmed in writing through the Deblocking Order of the 13th of

October, 1965 (S.A. 838) by the Ministry of Justice as a supreme authority

of the American law courts, this decision may be already regarded as a kind

of decision for the payment of the legal claims by the Patent infringers.

14- On the one side, it is known that taking into account the present conditions

of the USA dollar in America, the payment of these legal claims may yield

currency and political fluctuation, on the other there is absolutely no danger

that this legal claims against Patent infringement should result in currency

fluctuation, if we are to consider for instance that TEXACO, the 2nd oil

concern of America had in 1964, according to the balance-sheet official

reports, a turnover of 3.75 billion US dollars and the positive sold was

577.000 thousand US dollars, of which the Company retained in 1964 a net

income of 281.000 thousand US dollars.

15- According to our European notions, these Patent claims are a gigantic amount

of money, representing 3.5 billion DM, a half of our Federal Budget,

respectively. Therefore, to my estimate, there should not be ignored the

possibility of a Governmental approach of this Project.

In the autumn of 1966, Ion Basgan leaving his country, in order

to state his case, with the approval of the Central Committee of the

Romanian Communist Party and the President Nicolae Ceauşescu,

arrived at Rome, where Saint, the Jewish organization, offered him to

become a citizen of Israel for 10 thousand dollars and assured him that

the amount of 8.6 billion dollars where to be brought to Israel. Ion

Basgan refused this offer (that was made public also by the Western

Germany magazine Bild am Sonntag of the 25th and 26

th of May,

1969) and carried by himself the burden of his case.

Ion Basgan was becoming doubtful of the extension of his

inventions application in Romania, as well as the recovery of his USA

author rights. He would always remember what an adversary of his, a

certain engineer of Dallas, had told him once at a Conference in

London, in 1967: ‘We shall be suing you for dozens of years and thenwe shall proceed with your sons, but we won’t pay!’

In the following years, there were some attempts from the oil

companies to pay Ion Basgan his author rights. Here is what Ion

Basgan declared on the occasion of an interview that he had with the

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag of München on the 25th and 26

th

of May, 1969: ‘After some time, a banker offered me a chequerepresenting over 5 thousand dollars (20 billion Deutsche marks)from the part of “a group of interested persons”. In exchange, I wassupposed to resign my claims to this group. They engaged themselvesto uphold my interests by suing at law the oil companies. I was supposedto receive in exchange 50% of the profit. It was absolutely evident tome that this “group of interested persons” had unfair intentions. Theymeant to draw me in. Therefore, I was compelled to reject their so-called offer’ (the text was translated and adapted).

Professor Ion Basgan would later reject other similar “offers”

also: he would not admit compromises, as he wished to entirely

recover his legitimate author rights for his invention.

Things were becoming worth in Romania again, as if somebody

were synchronizing the evil events that were happening on the one

side and on the other of the ocean, as far as the Basgan case was

concerned. Hearings and written statements were piling without the

expected results showing up. It was a routine interplay, a game of the

nerves in which the weakest and the powerless had to surrender to the

most powerful.The promises that the authorities of the Romanian ‘golden

epoch’ made to him would remain a mere talk in the middle of the

human vanity fair. Ion Basgan would nevertheless pursue his fight

abroad, under difficult conditions, without any financing from his own

country, yet he would always keep in his own hands his legal rights

against the shameful proposals of foreign financiers and great lawyers.

To begin with 1971, Ion Basgan would resume his activity in

order to uphold his case, making a series of trips abroad.

The frequent encounters he had with his old friends shall refresh

him and revive his wish to stand firm and face the hardships of life.

He was deeply branded by the unspeakable attitude of editor Balçar of

Münnich, who would withhold the printing of his books Archimedes’Principle and Sonicity, while he retained also his manuscripts.

On the 18th of March, the ambassador Constantin Flitan of Paris

made a report of his discussions with the President Nicolae Ceauşescu

about the Basgan case to the Romanian inventor. The latter would in a

way recover his confidence for some time, although it was for a short

time only. In fact it was but another illusion: he was alone on the

battle field.

During a dinner party that was offered by Prof. Willi, the

adviser C. Oprişan, who had been back from the USA for some time

then, would confess to Ion Basgan that American lawyers lacked the

courage to fight against the companies that had not paid for the author

rights to the Romanian inventor.

When he had surpassed the psychological effect of the discussion

with the Romanian adviser, Ion Basgan would undertake a series of

actions in which certain personalities were involved, having multifarious

relations in various societies including that of the lawyers and

business men.

On the 10th of May, Ion Basgan concluded an agreement of

financial support with a financing party that was represented by Josef

Mandl.

On the 30th of June, he was advised by Jack Cooper at the

Kenyon Patent Company of New York, who confirmed the validity of

his USA Patent 2,103,137. The lawyer Jack Cooper avowed that he

had worked for the oil magnates in 1960 during the law suit that was

carried against them by Ion Basgan.

Privately, everybody would rend justice to Ion Basgan and even

sympathize with him, yet officially things would remain unchanged,

moreover the case procedures and its supporters were slow and

inefficient.

The lawyer H. Ellis Cox (a relative of the President Richard

Nixon) sent a written confirmation to the President Nicolae Ceauşescu

on the 19th of July that he had undertaken the case of Ion Basgan in the

USA and asserted that it was a right suit.

In the meantime, Romanian and American secret services were

shadowing the progress of the case, stepping in discreetly now and

then to uphold or block its actions, according to the interests of the

parties that were involved.

Between the 3rd and the 7th of October, Ion Basgan carried out

his professional activity at the Oil Documentary Center, in order to

elaborate an international bibliographic research study, that should

provide a confirmation of the Basgan effect and of the inventions in

which it had been applied.

Eventually, he would complete this work, which would be a

success in the domain of oil exploitation.

On the 19th of October, 1971 the legal advisers Hubbell, Cohen

and Stiefel sent a study to Mr. H. E. Cox, regarding the validity of Ion

Basgan’s USA Patent No. 3,507,341 .

On the 20th of November, 1971 on the occasion of a discussion

taking place with Horia Hulubei and Henri Coandă, Ion Basgan took

the opportunity to tell H. Coandă that the Coandă effect in oil

exploitation, the utilization of laser in drilling and other methods

could not bring the intended results, because they had been neglecting

the Basgan effect. The renowned scientist H. Coandă agreed to

organize a collaboration, within the institute he had founded, in

support of Ion Basgan’s assertions. Unfortunately, this would

never happen.

Later, in 1973, the Watergate conflict of the USA would destroy

everything that it had been achieved in the domain of the USA and

Romania relations in upholding the Basgan case, although on the 7th of

April, the Institute of Legal Research within the Academy of Social

and Political Sciences of the Socialist Republic of Romania sent a

document to the lawyer H. E. Cox of New York attesting that Ion

Basgan was going to be restored to his rights.

On the 22nd

of June, 1973 Ion Basgan sent a Memorial to

Gheorghe Oprea, the adviser of the Romanian President with the

following documents in Annex: 1) the legal report Cox - Hauser -

Rosenzweig (of the 24th of May and the 1

st of June, 1973); 2) the

Memorial No. 12,162 to the State Council of the 11th of June, 1973; 3)

the Attestation made by the Institute of Legal Inquiries of the 7th of

April, 1973; 4) the Science and Technics magazine No. 5/1973.

Ion Basgan together with his sons, Ion (Ginel) and Sorin Basgan,

and with his nieces (Ginel's daughters) – Predeal, 1973.

On the 24th

of the September, 1973 Ion Basgan was informed

by the adviser Gheorghe Oprea that no financing was allowed for his

case in the wake of the proposal made in this sense by the Foreign

Trade Bank.

On the 10th

of October at the meeting with Hayorth - World

Patent Development and Cox Baudler, they informed the Romanian

inventor that they were not ready for the discussions and Milică

Marinescu withheld the support he had been offering before.

On the 16th

of October on the occasion of meeting the lawyer

Densan, a Patent specialist, the latter handed Ion Basgan the report

that contained the confirmation that two enterprises, namely

Hughes Tool Company and Humble Oil Refining Company had

been applying the USA Patent No. 3,507,431 and presented him a

report from the Columbia University. The American Law ‘Laches’

stipulated compulsory prosecution for claims and immediate legal

action, so as to avoid sanction for lack of interest.

On the 17th of October, the lawyer H. E. Cox handed a

photocopy to Ion Basgan of a letter from the ambassador C. Bogdan,

showing that Romania supported the Basgan Case.

On the 9th of November, the Romanian inventor came in for an

interview with Andrei Brânduş at the Voice of America and the FreeEurope, regarding the application of his inventions in the USA and in

other countries.

On the 17th of November, he visited the exhibition Interocean

1973 in Dusseldorf, that had been organized on the topic of the

Northern Sea drilling.

On the 18th and 19

th of November, he met Kutka and engineer

Martin Licht, in order to examine the possibilities of further extending

the registration of the Patent 3,507,341 / USA.

On the 12th of January, 1974 Ion Basgan discussed collaboration

opportunities in the domain of drilling, with Ali Mohamed Masmudi

El Schurmani of Tripoly, Libia.

On the 28th of January, 1974 the engineer Cristescu, who was a

specialist in drillings at the Oil Ministry, confirmed to Ion Basgan the

proficiency of the operation of drill collars in drilling, both in

Romania and the USA, where he had been on a documentary visit, at

the proposal of the Romanian Ministry.

On the 3rd

of March, the Romanian inventor sent a memorial

to the joint Romanian

and American Economic Council in the matter of his USA claims, on

the address of Manea Mănescu.

On the 15th

of April he receives from the engineer Valentin

Turcu a series of proposal of co-operation with the Norse Company of

Norway.

Besides these co-operation proposals and work appointments,

Ion Basgan was also involved in working out a Memorial between the

3rd

and the 25th of May that he addressed to the USA Congress, in

which he presented the list of testimonies and witnesses reports, that

had been involved in his case regarding the recovery of his author

rights.

On the 26th of May, when he was invited to the Griffins in

Staten Island, he would finish the last details of his Memorial to the

USA Government. On the 11th of June, he submitted the Memorial

together with 21 documents. Although nobody could deny his scientific

achievements, he was nevertheless required to change his Romanian

citizenship for the American one as a legal solution for the payment of

his legal rights.

His answer was definitely negative. Moreover, Ion Basgan

suggested to the Americans the setting up of the Basgan

foundation. That was an answer that would leave any American

speechless.

In fact, one of Ion Basgan’s oldest dreams was to set up a

Foundation with the money that he should have received as his author

rights royalties. The inventor intended to work together with his three

sons within this Foundation. The Foundation would include an insti-

tute with 34 sections, covering also the specialization domains of the

inventor (hydro-technique, sonicity, oil, water supply). A museum was

also intended to be set up within the Foundation, that should highlight

the contribution of the Romanian nation during their entire existence

as a people in the Romanian geographical area to the progress of

world culture and technique.

On the 14th

of June, before his leaving, he concluded the

collaboration and financing convention with the lawyer William

Griffin.

On the 18th of June, as it was expected, the Director of the USA

Ministry of Commerce, Scherman Abrahamson sent a written notice

to Ion Basgan, mentioning that he was not in a position to legally

support his case. As for the lawyers, they found the solution of the

ratification of the Divesting Order, that granted backdated author

rights, through the ratification of this document in the American

Congress.

On the 22nd

of April, 1975 Ion Basgan sent reports on the

Basgan case to the minister Bujor Almăşanu , the minister Ion Avram,

the vice-prime minister Gh. Oprea and to I. Ursu.

On the 20th of May, he received the visit of the jurist Florea, to

whom he would hand in the Patents for Japan.

On the 10th of June, Prof. C. C. Giurescu would hold a cycle of

conferences on the Romanian contribution in the domain of world

science and technology, in Germany at Munich, Frankfurt and other

cities, presenting the work of Ion Basgan, G. Constantinescu, Elie

Carafoli and other Romanian scientists.

On the 11th of June, the architect Vogel, the adviser of the

Agriculture minister, required consulting from the Romanian inventor

Ion Basgan in the domain of the foundation of a joint company for

water supply and irrigation in Libia and Maroc.

On the 12th

of June, as a result of his receiving a work from

I. Mocanu with the title ‘Aspects of the Technical and EconomicEspionage’, Ion Basgan was glad to see that, as far as he was

concerned, the problem was even more complicated, with many

underground ties leading to obscure areas full of unforeseen

events. The author’s point of view as stated in the above

mentioned work entitled Ion Basgan to think that the stakes had

already been laid down and that he was fighting a loosing battle

and that it was impossible for him to win the fight for his author

rights.

The adversary was much stronger than he, who was himself a

dreamer and a progress originator, to put it otherwise, a ‘naïve

inventor’ as he had once said about himself.

‘As compared to the case of Gh. Constantinescu and to that ofHenri Coandă, with Ion Basgan there had been even more situationsin which the intelligence theft on behalf of Romanian inventors hasbecome manifest in a typical form of their intellectual propertyinfringement. In this respect, the Romanian inventor Ion Basgan is atelling example: he was en enthusiastic advocate of sonicity principlesand a disciple of Gh. Constantinescu. The main Patents of engineerBasgan are: the Romanian Patent No. 22,789/1934 ‘Method forIncreasing the Output and Improving Rotary Drilling by RotaryPercussion and by Damping Hydromechanical Pressure’, and theUSA Patent No. 2,103,137/1937 ‘A New Drilling System That Takesinto Account Hydrostatic Pressure and Long Distance Sonic EnergyTransmission by Means of Heavy Proportional Rods and SonicDrilling’.

The proclamation of the state of war between Romania and theUSA at the end of 1941 had among other effects also the sequestrationof the assets that were on the territory of Northern America andbelonged to Romanian citizens: these included also the Patent ofengineer Basgan, for which the American oil corporations shouldhave paid the royalties, that were stipulated by internationallegislation, to the Romanian inventor for using his above mentionedPatents.

The uninterrupted continuation of the exploitation of theseassets required that the capital and patents of the citizens belongingto the states that were at war with the USA should be intrusted to acustodian, who was responsible for the administration and ac-counting of the income the respective assets would bring at the endof the war. Unfortunately, they ‘forgot’ about Ion Basgan. Thereforethe large American oil companies were allowed to assume freely theresults of the Romanian inventor’s work and discoveries, years onend, thus depriving both him and Romania of high currency amounts.Up to the present moment, there have not yet been identified practicalor legal ways to recover the damages that resulted from the

‘omission’ that had been probably organized by the directly in-terested parties`.5

The Diary of the famous Romanian scientist and technician Ion

Basgan ended the 27th of September, 1975 with an affectionate note in

which he specified that his son Sorin Basgan was leaving for nine

months to Medgidia to fulfil his military service.

Dr. Ion Basgan and his family:

Angela Basgan, Constantin (Dinu) Basgan, Sorin Basgan,

5 I. Mocanu, Aspects of Technical and Economic Espionage, Military

Printing House, Bucharest, 1975.

Ion (Ginel) Basgan and Florentina (Tita) Basgan.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan, Prof. Eng. Emil Prager and academician Matei Marinescu at the

Symposium of the Technical Museum ‘Prof. Eng. Dimitrie Leonida’ (1980).

The Basgan’s archive still contains a correspondence of Ion

Basgan, senator Eduard M. Kennedy and the Inspector for Registered

Patents and Marks, C. Marshall Dann, dated 1977.

On the 15th

of December, 1980 the Romanian inventor Ion

Basgan departed from this world, for which he had worked and

created extensively.

Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan at the Technical Museum

‘Prof. Eng. Dimitrie Leonida’ (the 4th of December, 1980).

TECHNICAL ACTIVITY

on Basgan graduated from the High School of Mines and

Metallurgy (Montanistische Hochschule 5, Leoben – Austria,

with the Diploma No. 10, of the 17th of July, 1925, that was

validated through the Report No. 44 of the 22nd

of April, 1926, by the

Ministry of Public Works and the Report No. 1,902 of the 13th of

February, 1961 by the Superior Commission of Diplomas.

He started his practical mining activity at the coal mines of

Seegraben-Leoben (Austria) and the iron mines Eisenerz-Steiermark

(Austria).

In order to better understand and become acquainted to this

domain of activity, Ion Basgan visited the lignite mining site near Vienna,

the magnesium mines of Veitsch (Austria), the salt pit of Hallstadt-

Salzkammergut (Austria), as well as other mining sites in Austria,

Germany, Poland and Romania. In the summer of 1924, he performed

a practical training of several months at the oil fields of Pechelbron

(Alsacia), where he studied the oil exploitation through galleries.

In July, 1925, Ion Basgan was employed as a probationer

engineer at the ‘Steaua Română’ company. Up to 1932, Ion Basgan

travelled on foot around all the oil fields in Romania, such as: Moreni,

Mislea, Ceptura, Moineşti, Gura Ocniţei, Câmpina, Scăioşi, Podenii

Noi, Boldeşti, Migle Steaua Română’ company and the certificates,

that were issued by the Mining Inspectorates of Ploieşti and Moreni

for leadership in oil and natural gas exploitation are attesting the

professional evolution of the young man Ion Basgan. Namely, from

the 25th of July to the 15

th of September, 1925, Ion Basgan worked at

the oil fields No. 18 and 22, in the ‘Alianţa’ system at Pâscov-

Moreni and from the 15th

of September to the 15th of October, 1925,

as an oil field worker at the oil field No. 39 in the ‘Alianţa’ system, in

the Southern area of Moreni. From the 15th of October to the 1

st of

December, 1925, Ion Basgan carried out his activity as a deputy

engineer of the Section chief in the Southern area of Moreni, working

on the oil fields No.4, 6, 38, and 44 in the ‘Alianţa’ system. From the

1st of December, 1925 to January, 1926, Ion Basgan was an oil field

worker at the ‘Rotary’ oil well No. 208 in the Northern area No. 2 C

of Moreni. Between the 1st of January and the 1

st of April, 1926, he

was a deputy engineer of the Section chief in the Northern area of

Moreni, working on the oil fields No. 206, 208 and 210, all of them

working in the ‘Rotary’ system. From the 1st of April to the 15

th of

April, 1926, Ion Basgan carried out his activity as a manufacturer of

oil drilling plants in central workshops and from the 15th of April to

I

the 1st of July, 1926, he had the function of deputy engineer of the

Section chief in the Southern area of Moreni, on the oil fields No. 3, 4,

6, 38, 39 and 44, that were under drilling conditions and on the oil

fields No. 8, 41 and 46, that were going to be rigged up. From the 1st

of July to the 25th of July, 1926, Ion Basgan worked on the Ceptura oil

field (Prahova) as a chief engineer of the Şoimescu Section, working

on the oil field No. 1, 2, 3 and 5, of the ‘Indian’ system and the oil

field No. 10 in the ‘Rotary’ system and attending to the rigging up of

the oil fields No. 9 and 13, in the ‘Rotary’ system.

As a Chief Engineer of oil field exploitation, he passed an exam

in August, 1926, in order to continue his activity as a Section chief

engineer, specialising in the ‘Rotary’ oil drilling, on various Romanian

oil fields: Ceptura (Prahova), Ochiuri (Dâmboviţa) and Moreni. As a

Chief Engineer of the oil drilling team for oil exploration, Ion Basgan

was in charge of the leadership of the oil fields at Podenii Noi

(Prahova) and Scăioşi (Prahova), where he joined in the drilling of

several ‘Rotary’ oil wells (at Podeni), four ‘Calis’ exploitation oil

wells and several ‘Rotary’ oil wells, that were commissioned to start

oil production.

Ion Basgan was a Chief of exploitation in oil and natural gas

since the 7th of May, 1927 (Patent No. 39), as a result of the practical

work he had carried out in this domain and the exam, that he had

passed in August, 1926 at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

In 1930, he was appointed Director of the oil field exploitation

works of the ‘Steaua Română’ company in the Bacău District, at the

oil fields of Moineşti, Zemeş and Solon, where every field included

several dozens of production and a few drilling oil fields. In this sense,

the oil well No. 29 of Moineşti witnessed the first attempt of Ion

Basgan to implement the ‘Rotary’ drilling in the region of hard rocks

in Moldavia. The work experience and method that he applied were to

be used later in Galitia - Poland.

In 1931, Ion Basgan was transferred to Câmpina, as the deputy

of the drilling section Inspectorate. Therefore, all the drilling works on

the company’s field were under Ion Basgan’s leadership.

His high responsibility and professionalism had earned him the

confidence of the company managing staff who entrusted him several

high difficulty tasks: he was required to do the fishing job at the oil

well No. 11 of Boldeşti, that had been drilled with violent outburst

into the air and to work at the oil well No. 471 of Scorţeni – Mislea,

where there had been problems with the deep ‘Rotary’ drilling.

Ion Basgan carried out a wide range of specific activities at the

‘Steaua Română’ company, including: exploitation drilling, as well as

high-productivity oil wells drilling. This kind of practical activity was

a good opportunity for Ion Basgan to undertake research and gain

experience from the geological, technical and economic point of view,

resulting in the elaboration of several significant works in this domain.

Between 1932 and 1933, Ion Basgan joined in the leadership of

the Oil and Mining Section, as a referent of the Oil and Mining

Section and a founder member of the Association for the Study of the

Economic Situation in Romania and on this occasion he published a

series of economic syntheses studies, covering the entire oil industry

and the oil-extraction industry. He established the statistical framework

for the monitoring of various sectors and phenomena specific to these

industrial and economic activities. As we have mentioned before, as a

referent at the Oil and Mines Section, Ion Basgan brought an excellent

contribution to the outlining of the shortcomings of the oil policy in

Romania as compared to the world corporations. On this occasion, Ion

Basgan elaborated the general framework for an independent economic

policy through the nationalisation of the Romanian oil industry and

the industrialisation of the Romanian economy. At the same time he

established contacts with similar State-of-the-Market Institutes from

abroad, by visiting the Vienna, Paris and London institutes.

In 1933, he was appointed the official delegate of Romania at

the first World Oil Congress in London, by the Ministry of Industry

and Commerce. On this occasion, he represented Romania at the

opening session of the Congress and he participated in the debates

with a report on the results of his scientific research, that he had been

carrying out in order to supplement the Archimedes’ principle and to

study the transmission of sonic energy through the drill column. ‘The

Petroleum Times’ magazine of the 22nd

of July, 1933 contained a

report of the first World Oil Congress in London and a photo of the

official participants and delegates from all over the world, as well as a

summary of Ion Basgan’s report. When he was in London, he attended

the University summer courses

ical knowledge, Ion Basgan passed con brio his Doctor degree

examination on the 7th of July, 1933 at the Montanistische Hochschule,

in Leoben, Austria, with his work ‘Die Arbeitsweise und Form des RotaryMeissels in Erdölgesteine’. He was awarded the Doctor degree in

mining sciences – Doktor der Montanistischen Wissen-Schaffen(which was validated by the Superior Commission of Diplomas of the

Ministry of Education, with the equivalent title of ‘Doctor Engineer’,No. 1,279 on the 30

th of December, 1965).

Ion Basgan’s graduation paper was very appreciated by

specialists and it was retained by the examination commission for

publication in the school year book and by the Hans Urban Printing

House of Vienna. In this sense, Prof. Dr. Eng. Pirkl and Prof. Eng.

Fulglewicz mentioned the following in the report of the school Rector:

‘Engineer Basgan had the opportunity to analyse the operation

of the Rotary driller during several Rotary boring operations, that

were carried out on the oil fields of Romania and to draw the attention

on the rhythmical vibrations that occur in the drilling rods. After an

accurate appreciation of these important phenomena, he established

their laws, first in a practical manner, then by mathematical

calculation. As a result of his deductions and conclusions, Ion Basgan

presented rules and formulae to the drilling technician for the correct

dimensioning of the drilling equipment, for the drilling pressure, as

well as for avoiding the resonance effects of the vibrations on the

drilling rods’.

The paper represents a precious contribution to the technicaland scientific bases of the Rotary drilling system.

Both specialists made an extremely favourable conclusion onthe theoretical and practical value of Ion Basgan’s Doctor thesis andhe was awarded his Doctor Diploma in a solemn festivity, in thepresence of the Romanian minister in Vienna, Dr. Caius Brediceanu,who was a special guest of the school Rector. On this occasion theRomanian flag was raised and the lectures that were held werepublished in the Austrian and Romanian newspapers (‘Obsersteirische

Volkszeitung’, of the 8th of July, 1933 and the Universe, of the 16th ofJuly, 1933). When he had received the Doctor degree, Ion Basganworked as an honorific course assistant at the Department of oilstudy, being appointed by the Professors’ Council of the Academy ofHigh Commercial and Industrial Studies of Bucharest, on the 26th ofJanuary, 1934).

That is how Ion Basgan had made his way painstakingly, yetgloriously into the realm of the technical activity.

From 1933 to 1944, Ion Basgan would lecture a course on the

’Efficiency of Oil Enterprises’, as a course assistant of Prof. Dr. Eng.

V. Iscu from the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial studies

of Bucharest, at the Oil study Department.

In 1934 he undertook the technical leadership (between the 15th of

December, 1934 and the 13th of May, 1941) and later the administrative

leadership (between the 13th of May, 1941 and the 31

st of December,

1943) of an oil company, the ‘Romanian Oil Company’, that had been

set up with a small internal capital just a little before. In nine years,

that is before 1944, using low financial and technical resources,

working intensely while being deeply involved in the leadership of

both the site and the company, Ion Basgan succeeded to develop that

company into a prosperous oil enterprise, with a daily output of 10 to

14 wagons and a significant drilling and production stock.

Three production oil-fields were opened by the above

mentioned company, namely: the oil field of Moreni with the wells

No. 2A, 3, 4, 5 and 6 having 9,481 m in total and an output of 186,444

t and the oil field of Ghirdoveni, Prahova with the wells No. 471, 412

and 473 having 5,799 m in total and an output of 76,991 t ; the oil

field of Răzvad – Dâmboviţa with the well No. 1 having 1,794 m and

an output of 2,782 t.

In 1937, Ion Basgan attended the 2nd

World Oil Congress in

Paris, where he presented several applications of his Patents covering

the new modern drilling methods. The article ‘Progress in the DrillingTechnique through Dr. Basgan’s Method’ that was published in the

‘Annals of Mines’ No. 7 of 1938 contained a series of technical data

on the performances that he had attained, with the aim to disseminate

the experience he had gained in this domain.

The ‘Romanian Oil company’ was also responsible for the

execution of ten water exploration wells for the army, in the

unyielding Dobrudja rocks. In this domain, Ion Basgan pointed out a

series of aspects when speaking on the topic ‘The Water problem inDobrudja’ at the AGIR Congress of 1943 and on the topic ’Watersupply in Dobrudja’ at the Romanian ‘Academy of Sciences’. As the

unique delegate administrator of the ‘Igienco’ company, Ion Basgan

ensured the export of petroleum wax, thus covering the army demands

of this product between 1941 and 1943.

At the same time as he carried out the above mentioned

activities, in 1940 Ion Basgan was appointed by the Ministry of

National Economy (Decision No. 142,583/1940) the technical adviser

of the Oil Inspectorate that had been founded some time before, as a

specialist in drilling and oil field exploitation. The Propaganda

Ministry invited Ion Basgan (through the Address No. 1,454/1940 to

draw up the paper ‘Romanian Oil and Natural Gas’. In July, 1940, Ion

Basgan was invited by Prof. Dr. A. Benz of Berlin to collaborate in an

anniversary issue of the ‘Oil und Kohle’ magazine for oil industries in

the South - East of Europe. On this occasion, he published two articles

in the above mentioned magazine, that focused on the progress

achieved by the Romanian engineers in the domain of oil industry.

A characteristic feature of Ion Basgan’s activity is that it more

often than not encompassed new domains always yielding good

economic effects. Yet, the Romanian patriot could never work for

large famous oil enterprises, because of his technical, economic and

political works, that he had published between 1933 and 1949, in

which he fought against the policy of world oil corporations in

Romania, as well as because of the law suit that existed between Ion

Basgan and the corporations for his inventions.

Upon the elaboration of the Oil Law in 1942, he was invited as

a specialist by the National Union of Oil Enterprises to defend the

interests of the national economy against the monopolizing tendencies

of the German – fascist groups, by analyzing the projects and drawing

up the required amendments, that were introduced in the Law-Decree

that was issued on the 17th of July, 1942. Fighting for the defense of

the Romania’s patriotic interests, Ion Basgan became ‘the victim ofpolitical persecution from fascist governments’ (according to the

Certificate No. 053537/21.06.1957 that was issued by the Ministry of

Internal Affairs).

In 1943, he was appointed technical adviser at the ‘Mica’

Company, for the exploitation of oil structures and fields. Working for

this company, he carried out exploration drilling for coal, when he

also identified important water supplies in Dobrudja. Therefore,

between 1944 and 1949, Ion Basgan worked at several enterprises,

that were later affiliated to the Ministry of Metallurgy (technical

adviser at the ‘Mica’ Company; at the ‘Gold’ Company, where in

1948 he substantially contributed to the increase of mercury

production by 300%; department chief at the Gold and Silver works).

Between 1949 and 1951, Ion Basgan worked at Sovromcărbune,

where he collaborated in the exploitation of coal by boring in the Jiu

Valley. He significantly contributed here to the improvement of the

production process by the introduction of heavy pipes, in

exploration savings by implementing the above mentioned innovation

in the production process, representing over 30 million lei per year

and a new product to be manufactured at the ‘Republica’ Plant. Ion

Basgan received 5,000 lei in 1954 as a reward.

In 1951, Ion Basgan was a department chief at Industrialexport

enterprise for oil equipment, and in 1952 he was transferred to

Sovromutilajpetrolifer. When Sovromutilajpetrolifer was founded in

1952, Ion Basgan was employed there as a principal engineer at the

Technical Service of the General Direction and Oil Wells Exploitation.

On the 31st of October, 1953, Ion Basgan joined in as a delegate of

Sovromutilajpetrolier in the national Congress of the oil engineers,

technicians and stahanovists in Ploieşti through the Association of

Engineers and Technicians (ASIT). On this occasion, it was pointed

out that the Romanian wells generally presented a deflection of 11 to

33 degrees from the vertical. Moreover the Archimedes’ pressure was

not taken into account, vibrations in the drill column were not

removed and bottom operation accidents were abounding. As a result,

it was suggested to utilize and experiment the new Basgan methods of

well drilling as a remedy.

In November 1954, when Sovromutilajpetrolifer was dissolved,

Ion Basgan was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture. His object

of activity was to organize design and implementation in the domain

of hydrologic drilling and water supply of the economic units that

were subordinated to the Agriculture Ministry.

As a senior designer engineer at the Institute of Agriculture

Design and Construction (I.P.C.A., later called I.S.P.A.), the chief of

the Drilling Section of the Co-ordination Commission of Drilling at

the Agriculture Ministry and later as a specialist engineer at the State

Committee of Waters (C.S.A., later called I.P.A.C.H.), Ion Basgan

carried out a titanic pioneer’s work in breaking new ground for 12

years, in order to ensure water supply for agriculture and countryside

economic units, thus setting up 1,000 water plants.

He also elaborated the design and execution principles and

guidelines in the hydrological drilling for agriculture and countryside

economic units. As a president of the Co-ordinating Commission of

Drilling and a member of the Technical and Scientific Council of

I.S.C.H. of the State Council of Waters, he notified and adapted the

hydrological studies and projects to the local characteristics of the

field.

He was the leader and co-ordinator of the study and water supply

of the entire local area of Constanza, Bărăgan and the Northern Moldavia.

During 1965, as a chief of a complex Project, he drew up a

‘Study of the Efficiency of Underground Water Catching’ and co-

ordinated the activity of three institutes, namely: I.P.A.C.H., I.S.P.,

I.S.C.H., that had joined in as collaborators in drawing up this study.

As a result of the performances that Ion Basgan had obtained

through this kind of work, the President of the local Popular Council

of Constanza would acknowledge his skilled contribution as regards

the rising of the living standards of Dobrudja and the Seaside area, in

his Report No. 3,439 of the 15th of September, 1959 addressed to the

agriculture minister. He required further assistance from the specialist

Ion Basgan. Actually, in the ‘Hidromecanica’ magazine, No. 1 and

No. 8 of 1958, the following are mentioned: ‘Ion Basgan is the firstspecialist in drilling, who carried out a series of works, that aimed atthe identification of deep underground water in Dobrudja.

He is the referent who brought the preliminary study before the

Government, that had been drawn up by I.P.C.A. in 1956, regarding

the local water supply of Dobrudja. He is the President of the Co-

ordinating Commission of Drilling of the Ministry of Agriculture and

Forestry and he may be of great help to us in carrying out our works’.

Besides the technical and administrative activity which he had

been performing at an ardent pace, at the rhythm required by the

national economy requirements and by the interests of the companies

whose leader he was, Ion Basgan had the spiritual strength to

collaborate at several magazines, such as: Bulletin de la SectionScientifique – Académie Roumaine; Bulletin of the ‘Politehnica’Society; Nature; Öel und Kohle of Berlin; Bulletin of the RomanianInstitute of Energy; Bulletin of the National Situation Institute;Bulletin of AGIR; Internationale Zeitschrift für Bohrtechnik – Erdöl,Bergban und Geologie of Vienna; The Petroleum London - New York;

Libertatea, etc.

It may be concluded that Ion Basgan’s activity was characterized

by dynamism and strength in the direct approach of new domains.

Obviously, the results appeared immediately and the economic effects

contributed to the prosperity of enterprises for which he worked, in

national economy and defense. Moreover, Ion Basgan’s personality

was rounded up by the works he published, by the appraisals that were

made by high reputation cultural organizations and specialists from

Romania and from abroad, regarding the theories that had been

elaborated by the Romanian scientist.

His real value as a man and scientist was attested by the prizes

he was awarded, the reviews that were written by other specialists on

his works and by the reproduction of his articles in various foreign and

Romanian publications. It should be mentioned that his technical,

geological and economic works were quoted or introduced in university

courses, both in the country and abroad by renowned professors, such

as: Fuglewicz – Austria (Leoben); L. Mrazec, I. Simionescu, V.

Madgearu – Romania; Wiliam Harvey Emmons – USA.

It is worth while mentioning here several works of Romanian

and foreign authors that included reference elements from Ion

Basgan’s work:

• ‘Moniteur du pétrole roumain’ (No. 228 of 1930, Technical

Chronicle, page 279 contains reviews of Ion Basgan’s work: ‘Oilexplorations in the Teleajen Valley’);

• ‘Annales des mines de Roumanie’ (1932, ‘The Operation and

Form of Rotary Drill in the Oil Rocks of Romania’);

• ‘Moniteur du pétrole roumain’ (No. 3 of the 1st of February,

1932, ‘Technics in the Romanian Oil Industy’, page 99);

• Eng. St Predescu (‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, vol.14, 1932, No. 12,

page 182);

• ‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’ (April, 1933, page. 228-229, Eng. C. Răuţ,

reviews ‘The Operation and Form of Rotary Drill in the Oil Rocks ofRomania’);

• ‘The Petroleum Times’ (Special Congress Issue, the 22nd

of

July 1933, page. 133, London writes on: ‘Scientific Considerations ofthe Technique of Modern Drilling’);

• Professor Engineer T. Ficşinescu (introduction to Ion Basgan’s

work: ’The Operation and Form of Rotary Drill in the Oil Rocks ofRomania’);

• ‘World Petroleum’ (New York – London, Supplementary

Issue, July 1933, page 43);

• ‘l’Independence roumaine’ (the 21st of September, 1933);

• Eng. George Constantinescu (Introduction to the work: ‘DieArbeitsweise und Form des Rotary Meissels in Erdoelgesteine’, Vienna,

1934;

• ‘The Petroleum Times’ (London, the 19th of January, 1935,

‘Developments in Oilfield Equipment During 1934’, William J.

Wigney, Director for Europe, The National Supply Corporation);;

• Prof. William Harvey Emmons (USA, ‘Geology of Petroleum’,

page 94, quotes from Ion Basgan’s work ‘Oil Region of Moreni –Gura Ocniţei’);

• Prof. Krejci Graf (Freiberg – Bergakademie, ‘Neues Jahrbuchfür Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie’, Jahrgang, 1934,

page 771);

• Prof. Eng. C. Buşilă (‘I.R.E. Bulletin’, 3rd

year, No. 4, presents

debates on the Conference ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the Situation of

Exploration Works and the Fuel Matter’;

• Prof. Eng. T. Ficşinescu (‘I.R.E. Bulletin’, 3rd

year, No. 4,

presents aspects of the Conference ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the

Situation of Exploration Works and the Fuel Matter’;

• Dr. Eng. Arcadian (‘Organisation of National Economy’,

‘General Reports’ of A.G.I.R., Congress 1934, Galaţi;

• Prof. Sp. Iacobescu (‘I.R.E. Bulletin’, 3rd

year, No. 4, aspects

of the Conference ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the Situation of

Exploration Works and the Fuel Matter’;

• Eng. T. P. Ghiţulescu (‘I.R.E. Bulletin’, 3rd

year, No. 4,

aspects of the Conference ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the Situation ofExploration Works and the Fuel Matter’);

• Prof. Eng. C. Buşilă (a speech delivered on the occasion of the

10-year anniversary of the Romanian Energy Institute, ‘I.R.E. Bulletin’);

• Eng. C. Cristea (‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, No. 6 of 1934, page 271);

• ‘Curentul’ (the 25th of April, 1935);

• S. I. Siscenko (1935, Baku – Moscow, writes on Ion Basgan’s

‘Scientific Bases Of Modern Drilling Methods’);• ‘The Morning’ magazine (the 1

st of October, 1935);

• ‘Annales des mines de Roumanie’ (No. 3, March 1936,

page 143);

• Prof. I. Simionescu (‘Our Country’, pages 354 and 362);

• Prof. Dr. L. Mrazec (the Report that was submitted to the

Romanian Academy for the awarding of the prize for Ion Basgan’s

work ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the Situation of Exploration Worksand the Fuel Matter’, session 1936;

• ‘The Universe’ (the 24th of November, 1937);

• ‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’ (May 1938, Technical Chronicle about:

‘Technical Aspects and the Scientific Interpretation of the RotaryDrilling System’);

• ‘Petroleum Technologist London’ (‘New Fields in Romania’,

1938);

• Prof. Dr. M. Hengelein – Karlsruhe (‘Neues Jarbuch fürMineralogie, Geologie und Paläntologie’, Jahrgang, 1938, pages from

254 to 255;

• Prof. Dr. V. Philipsborn Freiberg – Bergademie (‘NeuesJarbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläntologie’, Jahrgang,

1938, page 255;

• Eng. V. Petrescu – Livadea (‘Romanian Annals of Mines’,

No. 7, 1938, ‘Recent Progress in the Drilling Technique through Dr.

Basgan’s Method’);

• ‘Romania’ (2 May, 1939);

• ‘Argus’ (19 May, 1939);

• Prof. V. Madgearu (‘Evolution of the Romanian Economy’,

pages 104 and 105);

• Prof. Dr. L. Mrazec (foreword to ‘Oil and Natural Gas’);• Prof. Dr. L. Mrazec (‘General Course in Minerals and Rocks’,

Part 2, page. 411);

• A.G.I.R. Bulletin (the 9th of October, 1940, page 193, Eng. C.

Cristea, a report on ‘Oil industry and the spirit of new times’);

• Italo Zingarelli, ‘La stampa’, Rome (the 6th of November,

1940, ‘Cisterne Tricolori Sul Danubio’);• Prof. Gh. Leon (‘Economic and Statistic Annals’, Vol. 24,

1941, No. 1-3, page 112);

• ‘The Journal of the Petroleum Technologist’ (July 1943, page

279-280, No. 127);

• Prof. Dr. Eng. M. Stamatiu (A.G.I.R. Bulletin, October 1943, a

report on ‘Water Matter in Dobrudja’ and ‘Principles of Economic

Policy in the Romanian Oil Legislation’);

• Eng. P. J. Bernhardt (‘Bulletin de l’Association Francaise desTechniciens du Petrole’, Paris 1946, No. 60, a report on ‘The Role and

Weight of Heavy Rods in Drilling’;• Eng. P. J. Bernhardt (in ‘Bulletin de l’Association Francaise

des Techniciens du Petrole’, No. 60, 1946; ‘Elasticité et résistence des

longues colonnes creuses utilisées dans le forage des puits profonds’);

• I. L. Stoup (‘The Oil and Gas Journal’, USA, 22nd

January,

1948, pages 62-63, comments on ‘Drillcollars, Their Use and

Manufacturing’;

• Murray F. Hawkins and Norman Lamont (in ‘Drilling andProduction Practice’, USA, Vol. 10, No. 6, 1949, page 358-369; ‘The

Analysis of Axial Stresses in Drill Stems’;

• Report of Inventions and Innovations Direction of the Council

of Ministers, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the recovery

of the income, that resulted from the application of the USA Patent

No. 12,809 / the 28th of October, 1953;

• Ross Bassinger (‘The Oil and Gas Journal’, USA, the 12th of

October, 1956;

• D. M. Best (in ‘Selecting Drillcolar Length by PressureMethod’, USA, Huston, March, 1957 ;

• ‘Informative Bulletin’ of the Academy of the Popular

Republic of Romania, 3rd

trimester, 1958, page 36, about the lecture

on the promotion of sonicity in oil exploitation and water supply, that

Ion Basgan had held at the science and technique courses of the

Academy; the 50th ‘SONICS’ Conference of George Constantinescu,

which was held in London and New-York in 1959 about the

successful application of Basgan’s Patents in USSR, published at

London and translated by the Academy of The Popular Republic of

Romania in !961. ;

• Report and Notification No. 193 of the 16th of September,

1960 of the Technical and Scientific Council of the Ministry of

Industry and Oil, that was presided by the Minister Mihai Florescu,

with the participation of the delegates of the Council of Minister, the

Finance Minister, the Academy of the popular Republic of Romania,

the Office of Standards and Inventions;

• G. Wooss and A. Lubinschii (‘Gostoptehizdat’, 1960,

‘Deviation of oil wells in the process of drilling’;

• V. M. Kasimov (‘Nefteanae hazeaistvo’, USSR, No. 3, 1960,

‘Calculation aspects of rod strings for deep sucker plants’;

• Carl Gatling, ‘Petroleum Engineering Drilling and WellCompletion’ (USA, 1960);

• ‘Drilling International’ (a USA journal that required Ion

Basgan to publish a technical and autobiographical article, through the

Address of 27th of December, 1960, of which the original copy is kept

at the Romanian Trading Chamber;

• The Report of the Scientific Council of the ‘Politehnica’

University of Bucharest for the awarding of the degree ‘Doctor

Honoris Causa’ to the Engineer George Constantinescu of the 2nd

of

October, 1961, in which Basgan’s inventions and their success were

mentioned as a practical example of sonicity achievements.;

• Dinu Moroianu and I. M. Ştefan, ‘The Living Fire. A ShortHistory of Romanian Inventions and Discoveries’, Scientific Printing

House, 1963, pages 173-176, about the contribution of Ion Basgan to

the world technical and scientific achievements;

• ‘The Magazine’ periodical of the 1st of the August, 1964

contained a presentation of George Constantinescu, the forerunner of

sonicity and Ion Basgan, his follower;

• The Technical Director of the State Office for Inventions

published the article ‘The Forerunners’ in the ‘Economic Life’

magazine of the 10th of December, 1965, as a result of the conference

of the 18th of November, 1965; the article focused on the Basgan

drilling methods, that are the basis of international drilling: ’Today,

Ion Basgan’s inventions represent the corner stone of modern drilling,

and are well-known in all the industrialized countries’;

• Rollins H. M. (‘The Oil and Gas Journal’, the 18th of April,

1966, pages 98-106). In his article ‘Drill-Pipe Fatigue Failure’ the

author, who was a specialist at Drilco Oil Tools Inc. mentioned Ion

Basgan’s contribution to the fatigue breaking of drilling rods in the

drilling of deviated oil-wells, especially;

• J. R. Eickmeier (‘Diagnostic Analysis of Dynamometer Cards’

in ‘Journal of Petroleum Technology’, January, 1967, pages 97-106;

• ‘Machines et equipements roumaines’, a technical and

commercial publication of Romania for foreign countries, published in

its first issue of 1967 an official article entitled ‘Contributions

Roumaines au Développement de la Théorie et de la Practique du

Forage Moderne’, in the French, English, and German editions,

presenting Basgan’s Patents abroad, as well as their scientific and

technical significqnce;

• ‘La revista italiana del petrolio’ published in April, 1967 the

articles: ‘The Effect of Archimedes’ Pressure and Sonic Energy,

Essential Conditions for the Future of Drilling’, and ‘The Applications

of Basgan’s Drilling Methods in Italy’, in which there were mentioned

the drillings where these methods were applied, with the conclusion:

‘the drilling methods that are applied in Italy confirm the importanceof the drilling methods by utilizing ‘Basgan’ heavy proportional rodsand show that large deviation drillings are generated, when thismethod is not applied’;

• In ‘Le petrole lubri Europe’, No. 6, 1967 of Paris there was

published the review of the dissertation that Ion Basgan had presented

at the 7th World Oil congress, Mexico, 2-8 April, 1967;

• In the magazine ‘Petrole informations’, of the 20th of June,

1967, Paris there was published the article entitled ‘Les nouvelles

méthodes de forage scientifique’, containing the reviews of the

dissertations that Ion Basgan held at the World Oil Congresses, as

well as his latest works and his activity;

• Don E. Lembert (‘Western nations dominate exchange of

information’ in ‘World Oil’, Vol. No. 6, 1967, page 31-32). This work

included comments on the 7th World Oil Congress in Mexico City,

1967. The author presented short quotations of Dr. Ion Basgan’s ‘The

Rotary-percussion drilling’. The author also quotes an excerpt from

the ‘Viaţa Economică’ magazine, of the 10th of December, 1965: ‘Ion

Basgan’s inventions represent the basis of modern drilling and areunanimously acknowledged by all the industrialized countries’;

• ‘Le petrole lubri Europe’, No. 127, of the 20th of October,

1967 published an editorial and a few pages that were dedicated to the

scientific and technical contribution of Ion Basgan, including his

portrait and an interview;

• Prof. Renato Calapso from the University of Messina, the

organizer of the Archimedes’ Commemoration, wrote in the Preface to

‘The Archimedes’ Principle’: ‘Ion Basgan is indeed a truthful followerof Archimedes, as he is the follower of his fundamental idea of puttinga genius’ creation into the service of humanity and of the humanwelfare’;

• In ‘Viaţa economică’ (No. 51 of the 22nd

of December, 1967)

there were published several articles, namely: ‘The Basgan Effect’; ‘A

Romanian Invention Makes a Revolution in the Domain of the

Drilling Technique All over the World’; ‘High Depth Sonicity’;

’Near-Future Perspective: the 15,000 m - Drilling’; original written

comments quoted from the western magazines, as well as from the

conferences of the great world scientists on the fundamental matters

that Basgan had brought to the fore in world-oil exploitation;

• In ‘Viaţa studenţească’, No. 6 of the 7th of February, 1968, an

interview of Ion Basgan was published, entitled ‘Debates. Profession:

An Atheist of the Science’, that described the limitation of the effect

of Archimedes’ pressure and the sonic energy: an essential condition

for the future of deep drilling, and an essential contribution to the

solving of the matter of penetrating the lithosphere down to the so-

called Mohorovitz layer. Ion Basgan focused on the significance of

this solution;

• A. I. Tretieni in ‘La Roumanie d’aujourd’hui’, No. 4, April,

1968, published the article ‘The Basgan Effect’, in which he presented

the inventions of the Romanian oil specialist.

Trying to analyze the causes of drills deviation from the vertical

position, the Romanian inventor had to reconsider an already existing

physics postulate, namely the Archimedes’ principle.

The solution that Ion Basgan elaborated and patented both in

Romania and abroad, which referred to the replacement of the heavy

conventional drilling rods of 1 to 4 tons of weight and about 6 m of

length by heavy rods of 100 to 300 m and 20 to 30 t of weight, that

were calculated proportionally to the weight of the displaced liquid

and the necessary pressing load on the drill.

By the combination of the rotary and simultaneous percussion

process with another process that was invented by Ion Basgan,

utilizing the proportional heavy rods, it was achieved a quicker

advance of the drill, resulting in the increase of drilling speed.

The specialists of the USA and Federal Republic of Germany

estimated that a 30% efficiency as compared to classical methods was

obtained by applying Ion Basgan’s inventions.

The utilization of Basgan’s inventions in the USA for 22 years,

namely for the drilling of 1,001,130 oil wells that amounted to

1,182,770,440m had brought about a profit of 30 billion dollars.

However, the inventor was not granted the due payment for the

utilization of his methods, according to international norms. (Mention

should be made that in the article no information sources were

specified regarding the utilization of Basgan’s inventions in the USA).

Dan Bodnărescu (in ‘Oil and Gas’, No. 7, 1968, pages 409-413)

focuses on the importance of the fact that Ion Basgan noticed the

negative effect that would appear during drilling, namely the

Archimedes’ force applied onto the lower part of the drilling rig, that

was called the ‘Basgan effect’.In order to prevent this effect, the heavy rods should carry a

supplementary load besides that which was required for exerting a

pressure on the base, that should be equivalent to the Archimedes’

force, while the neutral zone should be maintained inside the heavy-

rods column.

The author mentioned that the existence of this effect was

experimentally confirmed by M. Hawkins and N. Lomont from the

University of California. In 1949, they measured the negative load and

the location of the neutral zone by means of special electrical

apparatus for a 2” pipe of lucita , that when dipped into water.

The article also alluded to the controversies from the part of

several foreign specialists and scientists regarding this theory.

The author presents some practical results, that were obtained in

the drilling of oil wells and salt exploitation, as a result of utilizing

Basgan’s invention, such as, for instance: 1) in Romania, on the Ocniţa

oil field, the deviation range was between 4o and 70

o at the 400 m-oil

wells and 12o at a 1000 m-oil well, somewhere else on another oil

field. By applying the Basgan method in sonic drilling the deviation

was reduced below a half of a degree; 2) in Italy, when drilling the

3500 m-oil well at Valle of Comoechio (Ravenna), using heavy

proportional rods of 16 t (108 m), a 5t-load on the drill, an 11t-load

was used to lower the neutral zone and to reduce the compressed zone.

A deviation of oil wells below 1o resulted, and the cost of one drilled

meter was about 80 dollars.

‘On the off-shore drilling rig of Ravenna at 3400 m oil welldepth, heavy proportional rods of 15 t were used to drill with a 9 tload on the drill. Under these conditions, the oil wells deviation was3o to 4o .’

Good results were obtained at drilling oil-wells in Sicily. For

instance, heavy rods of 30 t (about 300 m in length) were used to drill

at 20 t to 25 t load on the drill into the hard oil formations of Galiano,

Troina, Pizzo e Bellafontana. Under these conditions, oil wells deviation

was 12o

to 16o

and the cost of 1m of drilled surface was 160 dollars.

The author summed up: ‘The drilling methods that were applied inItaly confirm the importance of Basgan drilling by means of heavyproportional oil rods and demonstrates that extended deviations resultwhen this method is not applied’.

The author states the importance of applying the ‘Basgan effect’

in the domain of crude-oil extraction by pumping, for the calculation

of fatigue resistance of pumping rods.

As a conclusion the author states the following:

‘A short presentation of the matter, shows that the Basgan effectis a real fact, and that the inventor had the merit to have the intuitionof this phenomenon, starting from a study of the Archimedes’principle in the case of long and thin elastic bodies, that were

suspended and immersed into liquids, as it was the case of oil welldrilling and crude - oil wells pumping’.

In ‘La Roumanie d’aujourd-hui’ periodical (of the 4th of April,

1968) it was published an article on the ‘Basgan effect’ in which the

following comment was made: ‘World-famous scientists and manyspecialized publications all over the world have made praising commentsabout the achievements of Ion Basgan the inventor’. This periodical

quotes several such comments.

Dinu Moroianu and I. M. Ştefan, in ‘Passion of Science’ (The

Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1968, pages

419-427) concisely present Basgan's patents 2103137 in 1937 (USA)

and 22.789/1934 (Romania).

‘La revista italiana del petrolio’ (the 30th of April, 1970) focus

on the advantages that were obtained by applying the Basgan effect at

the oil wells of the ENEI-AGIP company. As a result, perfectly

vertical oil-well holes resulted, as compared to other oil-wells holes,

that were drilled by classical methods and presented a 15o to 20

o

deviation from the vertical.

PATENTS,

STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS

he brilliant Romanian scientist Ion Basgan was the author

of a broad range of patents, studies and publications,

presented below in this chapter. Nowadays, some of their

applications are used worldwide in the oil industry.

Patents

• Method for the increasing of the efficiency and the

improvement of rotary drilling, by means of rotary percussion anddamping of hydro-mechanical pressure (Romanian Royal Patent,

No. 22,789 of 1934).

• A new process of drilling wells for oil and gas, using

rotary and percussion movements combined, whereby efficiency of

drilling operation is increased, by means of controlling hydro-mechanical pressures (USA Patent No. 739,632 of 1934).

Mr. William J. Wigney, the Director for Europe of the National

Supply Corporation mentioned the following concerning this Patent,

in his article entitled ‘Developments in Oilfield Equipment During1934’, that was published in The Petroleum Times London, of the 19

th

of January, 1935: ‘Engineer Basgan of Romania has just evolved adrilling system combining rotary and percussive movements by meansof pressure pulsations. This is being watched with great interest, but itis much too early, to draw any conclusions as to its successful use’.

Professor Dr. L. Mazarec, ex-president of the Romanian

Academy mentioned the following in ‘The General Course ofMinerals and Rocks’, the 2

nd Part, ‘The Constitutive Substances of the

Earth Layer’, page 411:

‘Usually, deep oil-wells drilling results in a deviation from thevertical by tens and even hundreds of meters. It is by applying theRomanian Ion Basgan’s principle when drilling for the ‘MiningCredit’ company, that the ‘Romanian Oil company’ attained 1915 min 30 days in Pliocene with the oil well No. 470 called ‘The MiningCredit’, at Girdoveni, Ţuicani, including all the operations, that is amedium advance of 64 m per day, at an average drilling of 125 m perday, with the oil well in perfect vertical direction’.

In the case of the heavy proportional rods drilling, the author

showed on the basis of his research, that the hydrostatic pressure of

T

the liquid at the drilled hole was not taken into account before 1934

and he discovered the compressed and the neutral zones of the drilling

rig. The removal of the compressed zone from the heavy rods

represent the invention made by the author in 1934-1937 through the

Romanian and American Patents for the implementation of the heavy

proportional drilling rods. These heavy proportional rods have a

weight equal to that of the liquid volume that is displaced by the

drilling rig, plus the load that is exerted on the drill (drilling pressure)

and consequently varies with the hole depth.

The intermediary weight value between that of the heavy rods

of 1934 and the value that is stipulated in the Patent is consistent with

the program of this method.

The rotary percussion drilling, also known as the sonic or

vibrating drilling, was patented by the author in Romania and the USA

between 1934 and 1937. This drilling method is achieved through the

utilization and adjustment of the existing vibrations in the drilling rig

of the Rotary system or by setting up a new vibration regime to the

drilling rig during rotation, either from the surface, or from the

underground, as far as possible to the drill only, by applying the

principle of the pneumatic or hydraulic hammer, that is based

especially on resonance and magnetostriction.

• Rotary Drilling Apparatus, USA Patent No. 2,103,137

of the 21st of December, 1937. The Patent is guaranteed by the

USA Government for originality.

These Patents contain modern drilling methods, namely the

heavy proportional rods drilling and the sonic drilling (and they were

improved through the Patent No. 37,743 of January, 1945, entitled

‘Drilling by means of Rotary Hammer’).The heavy proportional rods drilling was based on the

Archimede’s force and its effect: compression from the lower part of

the drilling rig and the neutral zone, that represent original discoveries

with unknown effects, that resulted in the deviation of oil-wells (the

‘Basgan effect’). In order to remove the compressed zone from the

drilling rods, there were introduced the heavy proportional rods whose

weight was equal to the weight of the liquid volume being displaced

plus the drilling pressure, in order to obtain vertical holes, with 30%

higher efficiency per every drilled meter.

The simultaneous Rotary percussion drilling, the sonic drilling,

was founded on the sonic energy transmission for the first time through

the drilling rig to the drill, by performing simultaneous percussion and

rotation, resulting in vertical holes with higher efficiency.

These Patents have been applied all over the world. The heavy

proportional rods drilling has been applied immediately after patenting.

Heavy drilling rods were immediately extended from a couple

of meters to 200 m in length, in the American industry, as well as in

all the countries with a developed oil industry. Rotary percussion

drilling was utilized at international scale.

Unfortunately, the USA Patent was put under distraint by the

American Government during the war until 1965, when the Distraint

Order was abrogated through the Order S.A. 838 that was com-

municated by the Ministry of Justice of the USA, No. 20,530 of the

30th of November, 1965.

In Romania, the heavy proportional rods drilling was success-

fully applied in the past by some Romanian oil companies (see

‘Annals of Mines’ No. 7/1938, cap. VI, 25). A 30% reduction of

drilling cost was obtained by the application of this invention.

The Ministry of Oil experimented this method on the oil-field

of Roşiori-R. Sărat in 1961, with a 30% higher efficiency. In 1964,

the Oil Ministry decided on the implementation of heavy rods, from

70 to 150 m in length, as they were described in the Basgan Patents

(See ‘Oil and Gas’, No. 8 of 1964, the article signed by the Deputy

Minister Ion Pacoste). The Minister of Mines applied the sonic drilling

at the Oil Field No. 3 of Ocna Mureş for the salt pit exploitation, when

perfectly vertical bore holes were obtained for the first time.

Efficient exploitation of salt pits required perfectly vertical

direction of pit holes. It had become almost a legend that salt pit holes

would develop a natural deviation upon salt exploitation. Deviations

varied between 4° and 7° at the 400 m salt pits of Ocniţa and up to

about 12° at the 1000 m salt pits of Ocna Mureş. In 1960, it was

planned to reduce the hole deviation below 1° for the salt pits No. 3 of

Ocna Mureş, from the very stage of design, through the application of

the Basgan method.

As a result, deviations lower than one half of a degree were

obtained at the above mentioned salt pits. Salt pit exploitation data are

presented in detail below (see Table 1) for the salt pits No. 3 of Ocna

Mureş.

Table 1

Salt

pit

Bottom

[m]

Heavy rods: 6 5/8”

pressure on

Length Weight

112 1100 80 m 16 t

113 1100 80 m 16 t

114 1100 80 m 16 t

115 1100 85 m 17 t

At the salt pit No. 3 of Ocna Mureş, there were drilled four

holes by applying the heavy proportional rods drilling and the

simultaneous rotary percussion drilling. The drilling was initiated at

the request of the Oil Ministry and it ended under the control of the

Mines Minister in 1962. In the drilling of these salt pits, heavy

proportional drilling rods were utilized (200 m to 400 m in length),

permitting to lower the centre of gravity of the drilling rig, according

to the axial load on the drill and the volume of the displaced liquid,

with simultaneous vertical oscillation of the drill during operation, by

means of reducing the pressure on the drill (axial load), to the effect

that the sonic energy that was generated at the end of the drilling rig at

the surface should be conveyed to the drill. It was for the first time

that perfectly vertical salt pit holes were drilled in Romania, by

applying the combined drilling method and the lower drilling pressure.

The results that were obtained were published by the Oil Ministry in

the ‘Oil and Gas’ magazine (No. 7, 1968).

In this respect, engineer Dan Bodnărescu, the former controller

of the Ministry of Mines, would focus in a conference held at the

Ministry of Mines, on the results that had been obtained at the salt

pit No. 3 of Ocna Mureş by applying the Basgan drilling method.

At these discussions, the specialists of the Ministry of Mines

(Eng. V. Dima), of the State Office for Invetions (Eng. Bedivan

Elena, Eng. Rusu Abrudeanu) confirmed these results. As a Technical

Director of the Ministry of Mines and a President of the Conference

Board, engineer Oprişor specified at the end of discussions that it was

absolutely necessary that the Romanian inventor Ion Basgan should

receive his financial and moral rights as they were due to him.

On the 9th of May, 1968, the General Direction of Standards and

Inventions issued the Patent No. 50912 for Ion Basgan, entitled

‘Exploitation of Salt in Vertically Drilled Pits through the Rotary andPercussion Drilling System with the Limitation of the Arhimedes’Pressure, the Installation and Method therefor’.

The scientific grounding of these patents gave rise to sustained

controversies at the top, in Romania, USSR, USA, Germany and other

countries. It was only after 10 or 15 years from patenting that the first

important application works appeared, gradually extending to cover

every country, and attesting the efficiency of the Basgan effect for the

completion and improvement of the Archimedes’ principle. Economic

results that Ion Basgan’s patents had brought at international scale

were acknowledged (‘Oil and Gas’, No. 3 and 4 / 1961).

M. A. Evescenko confirmed the principle of Ion Basgan in the

‘Manual for Oil Drilling Wells’ (Technical Printing House, 1953,

page 60) in the chapter ‘The effect of the liquid hydrostatic pressure’.In ‘The Mechanics of Drilling’ (Moscow 1949), B. I. Vozdvijenski

mentioned that the hydrostatic pressure of the liquid generates an

upward contraction of the drilling rig and therefore a contraction

(compression) of the lower part of the column takes place. In this

respect, the author specifies that: ‘in order to reduce the breakingstress, it is recommended that the lower part of the column should bemade of heavy drillcollars…’.

In France, engineer Bernard quoted Ion Basgan’s lecture held

on the occasion of the World Oil Congress (Paris, 1937), showing

its importance in one of his articles of ‘Bulletin de l’AssociationFrançaise des Techniciens du Pétrole’, Paris, 1946, No. 60. Under the

same circumstances, engineer Bernard noted the error that had been

made in hydro-mechanics, by ignoring the effect of the liquid pressure

on the drilling rods, the existence of a neutral zone and a compression

area in a freely suspended column in a liquid.

In the USA, Prof. Hawkins and Lamont of the Louisiana

University, Prof. Karl Gatlin of the Texas University, Prof. Moor

U.I. Okon of the Oklahoma University (in his Doctorate Thesis),Handelman, Holmquist, D.M. Best and other renowned researchers

theoretically and experimentally confirmed the value of the Romanian

research.

Prof. Ion Basgan would state that for 2000 years the Archimedes’

principle had represented a scientific interpretation flaw, a prejudice to

the mankind.

People had to wait until Ion Basgan, a creator of genius and a

fine observer of the scientific phenomena came to existence. On the

basis of practical experience, that he gathered on the oil fields, he

reached the conclusion that this principle as it had been stated could

not be applied to the drilling rigs. As he had noticed, the hydrostatic

pressure was not only on the center of gravity of the drilling column

and it was not equally distributed on its entire length, but on the

contrary, it acted on the lower end of the rig, on the drill. Therefore, a

compression zone is generated at the lower end, with a neutral zone

upward on the vertical and a column under tension following next, up

to the surface. This zone was established by Ion Basgan through

mathematical calculation and by his equation.

The negative stress, the compressed zone and the zero zone at

the lower part of the drilling rig were designated by the term the

‘Basgan effect’.Ion Basgan presented his discovery at the World Oil Congress

held In London, in 1933 and later, in 1937 the invention that resulted

from that discovery was covered also in the USA by Patent No.

2,103,137 c/255/24.

Another invention of Ion Basgan, breaking new grounds to

make a huge step forward in the progress of mankind, had as a

scientific background the theory of sonicity of our renowned fellow

countryman, George Constantinescu. The genius of Ion Basgan would

bring about a revolution in deep drilling, by the application of this

invention.

After extended and thorough observation, Ion Basgan noticed

the existence of the sonic waves in the metal column and in the liquid

that passed through the drilling rigs. Ion Basgan evolved therefore a

process for the practical utilization of this energy. That is how the

inquiring spirit of the Romanian Ion Basgan has created a new method

of going even deeper down into the earth: the simultaneous penetratingdrilling, also called the sonic drilling.

Ion Basgan’s idea was based on a simple process, namely to

create a permanent vibrating regime during drilling, that should be

conveyed to the drill bit by means of penetrating shocks. Thus, the

stress impact of the penetration movement loosens the rock which is

easily and quickly displaced by the rotary movement of the drill bit. It

can be stated unreservedly that the Basgan effect brought about ‘a

revolution of the drilling technique in the world’. The effect may be

understood as a combination of the drilling method proper (that is

based on the sonicity principle) and certain technical aspects regarding

the upgrading of the drilling equipment for the increase of the weight

and size of the heavy rods, in order to remove the negative effect of

the Archimedes’ pressure.

The Ion Basgan effect has long before been applied abroad in

the construction of many drills. It is worthwhile mentioning in

this respect the comments made by the Romanian scientist George

Constantinescu in ‘Revista italiana del petrolio’ (the 30th of April,

1959) regarding the application of the drilling method in the USA:

‘During a visit I had paid to America, I was informed that the drillingmethod that has been invented and experimented by our fellowcountryman Dr. Eng. Ion Basgan is applied in this countrysuccessfully in oil exploitation. One should be filled with awe at thefact that some of our countrymen have contributed and still contributeto the progress of world science and technique. The principles that IonBasgan has stated represent accurate landmarks for us and contributeto the progress in the domain of deep drilling. I am glad that thetheory of sonicity has found an application in the studies, researchand experimenting of one of our fellow country men’.

What is really fulminating about this invention to those who

have not yet realized its value is the economic effect, that may be

achieved through its application, the international cost of this

idea. In this respect, there were made calculations attesting the above

mentioned idea, by legal experts and highly qualified technicians from

the USA and Germany, who established on the basis of very accurate

calculation that Basgan’s patent when applied in oil drilling ensures a

30% reduction of the cost per one meter of drilled area. To mention

only the USA, billions of meters had been drilled by that time by

hundreds of oil companies that possessed thousands of oil wells.

Consequently, these companies obtained a profit of several thousands

billion dollars. If profits that had been obtained by the companies of

other countries where this method was applied were added to this

amount of money, then the total profit obtained by these countries

would amount to huge incomes.

Renowned international lawyers (Prof. Minoli, Dr. C. Drăgan,

and others) confirmed through their legal investigations carried out in

the USA that Ion Basgan’s rights in the USA that were deriving from

his USA Patent No. 2,103,137 and the Divesting Order S. A – 837

with the address of the Ministry of Justice of the USA, No. 20,530 of

the 30th of November, 1965 were not prescribed. They also guaranteed

that his case could be won 85%. The expert appraisals that were made

by German specialists and filed at the Romanian National Bank

showed that his Patents had brought an economy of about 30 billion

dollars to the USA industry, mentioning that his financial rights

amounted to several billion dollars.

That was why, Ion Basgan’s legal action abroad of 1967 was

financed with approximately 30,000 dollars by Italian, French, German

and Portuguese groups.

In 1959, the Romanian scientist G. Constantinescu held a radio

conference, in England focusing on the contribution that this Romanian

Invention has brought to the world.

In 1964, Prof. Wolf Erich from the University Department of

Ships Statics published in the Federal Republic of Germany in ‘Erdölund Kohle’ magazine a study in which he confirmed the new scientific

principles and the advantages of utilizing Dr. Basgan’s heavy drilling

rods.

The international scientific and technical effect of Ion Basgan’s

Patents was described also by the Technical Director of the State

Office for Inventions in his article of the ‘Viaţa Economică’ magazine

of the 10th of December, 1965, concluding that: ‘Ion Basgan’s

inventions represent today the corner stone of the modern drilling, andare attested in all the industrially developed countries’.

• Rotary and Rotary Percussion Drilling System with

Sonic Frequencies, the Limitation of the Effect of Archimedes’Pressure, the Installation and Apparata therefor.

This Patent that had been achieved in the West in 1967, was

issued in Italy and filed for France, USA, Portugal and the Arab

countries. It allowed that the critical depth that had been attained by

then of about 8,000 m could be surpassed, by conveying sonic energy

by 5,000 m/s to the drill and by reducing the compressed zone in the

drilling rig, even more specifically stated than in his former Patents.

Innovations

• The Utilization of the Heavy Pipes at the Crelius

KAM Prospecting Rig and any Prospecting Rigs and DrillingSystems of this Type (January, 1951).

The innovation was attested also by the Direction of Inventions

and Innovations through the Report No. 44 of the 22nd

of June, 1953

and disseminated in Romania to several ministries through the Report

No. 99 of 20th of November, 1955. Based on this innovation, the

Ministry of Metallurgy launched into manufacturing a prototype at the

‘Republica’ Works, for which Ion Basgan received a reward in 1954.

An increase of 30% of the work speed and 10 to 15% savings

for the exploitation cost resulted from the expert appraisals and an

annual economy was calculated for Romania of over 30 billion lei.

• Simultaneous Rotary Percussion Drilling (registered at

I.S.P.A. and M.I.P.C. in 1960/1961).

• Heavy Proportional Rods in Rotary Drilling(registered at I.S.P.A and M.I.P.C in 1960/1961).

• Water Supply at S.M.T. Topraisar (for which Ion

Basgan was rewarded from the Agriculture Ministry funds in 1956.

• Drilling by Means of the Drilling Rig Similar to theLead String (that was first committed to be design by the Water State

Committee through IPACH in 1964).

Studies and publications

• ‘The Oil Region Moreni-Gura Ocniţei’ (a study

published in collaboration with engineer I. Cardaş in Romanian and

French, in ‘Annales de Mines de Roumanie’, 1926, No. 8).

This work was published at a time when the works on the

Moreni oil field was in full swing. The Southern side of the 3rd

Meotic

layer was unknown and the Northern side was anomalous with

difficulties at water stopping at its launching into production. Since

the oil wells were blowing into the open air and the drilling technique

was not yet perfected, because the zone had not been thoroughly

explored by then, thousands of crude oil wagons and billions of cubic

meters of gas were lost.

Connections between various exploitation sites were made in

this work. It presents a map of the isobath of the Moreni Dacian layer

on the Southern site and of the Meotic layer isobath on the Northern

side, for the entire region, stating several conclusions, that would be

taken into account for its subsequent development. The salt limits were

defined by a transversal profile that was drawn to scale on the basis

of the drilled salt pits, some of which had even passed through the

salt. This standard profile of the region would be quoted any time when

the Moreni region was to be mentioned (see ‘Geology of Petroleum’,page 94, by William Harves Emmons, Professor and Head of the

Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Minnesota).

• ‘Waukesha Engines in Rotary Drilling’ (a study

published in Romanian and French, in the ‘Romanian Annals ofMines’, in the Review of the Association of Engineers and

Technicians of the Mining Industry (Bucharest, the 12th year, No. 11,

November, 1929, pages 537-539).

The study described the first experiment that had been made in

Romania by the author, utilizing the American Waukesha engines,

that would be largely used later in the Romanian oil industry; it also

presented the economy which may be obtained through the drilling by

thermal engines. Later, this process would be largely developed.

• ‘Oil Industry’ (1929).

• ‘Oil Exploitation on the Teleajen Valley’, published

in Romanian and French, in ‘Anales des Mines de Roumanie’,1930, No. 10. A review was made on this work in ‘Moniteur duPétrole Roumain’, Technical Chronicle, No. 22 of 1930, page 1,279,

containing the following appreciation:

‘In his study entitled ‘Oil Exploitation on the Teleajen Valley’,Mr. Ion Basgan focuses on the importance and the results of theexploitations in these regions, that are estimated to be a most valuablereserve for our oil industry. This note cannot present in detail theinteresting guidelines that he gives for each of these regions, namelyCopăceni, Scăioşi and Boldeşti, regarding their geological characte-ristics. We shall insist nevertheless on the connections in oil wellsdrilling and others. The study is characterized by the fact that theauthor’s comments are based on accurate data, the author’s ownremarks, which he had the opportunity to gather and systematizewhile he was in charge of the exploitation, drilling and extraction inthe respective regions’.

• ‘Operation and Form of the Rotary Drill in the

Romanian Oil Rocks’ (published by the Romanian Academy).

The utilization of the Rotary drilling, that had been introduced

from America, was generally applied after the year 1925 in Romania.

Nevertheless it was not supported by an adequate technical and

scientific literature, either in Romania or in the USA. It was the

outcome of practical work and drilling still belonged to the domain of

art more than to that of technique and science.

This work analyzed and established for the first time the

scientific principles and the laws that define drilling, such as: the

principle of the drilling feed, the diameter of the drill and of the holes,

the penetration and the factors affecting the feed, the drilling pressure,

the laws of mud circulation, the functions of the mud and its properties

in drilling, the rotary speed, as well as the form and the adaptation of

the drill to the variation in soil hardness.

This work, with a foreword by Eng. Teodor Ficşinescu, Professor

of drilling at the ‘Politehnica’ School of Bucharest, was presented to

the ‘Romanian Academy’ by Professor L. Mrazec, during the session

of the 11th of March, 1932 and it was published in ‘The Memorials of

the Scientific Section of the Romanian Academy’.In this respect, Prof. Eng. T. Ficşinescu spoke of this work in

the following terms:

‘The analysis of the action and form of the Rotary drill in the oilrocks, that is made by a technician as the engineer Ion Basgan, aperson with perfect scientific and technical training, who has gatheredand proved his observations in effectively working on the oil fields foralmost 8 years, represents a serious contribution to the developingscience of oil drilling’.

Reviews of this work are contained in various specialised

magazines, such as: ‘Annales des Mines de Roumanie’, ‘Moniteur dePétrole Roumain’, No. 3, of the 1st of February, 1933, ‘The Techniquein the Romanian Oil Industry’, page 99, ‘Bulletin of A.G.I.R.’, vol. 14,

1932, No. 12, page 692, ‘Bulletin of A.G.I.R.’, April 1933, page 228,

229, to name only a few.

A review published in a ‘Bulletin of A.G.I.R.’ mentioned that:

‘This work covers a gap in the technical literature of oil drilling,while setting the drilling practical work on scientific grounds’.

• ‘Schwingungsphaenomene und Deren Wirkung auf

die Arbeitsweise des Meissels im Rotary Bohrsystem’ (Vibrating Phe-

nomena and their Effect on the Action of the Drill in The Rotary

Drilling System).

This work was translated into Romanian and presented to the

Romanian Academy by Prof. Eng. N. Vasilescu – Karpen, a former

Rector of the ‘Politehnica’ School of Bucharest. It describes the

specific way in which various vibrations are generated in the liquid

circuit and in the drilling rods, with the afferent mathematical and

practical formulae of these phenomena.

• ‘Die Arbeitsweise und Form des Rotary Meissels im

Erdoelgesteine’ (Hans Urban Publishing House, Gersthoferstrasse

70, Vienna, 1934).

This work is the Doctor Thesis of Ion Basgan with a foreword

by Gogu Constantintscu, including three chapters covering 90 pages,

50 plane drawings and 3 pictures.

Chapter I presents the principles of the drill feed, the equation

of the drilling rig stability, comments on the particular cases that may

appear during drilling, while establishing the importance of the

drilling pressure and of the heavy drilling rod regarding the resistance

and the behavior of the drilling rods.

There are depicted the various categories of vibrations that are

generated both in the drilling rods and in the mud circuit, such as: the

vibrations specific to the drilling rods system, the vibrations that are

generated by the pressure changes in the liquid circuit affecting the

mud column and the walls of the drilling rods, as well as twisting

vibrations.

It is calculated the propagation speed of these vibrations, as

well as their effect on the drilling rods and the drill operation. The

action of these vibrations in drilling is calculated by means of the

formulae of the sonic theory and it is estimated the possibility of

utilizing them for another drilling system. It is established the role of

vibrations in obtaining vertical drilling holes, as well as the general

conditions of obtaining vertical grilling holes.

Chapters II and III describe the drilling speed, the form and

construction of various drills, their sharpening and maintenance

during operation.

The Doctorate Board including renowned professors in the

domain of German technique, such as Prof. Dr. Eng. Josef Pirkl, Prof.

Eng. Figlewicz, Prof. Eng. Peter and others made commendatory

remarks on Ion Basgan’s Doctorate Thesis. He received the Doctor ofScience degree under the same solemn festivity as the mining engineer

Hoover several months before when he was awarded the DoctorHonoris Causa title by the president of the USA.

This work was reviewed by Prof. Krejci-Graf of Freiberg-

Bergakademie and it was published in ‘Neues Jarbuch für Mineralogie,Geologie und Paläntologie’, Jahrgang 1934, page. 771.

Romanian and German magazines made the following comments

at that time: ‘The Romanian Minister of Vienna who attended thesolemn festivity was deeply impressed by the success that the Romanian

technique had marked, as a result of the favourable attitude regardingthe value of Ion Basgan’s work manifested by the German school andtechnique’.

• ‘The Division of Europe and the Contingency of

Import’ (‘The Movement’, the 15th of January, 1933).

On this occasion, Ion Basgan pointed out the following: ‘At agiven moment it seemed that the old Europe was united by a movementof brotherhood, as a justified action of continental solidarity in frontof the new world, which in its technical and economic ascent wasattempting to conquer all the branches of the economic developmentof the old world.

Right at a moment when the Pan-europeanism was gatheringmomentum, we are witnessing the introduction of the most protectivecustoms regime that ever existed in the Great Britain, as well as thedivision among the European States, that reminds one of the oldChinese walls.

Consistently with this protective regime, the Romanian governmenthas resorted to the control of the currency and then to the contingencysystem, aiming at a co-ordination of the import policy with the paymentpossibilities abroad for the imported goods; this was not by need oflowering import which in the latest years has dropped without theintervention of this economic protectionism, that brings high prejudicesto our commercial and industrial activity. Our import has droppedfrom 29 billion lei in 1929 and 23 billion in 1930 to 15 billion in 1931and about 11 billion lei in 1932.

The contingency system shall permit us to cover first the import,through our export and then the backward payment in the limit of themoney available, only in those countries in which we have exported.The state which shall not favor our export runs the risk of failing tocash in the amount we are due to pay. Moreover, the sums which wehave in a state hardly can be transformed in order to cover our debtsin another state.

Therefore, the policy of contingency aims at directing our importand export towards certain countries, thus allowing the intervention ofthe state in leading a customs and commercial policy.

In spite of all these facilities that were obtained throughsacrifices and limitations as regards the free trading, the efficiency ofthe contingency principle in itself is debatable and the problems hadalready become manifest, in point of both the economic achievements,and the way of applying this system.

Under the present conditions, the market quotation acts as anencouragement for the corporations and consortiums, including theopportunity of new initiatives, causing great problems to industrialenterprises and commercial houses, that have established trade relationsin a certain country, other than that which is imposed by the contingencypolicy, as well as the limitation of the quality selection, etc.

The contingency policy is a part of the political interventionmethods into the economic life, that result in a directed economy, whichis so much disputed today. This restraint of the economic freedomseems to be possible only in the framework of the Autarchy, which is acondition still far from us. This limitation of freedom presents temporaryadvantages, as against the disorders that it implies, with a directeffect first of all on the reduction of our export.

With this kind of policy, the economic solidarity of the Europeanstates can be hardly attained. The two Europes, that is the industrialand the agriculture Europe are grinning at each other in front of theirmutual adversary’.

• ‘The Technique and the Scientific Interpretation of the

Rotary Drilling System’ (its summary was published in the A.G.I.R.

Bulletin, 1933, pages 279-280, as well as in the ‘Annals of Mines’, No.

10, 1933).

• ‘Scientific Considerations of the Technique of

Modern Drilling’ (that was published both individually and in the

volume ‘World Oil Congress’ of July, 1933, pages 353-444, in

London, with a review made for it in ‘The Petroleum Times’, Special

Congress Issue, the 22nd

of July, 1933, page 133; ‘World Petroleum’ ,New York – London, Supplementary Issue, July, 1933, page 431 and

‘The Journal of The Petroleum Technologist’, Vol. 20, 1934, pages

279-280.

This work was translated and published in Baku and Moscow,

in 1934, under the title ‘The Scientific Grounds of Modern DrillingMethods’, with a foreword by S. I. Siscenko:

‘The Report presented by Ion Basgan at the InternationalCongress of the oil magnates, in London, 1933, is a rational approachof the dynamic phenomena that occur in the drilling rig duringdrilling. The extensive damages of drilling rods taking place withoutany apparent specific reason have caused both Romanian and foreignspecialists to pay the most serious attention to the drilling dynamics.

The theory shows that drilling may generate such conditions inwhich the rods are subject to significant oscillation, that may affecttheir resistance and result in immediate damage. The drill worker whounderstands the problems raised by the vibration of the drilling rigcan adjust the intensity of the vibrations, even to the extent of utilizingthem in order to increase the drilling feed, by changing the drillingregime, the number of pump strokes, the pressure on the base.

Therefore, in the case of the rotary drilling, the drill may becompelled to oscillate and thus by creating a dynamic alternative loadon the base, a significant increase of the drill feed may be obtained.Practical experience showed that the drill, which has ended its feeddrill in fact starts to operate again under the effect of the longitudinalvibrations. The American practical experience also proves that theworker can change the feed intensity by changing the number of pumpstrokes and the pressure’.

In his foreword, Siscenko confirmed the efficiency of the new

drilling methods that were introduced through the above mentioned

improvements.

• ‘The Policy of the Fuel in the Light of Progress’

(‘The Universe’, of the 24th

of July, 1933).

• ‘Die Erdoelproduction Rumaeniens’ (‘AllgmeineOesterreichische Chemicher - und technicher - Zeitung’, page 79,

Vienna, the 14th

of July, 1933).

• ‘Reports on the Occasion of the World Oil Congress’ (a

conference held at the radio station on the 7th of September, 1933 and

published in ‘The Movement’, on the 12th of September, 1933 and in

‘L’Indépendance Roumaine’ on the 21st of September, 1933).

The lecturer presented the participation of Romania to the first

World Oil Congress in London, in 1933. On this occasion, Ion Basgan

stated his point of view on the future development, structure and

organization of the world oil industry and the way the Romanian oil

industry could fit in this new form of evolution.

• ‘The Oil Market in England’, 1933.

• ‘The Economic Situation in the Domains of Oil, Coal,

Gas, Salt, Gold, Silver’, The National Printing House, 1934.

The author as a referent of the Mining Section published a

synthesis regarding the economic situation and a statistics in the

domain of oil, coal, gas, salt, gold, silver for the period 1929 – 1934 in

the ‘Bulletin of the Institute of Economic Situation’.

• ‘The Scientific Rotary Drilling’ (presented at the 8th

Congress of the Romanian Association for the Advance of Sciences, in

Bucharest, between the 29th of April and the 2

nd of May, 1934).

• ‘Norms for Materials Specific to the Oil Industry’ (a

work written in collaboration with engineer A. I. Vellan, in 1934).

This was a work that had been carried out for the ‘Reşiţa’ and

‘Malaxa’ companies for the manufacturing of the materials and pipes

in Romania as required in the oil industry.

• ‘The Oil Policy in Accordance with the Exploitation

Conjuncture and the Fuel Matter’ (published in January, 1936 in the

‘I.R.E. Bulletin’, the 3rd

year, No. 4. This work was awarded a prize by

the Romanian Academy on the basis of Mr. L. Mrazec report in the

session of 1936.

Professor I. Simionescu mentioned and quoted parts of this work

in ‘Our Country’ magazine, pages 354 and 362.

• ‘Important Factors in the Carrying Out of a National

Oil Policy’ (Wichtige Faktoren behufs Verwirklichung einer

Nationaler Petroleumpolitik, ‘Industry and Commerce’ magazine,

Industrie und Handelszeitschrift, March, 1936.

• ‘The Role of the State in Industrialisation’ (published

also in the ‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, No. 10, 1936, pages 550 – 600).

• ‘The Report on the Industrialisation of the Country’

(this work was written by Ion Basgan as a speaker at the A.G.I.R.

Congress, Iaşi, 1936, in collaboration with engineer Rusu Abrudeanu,

‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, No. 11, 1936).

• ‘La Pologne productive’ (‘Annales des Mines deRoumanie’, No. 11/1936 and ‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, No. 11/1936, page

33).

The work is a short presentation of the mining production of

Poland and of the experience Ion Basgan had on the study trip of

A.G.I.R. in October, 1936.

• ‘The Role and Necessary Weight of the Heavy Rods

in Drilling’ (lecture held at the World Oil Congress, Paris, 1937

and published in the Congress works, quoted and developed by

engineer Bernard in one of his works of 1946).

• ‘Bohrungen im Vorlande des Oelgebietes von

Rumanien’ (published in: ‘Leobener Bergmannstag’, 1937, Julius

Springer Publishing House, Vienna and in ‘Bohrtechniker -Zeitung’, 55 (1937), pages 309 - 313 .

The work focuses on various types of Romanian oil anticlines

and describes the activity on the new oil fields of Bucşani and

Mărgineni, as well as the works in the plain area.

The work was reviewed by Prof. Dr. M. Hengelein in ‘NeuesJahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläntologie’, Jahrgang 1938,

pages 254, 255 and by Prof. Dr. V. Philipsborn, Freiberg Berg-

akademie, in ‘Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie undPaläntologie’, Jahrgang, 1938, page 255.

• ‘New Oil Fields in Romania’ (‘Nouveaux chantiers depétrole en Roumanie’, published in ‘Annales des Mines de Roumanie’,1937, a Romanian and French translation of the above mentioned

work).

• ‘The Economic Report of the Oil Section at the

A.I.T.I.M. Congress’ (presented in May, 1939 and published in the

‘Annals of Mines’, Argus, on the 19th of May, 1939, ‘The Evolution of

the Romanian Economy’, by Prof. Virgil Madgearu, pages 104 and

105).

• ‘The Campaign of Oil Production Increase Through

the Exploitation and Search of New Oil Fields’ (‘Oil - BearingRomania’, the 26

th of March, 1940).

• ‘Oil and Natural Gas in Romania’ (this work was

written at the official demand of the Ministry of National

Propaganda and published in the ‘Romanian Institute of Energy’, No.

224 and in the ‘I.R.E. Bulletin’, the 8th year, No. 3, September, 1940.

• ‘Erdoelgewinnung in Rumaenien Bohren und Foerden

des Erdoels und Dessen Verarbeitung’ (‘Oel und Kohle’, No. 40,

Berlin, the 22nd

of October, 1940).

• ‘Efficient Exploitation of Oil Fields’ (‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’,No. 7 of 1934; review published in the ‘Annales des Mines deRoumanie’, No. 11, November, 1940).

• ‘Charakteristic des Rumaenischen Erdoels’ (‘Oel undKohle’, No. 40, Berlin, the 22

nd of October, 1940)

• ‘Oil Exploitation in Romania – Oil Extractive and

Processing Industry’ (‘Romanian Annals of Mines’, No. 1 of the 20th

of January, 1941).

• ‘Sfruttamento del petrolio in Romania’ (‘La RevistaItaliana Del Petrolio’, Roma, Febbraio 1941 – XIX).

• ‘Caratteristiche degli olii greggii romeni’ (‘La RevistaItaliana Del Petrolio’, Roma, Gennaio 1941 – XIX)

• ‘The Question of Water in Dobrudgea’ (published in

the ‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, No. 10 of October 1943 and in

miscellaneous excerpts).

• ‘Political and Economic Principles in the Oil

Legislation of Romania’ (‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, No. 10 of October,

1943 and in miscellaneous excerpts).

• ‘Mines’ (quarterly chapter issued in the ‘Bulletin ofRomanian Institute of Economic Situation’).

• ‘Increase of Oil Production’ (published in the

‘Romania’ newspaper, of the 14th of October, 1940 and in ‘La

Stampa’, of the 6th of November, 1940).

• ‘Principles of National Oil Policy’ (‘The Universe’, the

7th of November, 1940).

• ‘Romanian Oil Industry and the Spirit of New Times’

(‘Oil – Bearing Romania’, the 13th of July, 1940 and the reviews of

the ‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, No. 9/10, September, October, 1940, page

193).

• ‘Oil Situation and National Interests’ (‘Oil – BearingRomania’, the 22

nd of August, 1940).

• ‘Oil Exploitation in Romania, Oil Extraction and

Processing Industry’ (‘Romanian Annals of Mines’, No. 1 of the 20th

of January, 1941).

• ‘The New Law of Oil and the National Capital’ (see

‘Oil – Bearing Romania’, the 1st of August, 1942.

• ‘The Water Supply in Dobrudgea’ (lecture held at

the Academy of Sciences, in Bucharest, December, 1943).

• ‘Proportional Heavy Rods Drilling’. This work

represents the written text of Ion Basgan’s lecture which he held at the

headquarters of A.S.I.T. on the 11th

of April, 1951, containing a

technical and scientific description of his innovation which he had

introduced in January, 1951 in prospecting drilling exploitations.

There are also included quotations from foreign authors, who made a

confirmation of the scientific and technical principles underlying this

improvement of the drilling technique.

• ‘Drinking Water Supply in the Countryside’ (published

in the ‘Hydrotechnics’ magazine, No. 8/1959).

• ‘The Products’ Quality of Sovromutilajpetrolifer’

(Bucharest, January, 1954). The work includes the following

chapters: How the oil equipment industry came into being in Romania;

Technical and scientific measures for the improvement of the oil

equipment quality; Technical and organizational measures for the

improvement of oil equipment quality; Quality improvement by

means of new high technique equipment; Quality improvement in

oil equipment repair; Critical remarks on the utilization and

maintenance of the oil equipment on the oil fields; Suggestion for

the remedy of the shortcomings in the utilization and maintenance of

oil equipment.

This work had been required by the Ministry of Metallurgy.

• ‘A New Science and its Important Applications’

(‘The Economics’ Life’ magazine, the 4th year, No. 21, the 27

th of

May, 1966, page 11)

• ‘Ludovic Mrazec’ (‘The Economics’ Life’, the 4th year,

No. 34, the 26th of August, 1966, page 10)

Conferences

• ‘Oil Industry’ (held at the ‘Prof. N. Iorga’ University, in

Vălenii de Munte, July, 1929).

• ‘The Technique and Scientific Interpretation of the

Rotary Drilling System’ (‘Politehnica’ Society, the 3rd

May, 1933,

under the boarding of Prof. Buşilă).

The technical review of the ‘A.G.I.R. Bulletin’, of May 1933,

published a report on this conference, concluding that: ‘Mr. Ion Basganpresented original analytic calculations for certain phenomena, thatwere very little known and the awareness of which may soon bring achange in the deep drilling system’.

‘Remarks on the Occasion of the World Oil Congress’, (‘Radio

Bucharest’, the 7th of November, 1933).

‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the Situation of the Explorations

and the Fuel Matter' (conference held first on the 19th of April, 1935

in the cycle of conferences organized by I.R.E. at the ‘Politehnica’

Society and repeated at the request of his colleagues from the

Association of Mining Engineers in Moreni. The written text of the

lecture was published in ‘Curentul’ magazine, on the 24th of April,

1935 and in the ‘Movement’, on the 27th of April, 1935).

On this occasion, Prof. Eng. C. Buşilă made the following

comments: ‘Mr. Ion Basgan held a beautiful conference. We enjoyedhis lecture: first of all it showed his courage to state his own remarksand conclusions in the oil policy’.

Prof. T. Ficşinescu appreciated this lecture in the following

terms: ‘I cannot help praising the outstanding contribution of Mr.Basgan from the documentary point of view. He has gathered a seriesof facts that are extremely interesting, put them in an attractive formand held a beautiful and useful lecture to us’.

Prof. Sp. Iacobescu of the Academy of High Commercial and

Industrial Studies of Bucharest would state the following: ‘I heartilyjoin the spirit of Mr. Basgan’s lecture; he made a thorough descriptionof the oil policy to us’.

This work was rewarded by the Romanian Academy. The

debates that were held on this conference were published in the I.R.E.Bullletin, the 3

rd year, No. 4, of December, 1935, page 1,035. The

written text of the report that was presented by Prof. L. Mrazec to the

Romanian Academy was published in the I.R.E. Bulletin, the 4th year,

No. 4, December, 1936, page 1,035 and 1,036.

• Professional Course Held at the Industrial-ImportEnterprise (a cycle of four conferences on internal combustion

engines, their classification, technical characteristics, spare parts,

technical and commercial documentation, 1951).

• Professional Course on Oil Wells Drilling (training

course held at Sovromutilajpetrolifer and at the Ministry of

Agriculture for the upgrading of the General Direction staff, 1952,

1953).

• Drinking Water Supply in Dobrudja (Conference held at

the Ministry of Agriculture in May, 1957).

• ‘Sonicity in Oil Exploitation and Water Supply’ (Lecture

held at the science and technique courses of the Academy of the Popular

Republic of Romania, ‘Scânteia’ newspaper, the 15th of July, 1957 and

the ‘Informative Bulletin’ of the Popular Republic of Romania, the 1st

of March, 1950).

• ‘Sonicity in Oil Exploitation and Water Supply’

(Lecture held at the science and technique courses of the

Academy of the Popular Republic of Romania, on the 7th of

November, 1958, on the following topics: sonic drilling, ultrasonic

drilling, sonic pumping and sonic paraffin removal).

• ‘Drinking Water Supply in the Countryside’ (lecture

held at the Ministry of Agriculture, in October, 1958).

• ‘Debates in Sonicity’ (lecture held at the Academy of

the Popular Republic of Romania on the 5th of October, 1961, during

the work session of the Academy, that was presided by I. S.

Gheorghiu, the vice-president of the Academy and the Romanian

scientist George Constantinescu).

• ‘Applications of Sonicity in the Technique of Drilling

and Extraction’ (lecture held at the science and technique courses of

the Academy of the Popular Republic of Romania on the 22nd

of

December, 1961).

• ‘Romanian Contributions and the Priority of Discoveries

and Inventions in the Science and Technology of Drilling’ (lecture held

at the Romanian Library of New York, on the 11th of October, 1972).

Works rewarded by the Romanian Academy

• ‘Oil Policy in Keeping with the Situation of

Explorations and The Fuel Matter’.

Lectures held at the Romanian Academy

• ‘Operation and Form of Rotary Drill in the Oil Rocks

of Romania’.

• ‘Schwingungsphaenomene und Deren Wirkung auf

die Arbeitsweise des Meissels im Rotary Bohrsystem’ (Vibration

Phenomena and their Effect on the Operation of the Drill in the Rotary

Drilling System).

• ‘A New System of Drilling Wells for Oil and Gas Using

Rotary and Percussion Movements Combined’.

Lectures held at the Academy of Sciences

• ‘Drinking Water Supply in Dobrudgea’ (Ion Basgan’s

lecture was held by Prof. Ştefan Cantuniari, on the 18th of December,

1943).

International congress participation

• ‘Scientific Considerations of the Technique of

Modern Drilling’ (the World Oil Congress, Paris, June, 1937, with

international participation; this lecture was published in the Congress

works and translated in Russian).

• ‘The Role and the Required Weight of Heavy Rods

in Drilling’ (‘Role et poids necessaires du drillcollar pendant le

forage’); this lecture was held at the World Oil Congress of Paris, in

June, 1937).

• ‘New Oil Fields in Romania’ (‘Bohrungen im

Vorlande des Oelgebietes von Rumaenien’), (Leobenen

Bergmannstag, 1937, Austria).

• ‘The Limitation of the Effect of the Archimedes’

Pressure and the Sonic Energy – Essential Conditions for theFuture of Deep Drilling’ (lecture held at the 7

th World Oil Congress,

Mexico, between the 2nd

and the 8th

of April, 1967). A review of

this lecture was published in the ‘Le Pétrole’ magazine, in Paris, on

the 6th of April, 1967, including the following remarks: ‘The lecture

was enjoyed and appreciated both in the oil, and in the scientificcircles’. It was also reviewed by American magazines and the

Institute of Technical Documentation of Bucharest.

Lectures and reports held at national congresses

• ‘Efficient Exploitation of Oil Fields’ (A.G.I.R. Congress,

1934).

• ‘Scientific Rotary Drilling’ (the Congress of the

Association for the Advance of Science in Romania, Bucharest,

1934, the Technical Section presided by Prof. Dr. Eng. N.

Vasilescu – Karpen).

• ‘The Role of the State in Industrialisation’ (A.G.I.R.

Congress, Iaşi, 1936, with Prof. M. Manoilescu, engineer Ştefan

Mihăiescu, engineer D. Pastia and others joining in the debates.

• ‘Report On The Industrialisation Of Romania’ (held

in collaboration with engineer Rusu Abrudeanu at the A.G.I.R.

Congress of Iaşi, October, 1936).

• ‘Economic Situation in the Oil Industry’ (Ion Basgan

held this lecture that was an Economic Report of the Oil Section at

the Congress of the Engineers’ Association of the Mining Industry,

Bucharest, on the 19th of May, 1939. This report was published in

‘Argus’, No. 7,830, on the 19th of May, 1939 and partly quoted by

Prof. Virgil N. Madgearu in ‘The Evolution of the Romanian Economyafter the world war’ pages 104, 105)

Monographs

• ‘Life and Work of George Constantinescu’, Scientific

Printing House, Bucharest, 1967 (this work was written in collaboration

with other scientists).

• ‘Life and Work of Prof. D. Leonida’, Scientific

Printing House, Bucharest, 1968

Outstanding projects carried out at I.P.A.C.H.

• ‘Technical Guidelines in the Design,

Manufacturing, Exploitation and Maintenance of the Oil Wells

Network for Hydro-Geological Control in HydrologicalImprovement’ (this Project was carried out by Ion Basgan as the

Chief of a complex Project at I.P.A.C.H., in 1964).

• ‘Synthesis and Final Study on the Efficiency of

Underground Water Catching Designed at I.P.A.C.H.’ (Ion Basgan

carried out this work as the Chief of a complex Project, in

collaboration with the following institutes: I.P.A.C.H., I.S.P. and

I.S.C.H., that were members of the State Committee of Waters, 1966).

• ‘Sonicity and its Applications’ (this work was written by

Ion Basgan as a result of his studying the archive of George

Constantinescu at Coniston in England and it focuses on the

applications made by the author in the world, utilizing the sonic

drilling, including also the applications of the French, Soviet and

American scientists in the domain of ultrasonics, while he also

proved that all these applications were based on sonicity, which is a

Romanian achievement).

• ‘Archimedes’ Principle’ (a new enunciation and

interpretation, as well as applications of the Archimedes’ principle in

the modern technique; written in Romanian and English. The work

covers 370 pages and has a foreword by Prof. Renato Calapso, the

president and organizer of the international Congress held in homage

to Archimedes in the 20th century).

• ‘To the Centre of the Earth’ (a Conference that was held

in the industrial and scientific circles in Italy, France, Portugal,

Spain, Germany and in Romania, at the Popular University, as well

as in other circles)

The State Prize of the Popular Republic

of Romania

In 1962, Ion Basgan was awarded the State Prize of the PopularRepublic of Romania for his technical and scientific activity and the

results that he had obtained through the implementation of his

inventions in industry.

At that time, Ion Basgan was a specialist working at the

Institute of Agriculture Studies and Design, the president of the Co-

ordination Commission of Drilling for Water Supply and a member of

the Technical and Scientific Board of the State Committee of Waters.

Didactic activity

Between 1933 and 1934, Ion Basgan worked as a honorific

course assistant at the Department of ‘Oil Study’ at the Academy of

High Commercial and Industrial Studies (Certificate No. 04203 of the

24th of March, 1994).

He held a series of lectures at international and national

congresses, scientific organizations, as well as professional training

courses and upgrading of the personnel in various enterprises.

He held lectures at the science and technique courses of the

Romanian Academy (see the Informative Bulletin of the Academy of

the Popular Republic of Romania, 3rd

quarter, 1958, page 36 and the

curriculum of the courses for the first semester, 1961).

In 1946, he passed an examination at the ‘Politehnica’ University

of Bucharest, in order to occupy a lecturer position at the Department

of oil fields drilling and exploitation, when he held a lecture in front of

the examination commission and the students. In spite of the good

results that he received on this examination test, he would not occupy

this position.

Social activity

Ion Basgan’s social activity covered especially the political and

economic domains.

Between 1935 and 1940 he published a series of works, many

of which were rewarded with prizes by the Romanian Academy for

the truth and courage of his assertions, asking for the nationalisation

of the Romanian oil industry.

Thanks to his tough character and his outlook regarding the

nationalization of this important national economy sector, Ion Basgan

was appointed a member of the Commission for the inventory of the

nationalized mining goods of the Gold and Silver Works and the

president of the Commission for the inventory of the mining goods in

the Brad region, through the Decision of the Ministry of Mines and

Oil and by the Address No. 177 of the 20th of July, 1948.

Ion Basgan was called out of production through the Order

No. 146,575 of the 26th of October, 1952 to be appointed a member of

the staff of the Ministry of Metallurgy that was in charge of the

organization of the industrial exhibition ‘The Planned Economy of thePopular Republic of Romania in Full Progress’ (that opened up in

December, 1952), as a specialist in the equipment for oil drilling and

exploitation.

In June, 1953, through the Order No. 777/1953, he was

appointed a member of the staff of the Ministry of Metallurgy, that

organized the industrial exhibition between June and November, 1953.

Ion Basgan was appointed the president of the Commission for

the Approval of the Internal Norms of the Ministry at the Metallurgy

Department, through the Order No. 1,909 of the Ministry of

Metallurgy that was issued in the Address No. 146,794 of the 7th of

December, 1953.

In January, 1954 he joined together with Dr.Geller of I.C.C.S. –

Câmpina the Commission that had been appointed by the Central

Committee of the Romanian Working Party for the investigation of

the drillcollars matter and their supply to the oil industry, at the

S.R.U.P. Reşiţa and S.R.M. Reşiţa.

For twelve years he had been carrying his activity in the social

and economic domains, in order to raise the living standard of the

agriculture workers and of the countryside inhabitants, through the

execution of hydro-geological drilling for the water supply in the

countryside (see ‘Hidrotehnica’ magazine No. 1 of August, 1958).

He was a member of A.S.I.T., of the trade union and ARLUS.

He had joined in the trade union in 1947 and had been a member of

A.S.I.T. and ARLUS from their foundation, continuously working for

these social bodies, especially by organizing training courses for

professional upgrading of his colleagues from several enterprises. His

professional certificates and the characterization of his professional

and social activities, that were issued by the Sovromutilajpetrolifer

and the Corporation of Land Improvement are a confirmation of his

carrying out successfully this type of activity.

In 1959 he was the Chief of the hydro-geological and drilling

staff of the A.S.I.T. Group of the Corporation of Land Improvement,

developing the activity that he had been entrusted, in keeping with this

kind of social responsibility.

International activity

From the 20th of November, 1966 up to the 20

th of December,

1967, Ion Basgan carried out his professional activity in the West,

namely in Italy, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Germany and in

other countries, being involved in legal investigations and negotiations

that were required for obtaining his Patent rights as an inventor in the

USA. In the meantime, he would elaborate works, hold lectures and

establish scientific, technical and industrial contacts, always aiming

at the acknowledgement by foreign scientists of the Romanian

contribution to the international scientific and technical achievements.

In December, 1966, Ion Basgan visited and studied the native

place of Archimedes in Syracusa. He lived in the atmosphere in which

Archimedes had produced his work in the old times. He also analyzed

the works that had been prepared on the occasion of the 20th century

commemoration of Archimedes and he himself presented his own

work on the Archimedes’ principle to professor Renato Calapso, the

organizer of this world Congress. Later, Professor Renato Calapso

wrote the foreword to this work, in which Ion Basgan was bringing to

the fore the work of the renowned Greek scientist of old times, with a

focus on the effect of his discoveries on the modern drilling technique.

In January, 1967 he left on a pilgrimage tour to the tomb of

George Constantinescu, the Romanian forefather of sonicity, in the

region of lakes in England, where he studied and took photos of the

archive, that his good friend had left behind. He suggested to the

Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania that at least a funeral

stone should be donated for the memorial tomb of George Constanti-

nescu, also a member of honor of the Romanian Academy, and that

his archive should be brought to Romania.

During the activity he had carried out abroad for one year, he

contacted several representatives of science and industry from institutes,

universities, other institutions and companies.

In Italy, he was a guest of the European Dragan Foundation,

of Butangaz, ENI-AGIP, the Oil Union of Rome, Idrill and other

companies. He visited the local work sites and held lectures on his

own drilling methods, when he was aware that his drilling methods

were utilized in Rovenna, Sicily and in other locations.

In Germany and Spain he vas invited by the industrial

corporations representatives, that were supporting his legal actions of

Patent rights claiming in the USA. He had scientific and technical

contacts and joined in the Economic Conference of Bonn in January,

1967 and in the Congress of the Inter-parliamentary Union of Palma

de Mallorca in March, 1967.

In Portugal he was the guest of the Sacor corporation, where he

was received by the leader of the oil industry and of the state, as well

as by the Gulbenkian Foundation representatives, and he presented the

Romanian scientific, technical and industrial achievements, that had

brought about a favorable effect on the development of the relations

between Portugal and Romania..

In France, he was the guest of the Essence et Carburants Society

and of other enterprises and institutions, where he held extended

scientific and technical lectures and discussions.

The problems that were raised in France would become the

subject of complex articles in the specialized publications, in the

magazines ‘Le pétrole lubri Europe’ of the 6th of April and the 20

th of

October, 1967, ‘Pétrole informations’ of the 20th of June, 1967. The

Romanian Ambassador in Paris notified Ion Basgan that the French

government supported his actions regarding his legal claims in the

USA.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

on Basgan’s scientific achievements had always been doubled

by his endeavours in economics. More often than not he was

in a position to take decisions. Therefore he had master the

economic mechanisms of the activity he monitored. In this sense, Ion

Basgan made several studies that represented an efficient work tool at

that time.

In his work ‘The Situation of oil, coal, gas, salt, gold, silver, the

author underlines the importance of the exploitation activities in oil,

coal, gas, salt, gold and silver under extremely complex economic,

social and political conditions both in Romania and abroad.

Ion Basgan’s estimation was that during 1929-1933, oil

exploitation in Romania was not economical, with exceeding export,

that resulted in some resources depletion. Moreover, extremely low

prices that were a common practice had enabled the great oil

enterprises to obtain profits through the increase of the amount that

was manipulated. By 1936 a menacing oil production decrease had

already become manifest in Romania, with no industrialisation and

development of production means being created in the meantime, that

could ensure an economic structure based on several production

factors. For the period between 1929 and 1933 that was studied, Ion

Basgan showed that the oil production of Romania tended to be

maintained at a maximum Standard that had been attained in respect to

the development requirements of the respective period, the resources

that were explored and the sales possibilities on the international

market. Between 1929 and 1933 the Romanian export of oil products

doublet, under the conditions in which the European consumption of

oil products had increased in 1933, although there existed a tendency

in import decrease, as a result the autarchic spirit that defined the policy

of the year 1933. The import of oil products for England, France and

Germany testified for the fact that at that time the European economy

was in a boom. These facts, well as the technical development, that

had become manifest by that time and an increase of the international

consumption, as a result of the end of the economic crisis in many

countries entitled Ion Basgan to forecast the favourable situation of

1934 for the oil industry. Although, in the Western Europe and in

Russia, consumption was getting up, a favourable situation for the oil

industry depended mainly on the fact that the USA maintained an

orderly production and sales of the oil products, with a shovelling

away of dumping from its export. In addition to it, USSR fulfilled its

oil production Plan by 40% as compared to the preceding year (1933)

I

those who were interested in the Irak oil had to consider its

introduction on the international market. Ion Basgan had done these

forecast studies in good earnest, at a time when the costs of oil

products were increasingly dropping down, both at home and for the

export. For natural gas, Ion Basgan estimated a consumption increase

for both 1932 and 1933, mainly as a result of gas consumption in the

oil region.

Ion Basgan also noticed that during that period, the pit gas

consumption in Ardeal was decreasing, under the conditions in which

the gas of the oil region were not consumed before gasolene extraction,

through topping. He estimated that important amounts of gas remained

unemployed at that time.

Between 1929 and 1933, Ion Basgan stated that the Romanian

coal industry covered only the internal consumption. Coal consumption

was lowering because of the market competition of naphtha.

The decrease of coal consumption resulted also in a lowering of

production. As a consequence, the index of the coal production was 78

in 1931, 54 in 1932 and 47 in 1933. The main consumer was the

Romanian Railways, that worked on 22% naphtha and 78% coal.

Moreover, the cost of coal in the Jiu Valley that he calculated

comparatively to 1929 with the yearly ups and downs, had brought

about a series of disturbances in the economic domain, and especially

in the sector of coal consumption. Extended investments, that were

made in this particular economic sector, had resulted in a remarkable

improvement of the coal quality of the Jiu Valley. This entailed a

significant lowering of cost of one ton of steam water and therefore a

reduction of the Romanian Railways budget, through rather high fuel

amount savings, under the conditions of a constant ratio between

naphtha and coal consumption. As compared to the previous year, Ion

Basgan found that there was a small increase for the year 1933. The

total value of extracted coals was however continuously diminishing

during the latest five years. Moreover, in this activity sector, there was

registered also a decrease of the personnel employed in coal extraction.

The analysis that Ion Basgan had made in the domain of salt

exploitation entitled him to state that the salt production had lowered

down between 1930 and 1931 and it slightly increased starting with

1932.

As for the gold and silver production, Ion Basgan estimated that

some progress had already been registered thanks to the special

attention paid to the exploitation works in the gold mines of the

Apuseni Mountains and Baia Mare. Under these conditions the gold

price was stationary, and that of the silver was dropping down.

The ‘Economic Report of the Oil Section’ That was drawn up

by Ion Basgan showed a series of aspects of the oil policy with

imperative economic effects. In this sense, Ion Basgan estimated that

the evaluation of oil supplies of Romania represented a starting point

for the setting up of the future economic plan of Romania. Romania

also had at that time (1938) several fields ‘That were known to be

good and sure for oil exploitation’ with a reserve of about 35 million

tons. In this sense, Ion Basgan suggested that long term investments

should be made for the exploration and exploitation of these resources

with pay off possibilities during a period of time longer than that

‘usually covered in the exploitation of rich deposits, now menaced bydepletion’. Ion Basgan maintained that ‘the future mining regime whichis to be elaborated should bring in clear norms, simplify useless formalprocedures, payment facilities, incentives, exploration possibilities forall those that are willing and can do it, incentives for those who carryout exploration works conscientiously, as well as severe penalties forthose who do not fulfil their duties’.

Concerning exploitation, Ion Basgan estimated that this activity

‘should be efficient, economic and carried out so that it can ensure a

long lasting indisputable reserve to the State’. In this respect, the state

was expected to lead a policy that should encourage the production

and stimulation of the national capital, while sustaining several

activities at national scale mainly through granting the best land of

the state into exploitation, under the specific contemporary economic

conditions. The industrialisation of Romania was thus estimated to

reach a favourable standard by creating new industries, producing

revenues and currency that were necessary to the economic revival

of Romania.

As for crude oil processing, Ion Basgan stipulated that this

activity should be efficiently carried out, with the simultaneous

sparing and saving oil deposits, as well as by upgrading the methods

of crude oil processing and by raising the gasolene ratio obtainable

from the raw material. Ion Basgan estimated that for the achievements

for this policy in the domain of crude oil processing it was necessary

that the state should be firmly involved in encouraging adequate

investments in this particular domain. As A result of this policy, Ion

Basgan had estimated that an increase of the domestic consumption

should take place, first as a result of creating a viable industry

that would depend on the structure of the county and ensure the

independence of the Romanian economy and increase the civilisation

standard. An efficient domestic consumption could not be envisaged

but as a result of the creation of the internal oil exchange.

Regarding the policy that the Romanian state should have

applied in the domain of crude oil export, Ion Basgan stated that the

export should be lowered in favour of the internal consumption and

only finite products export should be raised. As Ion Basgan was a

great patriot, his entire life and work were closely attached to the

interests of his country, to its national defence capacity. In this sense,

in dependence to the existing oil fields deposits, his economic policy

aimed at creating reserves of discovered deposits and the deposits of

finite products in all the strategic centres of Romania, as well as the

development of the production of munitions and warfare materials,

including extraction products that were obtained from oil and gas

derivates.

In his work, ‘The Principles of Economic Policy in the RomanianOil Legislation’, Ion Basgan showed that oil legislation had an

important part to play in the Romanian economy, and it had always

been under discussion both in the country and abroad.

As for the activities of oil exploitation, it was very important

that the temporary interests of the state should be put in line with the

progress of mankind. Moreover, Ion Basgan estimated that the

Romanian state should not perpetrate the mistake of the end of the

century, namely that the government should ignore the importance

of oil legislation, on the contrary, temporary objectives should be

overlooked in favour of the long term interests of the Romanian

nation, so that the oil industry may be differently structured, with the

aim of permitting the Romanian state to support Romanian political

trends in the context of wider European economic interest. Professor

Ion Basgan estimated that the oil legislation had not been clearly

stated before the end of the 19th century and moreover, it had been

assimilated with the mining legislation. In support of his statements,

Ion Basgan made a short survey of the legislation principles starting

from the past century, namely from the Calimachi code (published in

1817) in which it was stipulated in the Art. 183 that the underground

deposits were a possession of Romanian princes.

The Ministry of National Economy had studied a series of ante-

projects for the law of mines suggested by various interested parties.

No decision was taken until C. Marinescu was appointed the leader

of this Ministry, reconciling these sundry interests with those of the

national economy and the exceptional requirements of his epoch.

The minister C. Marinescu awarded special attention to the oil

matter, taking it out of the general framework of mining.

The Ministry of National Economy drew up a first ante-project

of the oil law, that was submitted to discussion to the interested

parties.

The National Union of the Oil Enterprises (U.N.I.P.) was

invited to state its opinion concerning the oil law. The principles that

were suggested by this Union in support of the national capital

interests were entirely approved by the State leadership.

The new law project would bring about principles of oil

legislation that showed a real economic progress.

It was estimated that the new oil law project included also a

series of measures that were determined by the exceptional war

conditions. The Romanian authorities stated in this sense that these

measures prevented Romania from having a law with a general

character, that may be applied also in the period following immediately

after the war.

Moreover, the oil law project presented the tendency to facilitate

the promotion of national capitals through the distribution of zones.

This tendency was inoperative, as a result of an inappropriate procedure

of oil land distribution.

In the above mentioned work and in the U.N.I.P. Memorial, the

specialists of the time, including Ion Basgan showed that the Romanian

oil companies that were founded before 1900, at the beginning of oil

activity in Romania, as well as those that had been founded on the

nationalist principles of the Law of mines of 1924 could not develop,

either lacking a provisional policy in the oil activity of the state, or

misapplying the national principles of former legislation.

Marshal Ion Antonescu, the State leader of the time accepted

the principles suggested by U.N.I.P.

The new Law of the oil was issued on the 17th of July, 1942, as

a result if the special understanding that the State leadership had

manifested in this particular domain. Any other interventions and

protocols failed, that had been concluded by the representatives if

various domestic and international groups of interests.

The new Law of the oil would encourage first the large oil

producing enterprises, irrespective of the nationality of their capitals,

by making available to then about 500,000 ha that were grouped in 12 oil

fields districts and several geological structures for the exploration

and exploitation of the oil underground.

The explorer was granted an entire structure, while the State

would retain for itself the rights of the second and third structures. The

law granted to the State the right to invite the national capital to these

explorations, by setting aside special shares of the oil surfaces of the

State and granting to it significant advantages, under the form of

financial facilities, reduction of royalties and taxes, credits.

The legislator of the Law of the 17th of July, 1942 envisaged the

possibility to promote the national capital in the oil industry, only by

grouping it into large industrial units, the only that were capable to

meet the exploration demands and to ensure the achievement of

standards required in the oil technique and economy.

As a consequence, in order to benefit from the advantages that

were granted by this law, a grouping of the national capital should

necessarily be envisaged into companies with a capital if at least

400,000,000 lei. A deadline was granted for this action until 31st of

December, 1942, that was later extended for another limited period

if time.

The experience that had been gathered until that time showed

that the oil companies with internal capital did not succeed to group

themselves, in spite of the initiative that had been taken by the

Ministry of National Economy to encourage these regrouping actions

through special credits and reserves of exploitation fields. The

Romanian oil worker had always proved to be pre-eminently an

individualist who would hardly accept unification into larger groups.

Time was too short for anybody to have the opportunity to

analyse the practical results ensuing from this law regarding the

promotion of the national capital in the oil industry.

Experience in the domain of oil industry also showed that the

financial threshold that had been set up for those who could not

benefit from the national advantages of the law should not be lowered

down, so that smaller Romanian companies should also be allowed to

benefit from the incentives of that Law, that made the proof of having

technical and economic capacity.

Moreover, the above-mentioned Law-decree subordinated the

legal principles to the technical principles, with the aim to obtain

practical results, that were urgently required under the exceptional

contemporary conditions.

Ion Basgan presented a series of aspects of the exploitation of

oil fields in Romania in his lecture ‘Efficient Exploitation of OilDeposits’, which he held at the 12

th Congress of A.G.I.R. (Galaţi,

October, 1934). On this occasion, the state policy is presented, that

should be applied in the exploitation of oil deposits, based on firm

stable long-time principles, depending on the situation of deposits, and

should permit to act in defence when facing conjuncture events. Ion

Basgan also pointed out the necessity to speed up the campaign of oil

deposits inventory, as well as the exploration of oil deposits in new

areas that were supposed to have oil deposits.

The increase of the internal consumption of oil and pit gas may

be obtained first by increasing the efficiency of the oil production

industrialisation. Therefore, this was an incentive also for the industries

that were based upon the consumption of this type of products. Ion

Basgan also suggests the foundation of an internal Oil Exchange and

the setting up if several regulations for export, in the basis of a policy

for efficient exploitation of oil deposits, in order to stop the export of

crude petroleum and to stimulate the export of industrialised products.

With this end in view, Ion Basgan estimated that there should be

urgently set up ‘a state body for investigations, research, study and

research, for the analysis of problems and establishing the measures

that had been adopted, both in the domain of oil deposits and in the

wider framework of fuel and mining’.

The explanation in favour of his suggestion was the lack of co-

ordination that was specific at that moment between the Ministry of

Mines, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications,

the Railway system, respectively.

Moreover, the foundation of this state body could have ensures

a certain stability, coherence and interdependence in decision taking,

that were most necessary to ensure a ‘policy in keeping with higherinterest, with the environment and the technical progress if mankind’.

In his work ‘New oil fields in Romania’(which be presented at

the Mining Congress in Leoben, on the 2nd

of September, 1937), Ion

Basgan estimated that in order to maintain the contemporary, oil

production of Romania and develop it in this future, it was absolutely

necessary that there should be continued the works for the discovery

of new oil fields through exploration by means of deep drilling wells,

between 2,000 and 3,500 m.

The statements that Ion Basgan had made were grounded on the

progress of the drilling and exploitation technique. He was confident

that Romania had many oil fields available. In this respect, he

estimated that oil deposits may exist at the bottom of the Transylvania

basin under the gas deposits. He considered that Maramureş region, in

the north of Romania, the Moldavia plateau in the continuation of the

Moineşti region and the Meridional Carpathians region at the west of

the Olt river must also be considered potential oil regions.

The most adequate oil deposits of Romania were expected to be

those of the Flysch region and the most proficient oil region, was

estimated to be that of the Neogen zone.

At the marginal region of the Flysch area, Ion Basgan estimated

that the Ecogen and Oligocen were the layers that carried oil deposits.

Mecţian and Dacian (located at the south of the Meridional Carpathians)

in the Neogen region were considered to contain the rich oil deposits

of Romania.

In the end of his lecture, Ion Basgan mentioned the technical

advantages of Rotary drilling system, that was endowed with the latest

types of American, German and Romanian chain hoists that permit oil

well drilling at 200 m in 2 to 3 months.

Ion Basgan’s studies and the works he carried out in his entire

lifetime also testified for his concern regarding the drilling for water

reserves in several regions that lacked adequate water supply, by the

analyses that they include.

At the time when Ion Basgan made these remarks on the

problems generated by the lack if water supply in Dobrudja, there had

already been carried out the first lot of ten wells for the search of

underground water. Thus, iu was a fact established on this occasion

that the possibility to drill water wells in the rocky land of Dobrudja

was an essential condition for the utilisation of the underground water

on Dobrudja. As a conclusion, water supply in Dobrudja was a

technical and economic problem, whose unique solution was that

mentioned above. Water extraction could be done by means of piston

pumps actuated by explosion engines.

Ion Basgan estimated that the problem of water supply could be

solved in the same way also fir the health resorts that were located on

the Black Sea shore, that were seriously lacking drinking water.

As regards Ion Basgan’s concern for the macroeconomy his

work ‘The Role of the State in industrialisation’ presented general

favourable ideas for an industrialisation that should meet the demands

of Romania so that it may become a powerful state organised on the

principle of complex economy, in the sense that Romania should have

sufficient means of communication, raw materials and financing

possibilities for a powerful and systematic industrialisation.

According to Ion Basgan, the industrialisation should have been

achieved at an accelerated pace. This could only be conceived to be

closely related to an economic urge by the State. With this aim in

view, the State should have had a special organisation of its technical

staff, so that a thorough change of its official worker’s mentality may

take place. The State should establish exactly what industries had to

be created, as well as their capacity on the framework of a national

program, approved by the constitutional bodies and accepted by the

public mentality.

At that time, under extremely difficult conditions for the county,

Ion Basgan stated that: ‘the governing potential of the parties shallbe measured by their financing possibilities and the carrying out ofthe national programme expressed in indexes calculated by neutralinstitutes and economic offices’.

In this sense, the state should mediate the development of the

heavy metallurgical industry, the manufacturing means, through its

control tools, namely: customs tariff, contingency, currency control,

industrial legislation, in order to create the mechanical industries,

the textile and agriculture machinery, as well as the national defence

industries.

Therefore, Ion Basgan maintained that ‘a new industrial legislationis necessarily required by the need to unify the legislation for all theregions of Romania, on the principle of setting up trade unions forevery production industrial branch and regulations for the tradeunions cartels, as well as by the need to control investment’.

POLITICAL ACTIVITY

God-fearing man, a Romanian, a patriot, and also a

renowned engineer, Ion Basgan served the interests of

the Romanian economy with priestly, in an extremely

difficult historical period.

He was involved in political activity only as a consequence of

his desire to be useful to his country. As a matter of fact, it was the

urge of his heart to act in response to the desperate ‘cry’ of the mind.

In whatever he did, Ion Basgan lived ardently, sincerely,

creating immensely for his people and his country.

No matter how week man may be, his belief in God can make

him strong and give him strength to came out as a winner out of all the

hardships of live. Ion Basgan’ life was a success the more so as he had

always believe in what he did.

Through all his writings and practical achievements, Ion Basgan

would prove that here on earth the love of God, the love of one’s

country and the act of human creation can make man to catch a

glimpse of eternity.

In this respect, mention should be made of his initiative in the

domain of the economic policy, which he had been carrying out as a

member of the National Liberal Party.

In 1945, Ion Basgan jointly with other renowned Romanian

engineers founded the Society of the Liberal engineers, called ‘Vintilă

Brătianu’. Through their enthusiasm and professionalism they testified

for their wish to get involved in the solving of economic problems of

Romania.

The Report of the 19th of January, 1945 is a speaking example

in support of the above mentioned in relation to the professional body

that had been set up.

REPORT

The undersigned, engineers, members of the National Liberal Party, have met

today, on the 19th January, 1945 and decided on the foundation of the Society of

Liberal Engineers, in accordance with the intention and demand expressed by Mr.

A

Dinu Brătianu, the President of the Party and with the tasks that we had received

from Mr. Gh. Brătianu, the President of the Circles of Studies.

The Society of Liberal Engineers operates in the traditional spirit of the

National Liberal Party that has been gloriously sustained by the collaboration of

remarkable engineers of the past, such as the Brătianu brothers, Duca, Anghel

Saligny, Mrazec and others. The society will try to study in a realistic and

objective light the general technical problems that Romania has been facing and

that shall be dealt with by the National Liberal party decissively.

It is through the Technical Circle of Studies, through lectures and conferences,

that the Society of Liberal Engineers shall try to bring its contribution in the

framework of the general activity of the Party.

With this end in view, there shall be set up a delegation represented by Prof.

Eng. Gr. Vasilescu, Eng. Basgan, Eng. Braniski Al. and Gh. Veniamin, in order to

gather up the General Assembly, to establish the activity programme, as well as

the trends that must be folowed.

Ion Basgan was appointed President of the Society of Liberal

Engineers ‘Vintilă Brătianu’ and Eng. A. Munteanu its Secretary. A

series of materials were elaborated in the framework of the Industrial

Policy section of the Society of Liberal Engineers, in order to offer

solution of economic revival, industrial revival, in particular, to the

National Liberal Party and to the country in general.

In the framework of the Circle of Studies of the National

Liberal Party, the Trade Section, a team of specialists, including also

Ion Basgan, drew up a report ‘regarding several pressing measures,practical measures, in order to ensure a better development of thecommercial activity in Romania’ for the Armistice Commission.’C. Dinu Popescu was the speaker in charge of this document.

The report that Ion Basgan presented in the framework of the

Circle of Studies of the National Liberal Party, in which he stipulated

the necessary conditions that were required to avoid the manifestation

of an autarchic policy, is but another opportunity for us to remember

his ability to understand and make a synthesis of the phenomena that

the Romanian economy was facing at that time.

A report containing the request made by Ion Basgan and

other renowned engineers for the foundation of the Society

of Liberal Engineers ‘Vintilă Brătianu’.

In this respect, he estimated that it was possible to renounce the

autarchic policy only provided an agreement could be made between

the majority of governments or among all the states, so that the

following conditions could be met:

‘...the state governments should beforehand agree on a methodof reducing the quantitative control of foreign trade and on a viablefinancial and economic system for resuming economic activity;

– to ensure political stability;– to renounce the quantitative control of the foreign trade through

the Preferential Union between states;– to avoid economic slumps and to ensure the integral and

continuous utilisation of labour by an agreement between states;– to achieve a programme in order to resume the co-ordinated

activity in the framework of an economic plan between states, that shouldthoroughly utilise labour and ensure a unitary economic security;

– to achieve international actions that should result in bothmaintaining the stability of economic exchanges, and ensuring thereinstatement of the production and trade credit in those countriesthat had been afflicted with unfavourable consequences of war;

– to achieve an economic system that should offer widerpossibilities of co-operation to his own generation, in order to createa better world with thriving economy perspective.’

Original sheet of Ion Basgan’s manuscript

containing suggestions

regarding the economic development of Romania.

Under the context of what has been mentioned above, mention

should be made of the conditions that Ion Basgan considered to be

necessary in order to avoid the return back to the quantitative control

of the outer trade. Ion Basgan also maintained that these conditions

should have been promoted in the framework of the economic policy

of the National Liberal Party:

– the instability of currency had caused the quantitative control

of foreign trade, in order to fight against dumping; an international

action, that should aim at simultaneously maintaining the stability of

exchanges and the reinstatement of production and trade credit in the

countries that have suffered the damaging effects of the war;

– the effect of inflation is unemployment and limitation of trade;

in this sense, in order to obtain the stability of currency, a special

mechanism must be created that should permit to supply credits, in

order to cope with the changes that had become manifest in the balance

of accounts, and to proceed to methodical changes in the parity of the

currency of various countries; to co-ordinate and align the financial

national policies and to facilitate trade and multilateral clearing (Ion

Basgan recommended that the conclusions regarding the future

international financial stability that had been expressed by Victor

Bădulescu at Bretton Woods should be re-examined).

Ion Basgan considered that the national currency remained the

payment means for both international relations, as well as for external

liabilities. The gold standard would remain the base of the monetary

system, with certain limitation. Therefore, the stability of the Romanian

currency had to be ensured through financial co-ordination and aligning.

In this sense, the signatory states should take the following

measures: to refrain from availing themselves of the monetary

depreciation as a competition means on international markets, as it

happened between 1930-1939, in the case of the pound and the dollar;

currency alignment should not be performed by fixing the currency

parity in gold or dollars. According to Ion Basgan the International

Monetary Fund and the Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Based on these ideas, Ion Basgan stated that: ’we will have tostart analysing the quantitative and evolution structures of the industrialand commercial sectors in order to establish the principles in generaland then the National Economic programme, that will have to bedisseminated to the parties and the public opinion.

The plan shall include: the necessary momentary measures forthe transition period and for the time of economic stability that hasbeen mentioned before. This plan will have to come out from theLiberal Party, that of all the Romanian parties was the animating andleading spirit of the national economy. We have to count on theconscious and well grounded opposition of the left-wing parties, thatare under the influence of the statistic precision and the customs of theUSSR. Unless we understand the present economic demands, we shallbe overcome by the events’.

Ion Basgan would strive to harness all his intelligence in the

domain of the technical and economic sciences, in order to offer a

series of suggestions to the National Liberal Party (which he considered

to be among the principal responsible agents in achieving a stable

and prosperous national economic policy), regarding the approach

of the development of the industrial policy and the reform of the

credit system.

All Ion Basgan’s theories, that were positively appreciated

by the members of the National Liberal Party, together with other

principles forwarded by other specialists of the party who most of

them are members of the Society of Liberal Engineers, shall be finally

included in a Programme Project of the National Liberal Party, under

the following structure:

PROJECTPROGRAMME OF NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY

NATIONAL ECONOMY

• Economic Freedom

Economic freedom is the fundamental principle that has always defined and

shall underlay the economic policy of the National Liberal Party.

Economic freedom implies individual initiative, private property and economic

competition. The recognition and valuation of these three basic elements of the

economic freedom, our country has developed and shall continue to make economic

progress, resulting in the prosperity of private economies and the increase of the

state economic power and independence.

Private economic liberties, that have been promoted and always encouraged

by the National Liberal Party, were manifested and shall also develop in the future

in the political and economic framework of the liberal state founded upon order,

harmony and progress.

Order means the organisation of the national economy by the power of state,

according to simple and through principles, depending on the resources of the

country, the creative genius of the nation and the labour power of all its citizens,

with the state assuming no other role than that of guidance and supervision.

Harmony of the national economy implies the setting up of relations and an

equilibrium among all the productive economic categories, so that whole country

may derive the greatest benefits from their interplay.

By progress we mean to support and apply to the Romanian economy all the

technical achievements, in all the domains of industry, transport, agriculture.

Encouraging and developing such technical achievements will result in the

employment of the working elements of the nation and therefore higher standards

of social life may be attained for all the country inhabitants.

For the reinstatement of the economic liberties in their natural framework, the

National Liberal Party shall take care that many of the functions that had been under-

taken in charge by the state, regarding life and the organisation of the commerce and

industry should be shifted upon the competent professional organisation. The state will

be therefore relieved of tasks and an interference that are not only useless to it, but also

harmful to the order, harmony and progress that should characterise these domains.

• Industry

The progress standard of a country in the hierarchy of modern civilisation is

defined among other achievements by the level of industrialisation that has been

reached by that country as compared to the other development countries.

The National Liberal party has valued this principle from the very beginning

of its activity and contributed to the foundation and the development of all kinds

of industrial enterprises in Romania, for more than three quarters of a century. It

strove to create favourable economic conditions for the national economy and the

legal framework that was necessary for a free development of this domain of activity.

Faithful to this principle and taking into account the technical progress and the

organisation tendencies of the future, the National Liberal Party is aware of and

intends to support the latest achievements and that are the most adequate to the

economic elements and specific characters of our country, for its welfare and the

granting of all the material and spiritual demands of its citizens. In this respect,

the party will stimulate reorganisation and adaptation of existing industries to the

new economic and social conditions emerging after the war and it will strive to

support the foundation of the basic industries, as well as all the processing

industries, in order to cover both home consumption and export demands, so that

an active commercial balance could be obtained as soon as possible.

The development of processing industries of the raw materials and semi-

products into finite products will preclude the export of raw materials, thus filling

in the gaps in the national economy made by the raw materials, that were basically

exported before the present war by Romania and that could no longer be counted

on in the same way.

Regarding the mining reserves and oil deposits, in particular, the National

Liberal party will try to establish a unitary and continuous state policy, to support

the intensification of exploitations, an efficient exploitation of resources and a most

advanced industrial processing of the underground deposits, for their maximum

internal revolution.

The party shall try to encourage and develop the mining exploitation and

industrialisation of the mining products down to the last phase and the oil

products, in particular so that the Romanian capital should be more and more

involved in these exploitations and production enterprises, as a result of the

productivity increase by technical progress.

National underground resources, that should be efficiently turned to good

account in sincere collaboration with the foreign capital, could represent a basis

for providing the necessary financial means for a quick revival of the country.

The rights that have been gained regarding the underground resources shall be

respected.

The metallurgical industry that has been developed lately for the war condition,

shall be adapted to the production under peace conditions, to the production of

agriculture machinery, rolling stock and construction materials, in particular, for the

country revival. It was aimed that the protection intended for this industrial domain

should not make a heavy burden for the general economy of the Romania.

It will be developed the production of rare ore (manganese, chromium,

molybdenum, aluminium), that are available in our country, while on the contrary,

it shall be envisaged the import of iron ore that is lacking in Romania, for the

national metallurgical production.

Besides oil, Romania has other significant power sources, such as: coal, pit

gas, water falls (white coal), electrical power, etc. The National Liberal party shall

back up the revaluation of these sources, for their wide and rational utilisation in

various industrial activities and for the achievement of a higher and cheaper

standard of life, at hand for the entire population of Romania.

According to the National Liberal Party, it is required a strong industrialisation

of the agriculture, animal and wood production, so that it might be covered the

internal demands and also exported a lot of such manufactured products, that

should replace the export of grains, animals and wood as raw materials.

Regarding the textile industry, based on the products of the national soil:

wool, textile herbs, artificial textile fibres, it shall be envisaged the development

of the production of such raw material and semi-products in Romania, so that the

internal consumption should be covered by the Romanian industry and limit the

import of raw materials and other textile fabrics as much as possible.

The National Liberal Party shall also back up all the other industrial activities,

including the household and domestic industry, all kinds of professions, by ensuring

them special facilities for credits, tools and raw materials or semi-products. It should be

taken into account that the development of these productive activities will bring about

an economic and social progress in the life of towns and villages, besides the fact that

all the labour available could find employment and made efficient.

The development of the national industry along the above mentioned

trends implies favourable economic and legal conditions to such activities,

efficient production and industrial goods traffic, that are a necessary condition

ensure order, harmony and progress in this domain.

The National Liberal Party shall strive to ensure these conditions in the future also

and support the conclusion of industrial contracts and agreements, in order to lower the

cost as much as possible and to ensure the sales of industrial products at right prices,

fighting the monopoly in fact and sanctioning the unlawful speculation.

It would also underline the fact that the prosperity of the industrial enterprises

implied also the prosperity of the employees, the more so as their own material

and spiritual welfare would ensure the development of the former and therefore

the general progress of the entire nation.

• Commerce

The freedom of traffic facilitates and intensifies the circulation of goods from

the location of their production to the location of their consumption, from the

producer to the consumer. Taking into account this principle, the National Liberal

Party should strive as it also did in the past to ensure the development in the future

of the economic environment and adequate conditions, that are required for the

prosperity of the Romanian commerce, both at home and abroad. As regards the

inner trade, it should be promoted and supported the competent commercial

organisations, in order to make more efficient the supply of merchandise that are

necessary for the internal consumption in the towns and in the country, as well as

their sales without any intermediary. It was thus stimulated the creation and the

sufficient means for this purpose, such as: credits for the purchase of goods, store-

houses and general stores, enterprises for shipment and transport, representatives,

the development of co-operation in the local commerce, etc.

The freedom of transactions should reinstate the principle of stability of the

agreements and of the respect for the spoken word, and bring about a

simplification of the legal dispositions and the reinforcement of their execution

power. On the other hand, in order to establish favourable conditions for the

commerce, there should be envisaged financial procedures simplification and

facilities, in order to limit illicit activities and tax dodging.

The Liberal National Party would strive for free, yet fair commerce prices, so

that illicit gains should be precluded.

As for the outer trade, it is intended to attain a freedom of exchanges, re-

establishing the relations that existed with the foreign partners, through the

commercial representatives, based on skilled specialists, through the mediation

and with the credit of private enterprises. It should also aim to conclude international

commercial agreements, that may ensure import markets of raw materials and

merchandise, as well as sales markets of the Romanian goods at fair costs.

• Communication means and means of conveyance

The main factor of the economic and spiritual progress of every nation is

conditioned by the proper development of its domestic communication means and their

connection to the international communication facilities, as well as the proper

development of any means of conveyance for people and goods. The more they are

developed and well distributed in any part of the country, the more the traffic of goods

and spiritual values takes place more intensely and the entire nation may partake of

and contribute to the betterment of living standards and civilisation.

The National Liberal Party more conscious than ever of its importance and its

role it may have to play in the life and independence of the Romanian state, shall

continue to support the actions of the state and the private initiative for the

reconstruction, the extension and development of the railways network, of the river

and sea, as well as air traffic ways, of the roads, that should be made according to

the latest technical data. It shall also support the development of modern com-

munication means, such as the telegraphy, telephone and radio-communications.

In order to carry out this programme of extensive works and investments, the

party will strive to harness all the labor, capital and spiritual conception forces,

making also resort to international co-operation.

• Capital and credits

Private and public savings together with the natural resources of a country

represent the capital of the nation, that ensures its economic independence and its

means of development along the technical and spiritual path.

From its very beginning, the National Liberal Party has aimed to promote and

develop the capital saving spirit in the ranks of the Romanian people as much as

possible, to raise the accumulated capitals in all the domains of economic

activity of the country.

With this aim in view, the National Liberal Party has supported the foundation

and organisation of several national bank and credit enterprises. These organisations

have built themselves a solid reputation at national level and, at international

level, as a result of their reputation and seriousness, they succeeded to ensure a

wide development of trade and to promote our foreign economic relations.

The National and Liberal Party shall strive to stimulate, as it always did, the

national saving spirit and to make prosper the national credit institutions, so that

the population, to begin with the least depositor up to the greatest capital owners,

may entrust them any money amount and value in all safety, while industry,

commerce, agriculture and handicrafts may find in these institutions the main

prosperity resources through credit, for their own activities. Moreover, it is

through these institutions, whose legal safety must be reinstated, that an economic

constructive collaboration may be established with the foreign capital, whose

intense participation to the reconstruction of the country and the prosperity of the

national economy shall represent at the same time an agent of peace and progress.

In the framework of these activities, the National Liberal Party will strive to

improve the granting of credits, taking into account not only the real offered

guarantees, but also the professional value of those who will be requiring them. It

is also intended to set up and develop as extensively as possible the special

institutions of credit for the specialised economic activities (constructions,

investments, production, etc.), so that the economies that are concentrated in

banks and other such institutions may be directed towards the most useful and

efficient activities.

• Security and insurance

The dominant principle of the economic policy of the National Liberal Party

was to ensure first the security and stability in the internal and international

economic relations. Security brings about trusting relations in the conclusion of

economic agreements of any kind, while stability ensures the balance of the

services that result from these relations. Both of them create that legal security

climate that is essential to the economic progress.

Based on the same principle, the National Liberal Party shall try to reinstate

and further develop the security in the economic agreements. With this end in

view, it shall proceed to the simplification of certain special laws that are

applicable in the economic domain, that have lowered the creative power of the

contractual duties, trying that all the legal rules that are required by the modern

progress should be include in the fundamental legislation of Romania, a

legislation whose unification and revision in this spirit shall represent one of the

main concerns of the National Liberal Party.

The Party will also reinstate the principle of respecting the state contract

agreements with the private persons, a principle without which a normal develop-

ment of the national economy and order in the compulsory relations of the private

right cannot be conceived.

At the international level, the Party will try to restore the value of the

traditional norm of respecting the freely agreed conventions and to apply them

mutually in good earnest.

The present economy is developing in an atmosphere, that is characterised by

a wider and more complicated range of risks. That is why, the National Liberal

Party that has always been concerned with the necessity of establishing security in

this domain, will also tend to establish security in this domain, while promoting

and supporting all those institutions that are intended to secure the risks of any

kind, that may result from the carrying out of economic agreements.

• Economic revival

During and as a result of the war, Romania was confronted with extendeddamages of its economic institutions and great patrimony losses, that must berebuilt and turned to good account in keeping with the requirements of thetechnical progress and the demands and the role of the Romanian people in theSouth – East of Europe.

With this end in view, the national Liberal Party will support the reconstruction

and modernising of the country through the rebuilding of all the economic and

cultural institutions, of the means of communication and conveyance, food supply

and public health resorts, according to a general plan and by providing all the

necessary facilities.

The National Liberal Party will proceed to the modernising of villages and

towns and will stimulate the building up of healthy living places, cultural institutions

and health resorts, that the average employee and especially workers of all

categories could also afford.

In order to attain these objectives, the Party will harness the entire labour force

and all the technical and financial means of the country, while also asking support

from international institutions.

• Economic co-operation and international exchange

Technical progress, the ever more intense application of the labour divisionprinciple, as an element of national and international solidarity, the unequaldistribution of raw materials in the world, the limitation of space distances amongnations through the increase of the speed of various means of conveyance andcommunication imply and determines a permanent co-operation of all the peoplemaking up the international community in all the domains of activity, in order toensure the general progress and the development of spirit of peace and solidarity.

Being guided as it has always been by the economic and social reality and the

value of the development of the international co-operation spirit, the National

Liberal Party will try to support and also develop in the future the setting up and

intensification of economic relations with other countries based upon mutual trust

and their own achievements.

In order to attain this high target, our people, who is willing to establish relations

and co-operate in perfect harmony with every other nation and the National Liberal

Party will try to re-establish and develop the international relations with all the

neighbouring and far-off states, thus contributing to the conclusion of new commercial

and trading agreements, that should ensure the free exchange of goods and currency,

while creating the climate necessary for the mutual respect of these agreements in the

supreme interest of the peace and progress spirit, for their mutual welfare.

Original manuscript sheet of the Program Project of the

National Liberal Party, as conceived by Ion Basgan.

In the end of this chapter, mention should be made of the policy

in the domain of oil, under the conditions of German involvement in

the Romanian oil industry.

‘German interests during the first world war

At the beginning of the first world war, Germany owned asignificant parcel of shares of the Romanian oil industry, through theDeutshe Bank, to mention here only the large oil exploitation andprocessing companies: ‘Steaua Română’, ‘Concordia’, ‘Vega’.

When Germany lost the war, before the peace conference, itsuggested the sales of these action to Romania and the financialparties of Bucharest. The Romanian state officials refused to purchasethem, for loyalty reasons towards the allies. The distraintadministrators appointed by the Romanian State became themediators acting in order to place there important parcels of oilshares to the interested financial parties of the allies, mostly throughthe Swiss financial bodies.

Therefore, after the war, the majority of the ‘Steaua Română’company shares were taken over by the ‘Anglo-Persian’ and ‘Banquede Paris et Pays Bas’ while ‘Concordia’ and ‘Vega’ were taken overby the Belgian capitalists.

The Romanian state acknowledges this transfer of the sharesthe hands of the war losers to other stranger hands and consequentlyloses the most favourable occasion, the unique occasion maybe in thehistory of our nation to become owners of our own house.

That which other states were allowed to and succeeded toachieve, Romania was denied and we could not back up our interests.

USSR nationalised its entire oil industry by seizure although theshares belonged to Standard Oil, of the USA, Royal Dutch and Shell,to Holland and England, respectively.

The Geneva Conference of April 1922, which Russia also joinedin, where there was decided the fate of these distraint properties, didnot yield the expected results. Later on, Russia concluded withGermany the friendship treatise of Rappallo and it was in a position todeny all the allies’ claims regarding the USSR oil industry.

Even smaller states, such as Iran and Mexico succeeded to facelarge and powerful states such as England and the USA with positiveresults.

Although Romania in its oil policy had not taken any actionswith economic results during the first world war, it was neverthelessconfronted with difficulties at the peace conference, that weredescribed by Mr. Gheorghe Brătianu in his work ‘Romania’s politicaland military actions in 1919’.

Intending to win back this lost economic battle, the NationalLiberal party took the legislation initiative in 1924 and elaborated thefollowing laws: Power, Waters and Mines with the aim to nationalisethe oil industry.

Vintilă Brătianu, Mrazec and engineer Tănăsescu, togetherwith Mr. Tancred Constantinescu are the representatives of thisaction, that resulted in the elaboration of the Law of Mines of 1924and its application with positive results up to 1924. In 1924,Magdearu, under the pressure of foreign officials and as a result ofmutual promises with the foreign diplomacy, as a representative ofLondon oil corporations, changed the Law of Mines. Thus it wascompleted the positive action of the National Liberal Party tonationalise the oil industry.

Present German interests in RomaniaThe political pre-eminence that Germany exerted in Romania

during the second world war opened up the way to its economicoffensive in our country in order to win back the grounds that it hadlost here in the first world war.

Helped by the Romanian leaders of the oil enterprises, Germanysucceeded to purchase approximately 30% of the oil industry and toparticipate with about 4 billion lei paid-in capital.

Germany owns today the following companies in Romania:Concordia, together with Forachi Românească and Vega, amountingto 1,470,000,000; Columbia amounting to 380,000,000; Petrol-Blok470,000,000; I.R.D.P. 600,000,000; 25% of the Steaua Română, aswell as other smaller enterprises as: Moldonafta, Explora, MeoticaRomână, Sar Petrol and newly set up companies such as: SARDEP,Doiceşti, Continental Oil, etc.

The Oil Law that had been elaborated in 1924 had to allow thiscapital to secure the reserves and new oil fields that could have beendiscovered in Romania.

The Fischer-Credit Minier ProtocolThe famous Fischer-Credit Minier Protocol, that was concluded

in February 1942 between the German Government represented byMinister Fischer and Mr. C. Sticescu, the Administrator of theRomanian National Bank, as a President of the Council of theCreditul Minier, contains the principles that should underlie the newOil Law that was under way to be elaborated and it made it

impossible for the Romanian state and the national capital to obtainany reserve of oil fields in the areas that were to be explored.

As a Doctor at a German Polytechnics University and thereforenever to be accused of disliking the Germans at a Time when Germanywas dominating over Bucharest, I had the opportunity to oppose thisProtocol decidingly, both before Professor Mrazec, referee, and in frontof the National Council of the Oil Enterprises. The Memorandum thatwas drawn up on this occasion and handed in to the President of theCouncil of Ministers, represented the support of diplomatic discussionsthat followed regarding Protocol elimination and ignoring it in theelaboration of the Law of Oil that had been passed on the 17th ofJuly, 1942.

Romanian oil at the peace conferenceToday, we are faced with the same opportunity we had at the

end of the first world war with the difference that USSR will also joinin as the representative of the Russian ‘Aznef’ corporation togetherwith England and the USA as the representatives of the internationalcorporations ‘Royal Dutch’ and ’Standard Oil’.

Romania should and we estimate that it would act among

these three large international oil corporations, in order to bring

back a part of the war losers’ shares back to the national patrimony.The foundation of the House of Administration of the Enemy’s

Goods represent a good opportunity to entrust to competent bodieshonest and patriotic the administration of the enemy’s oil possessions,with the role to prepare the works of the peace conference and for thepreceding negotiations.

It should be taken into account that some of the enemy’spossessions, such as: I.R.D.P., Sar Petrol and other had a nationalcapital before the war, and the majority of these enemy’s companieshave a minority national capital structure.

We consider that the preparation and the success of thiseconomic problem that is of top importance today for Romania, maybe carried out efficiently taking into account our rights and especiallythe Romanian oil and blood that are consumed today on the battlefield on the allies side and for their victory. ’

THE BASGAN EFFECT

AND ITS APPLICATIONS

The Archimedes’ Principle and Oil Drilling. Between 1925

and 1933, Ion Basgan carried out an extensive research aiming to

improve the technological process of drilling and to identify the

causes of the drilling holes deviation. His work ended when he

discovered that the drilling rig when operating in the liquid is

subjected to the effect of the Archimedes’ hydrostatic pressure. Never

before had the Archimedes’ hydrostatic pressure been taken into

account in the process of drilling.

The act of creation. A specific attitude if Ion Basgan.

Its effect was not on the centre of gravity of the drilling rig,

but on the lower surface of the bit. Thus it was for the first time in

the history of the universal science and technique that Ion Basgan

supplemented the Archimedes’ principle as it was applied at high

depth liquid drilling.

According to the classic principles and interpretations, it was

believed that the hydrostatic Archimedes’ pressure applied at the

centre of gravity of the drilling rig was proportionally distributed

along the drilling rig, on its entire length before reaching the bit under

stress. According to the classic definition of the Archimedes’ principle,

any vertically suspended column in a lower density liquid than that of

the drilling column material was considered to act as having a new

specific density smaller and equal to the difference between the

specific weights of the material and the liquid, a fact that generated

the notion of apparent weight. This way of thinking and solving the

problem would ignore the phenomena taking place at the lower end of

the drilling rig.

As a result of his research, Ion Basgan admitted first that the

area of the floating force application was at the lower end of the drilling

rig. Thus he discovered and then calculated the compressing zone and

the position of the neutral zone, and made a new interpretation of

the Archimedes’ principle. This effect of the hydrostatic force, the

compressed zone and the neutral zone, that were discovered by Ion

Basgan were defined as the Basgan effect. According to the Basgan

effect, the distribution of the axial unitary efforts in the drilling rig

does no longer agree to the old conception that the drilling rig has

only a tension in the range from zero (at the drilling bit) to the

maximum value (at the upper hook of the drilling rig). According to

the Ion Basgan’s theory (published in the theses of his inventions of

1934-1938), a maximum compression takes place at the bit, in the

lower end of the drilling rig that stays in the liquid with the base free

of it. The compression value decreases down to the zero value in

the neutral zone, then it enters into the tension zone, that reaches

up to the hook.

The length of the compressed zone of the drilling rig increases

accordingly to the depth and it represents the main reason of drilling

holes deviation. As a result of drilling rig rotation that may reach up to

300 rot/min, elastic bending takes place that is higher in the compressed

zone, which explains the loss of steady balance of the drilling rig,

deviation and drilling rod and bit breakage. Essentially, the length of

the compressed zone of the drilling rid is equal to the length of the

drilling rig immersed into the liquid multiplied by the ratio of the

specific weight of the liquid and that of the steel.

The result of the Archimedes’ hydrostatic pressure is in direct

proportion to the depth and length of the drilling rig immersed into the

liquid, weight of the displaced volume, respectively. This represents

15-20% of the drilling rig weight, that may reach approx. 30 tons

under the conditions and the depth of modern drilling. Therefore, on

the basis of the research and result obtained, Ion Basgan gives the

following special interpretation to the Archimedes’ principle: ‘A bodyin a bar form, partially and vertically immersed in a liquid is pushedupward by a force equal to the weight of the displaced liquid, with theupwardly acting force being applied on lower surface of the body.’

Based on the scientific and technical provisions of his in-

terpretation, Ion Basgan issued a series of new laws specific to the

hydrostatics and the drilling technique, namely: ‘the lower part of

drilling rig vertically and partially suspended in a liquid is compressed

as a result of the displaced liquid by the entire drilling rig’… ‘The

lower part of the drilling rig that is vertically immersed into the liquid

and partially supported at the lower end is under compression and is

equal to the weight of the displaced liquid by the entire drilling rig

plus the reaction of the support’. ‘There is a neutral zone along the

vertically and partially immersed bar, separating the compressed

zone from the tension zone. This neutral zone ‘travels’ along the bar

depending on the depth to which the bar is immersed and on the

support load’.

Proportional heavy rods drilling. Ion Basgan’s discoveries

made it possible to deal with the compressed area of the drilling rig

by means of proportional heavy rods, thus lowering the neutral

zone in the mass of the heavy rods and practically acting in perfectly

vertical holes, permitting to reach ever deeper down into the land.

The weight of the new type of rods, called proportional rods is equal

to the weight of the displaced volume of liquid by the drilling rig, plus

the drilling pressure necessary for rock piercing. In this respect,

the following example is to be mentioned: with a drilling rig of

100 tons, the displaced volume is 15 tons, the force corresponding to

the drilling pressure is 7 tons and the weight of proportional

drilling rigs is 22 tons. Mention should be made that the principle is

correct also for aluminium and plastics drilling rigs.

To get the scientific, technical and economic importance of this

invention it should be noted that before 1934, drilling was made by

means of heavy long rod (bit), also called a ‘drill-collar’. Its length

was from 6 to 9m and its weight approx. 1 ton. It was only

experimentally that 2-3 tons rods had been used. After patenting and

applying this invention, the weight of the rods increased to 20-30 tons,

drilling vertical holes, down to 9000 m.

As we have mentioned before, the new procedure resulted in an

output increase of about 30% at the cost of one drilling metre.

Breakage of rods and hooking was eliminated.

In 1954, the ‘Republica’ Works started the production of the

first new product, ‘heavy rods’, based upon the technologic transfer of

Ion Basgan’s invention.

In the USSR the method of modern drilling as initiated by Ion

Basgan was introduced in the university courses in 1947.

In the USA, no sooner than the Patent of 1937 was obtained, the

proportional heavy rods drilling was implemented, with rods 200 m to

300 m in length and 10 to 30 tons in weight. The scientific Romanian

and international circles were involved in this special event, resulting

in a series of technical and scientific controversies, debates and analyses.

Things were going to quiet down only in 10 or 20 years, when

renowned American scientists, such as H. G. Texter, Ion L. Homquist,

H. G. Handelman, P. Moore, Prof. O. Gatlin, D. M. Best, U. T. Okan

had reached the same conclusions as Ion Basgan.

In Italy, the following comments were made in the ‘Italiano del

petrolio’ of the 30th of April, 1967: ‘The methods invented by the

Romanian Ion Basgan are applied in the oil exploitations of thecompany ‘Eri-Agip’. The drilling wells are perfectly vertical and theworks are performed under very advantageous economic conditions.Other wells that where these methods are not applied, there areregistered deviations from the vertical between 150 and 200. This is aremark pledging for extending the methods of the Romanian inventor.’

Sonic drilling. Starting from the ‘Theory of Sonicity’, as a

result of some extensive research taking place mainly on the oil fields

of Moineşti, containing very hard rocks, Ion Basgan established the

conditions that are specific to the transmission, by means of mud

pumps and by sonic waves of a supplementary energy from the surface

through the drilling rig to the bit. Taking as a starting basis the laws of

sonic energy transmission under the form of waves through solid

liquids and gas, as well as the remote sonic energy retrieval, Ion

Basgan calculated the mechanical work, that may be captured at the

bit, through sonic energy transmission from the surface, in order to

simultaneously convey rotation and percussion shocks to the bit.

He succeeded to produce a kind disturbing penetration force.

Under these conditions, direction amplitude, and frequency of bit

oscillations, the mechanical work of the bit, as well as the resonance

regime at the bottom of the hole have maximum values. He obtained

bit oscillation of several centimetres during his oil field experiences.

That was low Ion Basgan achieved a unique drilling system, that

would integrate the advantages of Rotary drilling and percussion

drilling, namely quickness and vertical penetration, respectively.

Therefore, the assertion is true that Ion Basgan is the inventor of the

‘rotary simultaneous drilling, the sonic drilling’.

This new drilling method that increases the drilling output,

resulting in vertical holes was patented in 1934 in Romania and 1937

in the USA.

Later, in the USA, a series of patented improvements were

made based on the Ion Basgan Patent. This ‘Vibrating’ drilling system

was tested on the oil fields, by means of percussion, utilising the

magneto-static method, underground turbines, and other bottom

engines. Very good results were attained during the experiments, up to

drilling indices three times higher than usual. Laboratory results also

attested the essential progress in deep drilling, that was achieved by

applying the complex method of percussion and rotation.

A short description of Ion Basgan’s inventions, as mentioned

above, is a unique opportunity to show an attentive reader the way

these ‘jewels’ of the Romanian creativity were produced.

I. Rotary drilling procedure and system with sonic vibra-

tions conveyed through the drilling fluid to the oil well bottom(Patent 3507341, 21 April, 1970, USA). The Patent refers to a rotary

hydraulic drilling system, by means of percussion vibrations and bring

about an improvement of the preceding methods.

This system includes drilling equipment with adequate fre-

quency, as well as the required endowment including the bit, the drill

collar, drilling rods and the lifting system, the crane, vibration energy

generator.

Ion Basgan’s invention was meant to deal successfully with the

disadvantages of the traditional methods, without utilising complex

tools and devices.

The oil drilling mud has a very high pressure at the base of the

oil well, reaching up to approximately 140 000 lb/in (980 kg/cm2)

at 5 mile in depth. This pressure acts on the drilling rig upwardly,

resulting in the compression of the lower part of the oil rig on a certain

length. Above the compressed section, the drilling rig is under stress,

as a result of suspension and under its own load with the neutral zone

in between these zones.

Essentially, the invention refers to the fact that the neutral zone

of the drilling rig is lowered by utilising a heavy drill collar, 10 to

15% heavier than the displaced drilling mud. This makes the drilling

rigs to be maintained under stress. The compressed zone is comprised

in the drill collar mass, thus drilling rods bending can be avoided.

Technical drawing of the oil well

for percussion sonic drilling. Patented invention in the USA, in 1970.

The drilling rig based on this procedure was endowed with a

drill collar up to 450 ft in length, when the depth of the oil well is up

to 6600 ft. As result of the absence of any lateral bending of the

drilling rig, the drilled hole is absolutely vertical.

Periodical extraction of the drilling rig every time the bit needs

replacing and the coupling of another drilling rod segment to the

drilling rig is a habitual operation in the process of a well drilling.

‘My invention, says the author of the Patent, requires that newsegments of drill collars should be added in order to maintain theirtotal weight in the structure of the respective drilling rig in the abovelimits’. Consequently, the length of a drill collar must be increased

from time to time, with the increase of the oil well depth.

Besides the above mentioned advantage, there is one more

advantage resulting from the long moment of inertia in the rotation of

the drill collar, counterbalancing the sudden variations in resistance of

the drilling bit.

The invention permits to obtain an efficient infrasonic regime of

drilling at a certain amplitude, the frequency and ratio between the

generating force of the flow of infrasonic frequency and the pressure

at the oil well base.

This process offers the possibility to drill vertical oil well holes

under economical conditions, down to 10 or 15 km.

His invention also permits to increase the commercial and mecha-

nical drilling speed. In the newly wrought system, the exciting force of Kvibrations, the pressure difference Pp of the pump and the internal cross

section of the drilling rig are higher than the ordinary values.

Claims1. In a drilling system, the drilling rig is made of the upper

section, including drilling rods and the lower section,

including the tubular drill collar, that is rigidly connected

to the upper section and the drilling bit fixed at the lower

section, equipment mounted at the surface, that are

required to fix the drilling rig to its upper end for

suspension and adjustment of the P weight action on the

bit during drilling, the system includes the means of

preparation and feed of the drilling mud towards the upper

end of the drilling rig, performing its immersion into the

mud filling up the oil well hole; the Gc weight of the

lower section is 10 to 50% higher than the sum of (1) the

G weight of the mud displaced from the oil well hole by

the drilling rig and (2) the P weight, where the Gc weight

neutralises the hydraulic pressure of the mud acting on

the bottom of the drilling bit, thus submitting to

compression the upper part of the drilling bit and rig

and its lower section.

2. The system described under Claim 1 includes hydraulic

means of pressure pumping of the drilling mud to the

drilling rig. The hydraulic system is endowed with means

for pressure variation between the minimum and the

maximum limit; the differential pressure is Pp; this

pressure multiplied by the internal cross section of the

drilling rig results in pressure K; the ratio of K and P (the

pressing weight on the bit) is expressed by the equation:

P·Y = K, where Y varies between 1.5 and 1.3 and the

pressure K raises and lowers the bit, as a result of

general longitudinal vibrations in the metal of the

drilling rig and conveyed from the vibrations

generating device downwards, in descending direction

through the upper section of the drilling rig towards the

upper part of the lower section, both of them being subject

to stress.

3. The system claimed under 2, with a pumping system of

the drilling mud towards the lower part of the rig is

endowed with a cylinder, being related to the circuit of

mud of the drilling rig in its upper part, a piston moving

inside this cylinder, means of power supply for piston

actuation at a frequency of n strokes and a means of

regulation and adjustment of n strokes.

4. The assembly described under claim 3 also contains

an apparatus attached to the above mentioned cylinder,

that measures and indicates the difference between the

maximum and the minimum pressure generated in the

cylinder, as a results of piston movement at n frequency,

as well as a measurement apparatus of ‘n’ frequency with

an indicator.

5. The manipulation and direction process of the drilling

system in geological structures involves the type the type

of drilling system, including: the string of rods for rotary

drilling, being made of the upper section, containing rods,

the lower section, containing the drill collar rigidly fixed

to the upper section and the drilling bit mounted at the

bottom of the lower section; surface located means and

attached to the upper part of the drilling rig, in order to

maintain it in suspension and adjust the P pressing load

on the bit during drilling, pumping means of the drilling

mud at the upper part of the drilling rig, with its

immersion into the mud filling up the oil well hole; the Gweight of the lower section is 10 to 500% higher than

the sum of: (1) the G weight of the displaced mud in the

hole of the drilling rig and (2) the P weight; the process

including the feed of drilling mud by means of a variable

pressure between a minimum and maximum, with a Pp

differential pressure, that may increase up to the value

whose K product with the interior cross section of the

upper part of the above mentioned drilling rig is related to

the P pressure, according to the equation P·Y = K, where

Y has a value between 1.1 and 1.3.

6. In a drilling system, the drilling rig is made of: the upper

section comprising the drilling rods and the lower section

comprising a tubular drill collar, that is rigidly fixed to the

upper part and the bit mounted at the bottom of the lower

section, surface mounted means, that are fixed at the

upper part of the drilling rig, in order to maintain it in

suspension and to adjust the P weight of pressing on the

drilling bit during the drilling process; means of drilling

mud feed, with the immersion of the drilling rig into the

mud that fills the oil well hole, at the upper end of the rig;

the hydraulic system is connected to the upper part of the

rig for the feed of the drilling mud into the rig under

pressure, the system including the generation device of

pressure variations between minimum and maximum

values; the differential pressure is Pp, that may be

multiplied by the internal cross section of the rig to obtain

pressure K; the ratio between K and P (pressing load on

the drilling bit) is expressed by equation P·Y = K, where Yhas a value between 1.5 and 1.3; the K pressure rise and

lowers the drilling bit, as a result of longitudinal

vibrations generated in the metal of the drilling rig and

conveyed from the vibration generation device

downwards upper section of the rig to the upper part of

the lower section, with both sectors under stress.

II. ‘Rotary well drilling apparatus’ or rotary installation for

well drilling (Patent 2103137, 21st of December, 1937, USA). This

invention contains the improvement of rotary drilling in the drilling of

oil wells. It changes the principle of the system, concerning, both the

operation method, as well as the assembly of the drilling rig and

equipment, with an increased efficiency.

In rotary drilling, the drilling bit advances under the action of

rotations and under the load applied to it.

If the drilling bit receives vibration impulses during rotation,

generating vertical oscillation in the bit, which results in a percussion

action, the efficiency of drilling operations increases substantially.

Oscillating percussion may be easily achieved, as a result of

utilising a drilling rig for which the ratio value between its length and

its cross section is very high. In such a body, longitudinal vibrations

are generated and easily transmitted on a specified frequency.

The practical applications of this process were a confirmation of

the exactness of the above mentioned description, with the result of

increasing drilling efficiency.

As a result of percussion, the drilling bit produces the

weakening of the drilled matter at the oil well base, while the rotation

of the drilling bit breaks up and removes it easily.

The effect of percussion increases if the drilling rig is equipped

with a larger weight at its lower end, which may be properly adjusted

through calculation.

In this case, the drilling bit easily maintains the vertical drilling

direction, resulting in straight oil well holes and a higher oil drilling

efficiency.

As a consequence, Ion Basgan’s invention Patent stipulates that

the drilling bit operates through simultaneous rotation and percussion.

In order to generate and transmit percussion to the drilling bit during

its rotation, either a liquid column inside the drilling rig, or an

adequate mechanical device is utilised, to generate percussion, that

may be transferred onto the surface drilling rig.

The drilling rig with the above mentioned structure displays a

certain eight per length unit.

According to this invention, an additional weigh is applied and

concentrated at the bottom of the drilling rig, apart from the bit weight

by means of the drill collar. This is achieved by means of heavy drill

collars, that contributes to obtain regular rotation and vertical and

vertical oil well holes, increasing the drilling efficiency.

As a result of utilising heavier drill collars, their weight being

higher than the weight of the displaced drilling mud, the drilling rods

are maintained under stress. The compressed zone is contained in the

mass of the drill collar.

Claims1. Referring to the rotary drilling by means of an equipment

representing an assembly containing: the rod string

including (coreless) drilling rods and a drilling bit with a

hole, in order to provide a communication means

between the bottom of the well and the interior of drilling

rods, with the drilling rods rigidly connected to the

drilling bits; support means of the drilling rig; one pumps

and pipes connected to the drilling rig for pumping the

cleaning liquid through the drilling rods and a second

pump connected to this hydraulic circuit, in order to

generate pressure variation in the liquid column of the

circuit described above and in the drilling rods, so that

longitudinal vibrations should be generated in this column

and the sting of rods.

2. Equipment for rotary drilling containing: string of drilling

rods, including pipe-shaped rods and the drilling bit with

an opening for communication between the oil well

bottom and the interior of drilling rods, with the rods

being rigidly connected to the drilling bit; support means

of the drilling rig and means for pumping the cleaning

liquid inside the drilling rigs; the weight should be

concentrated at the lower end of the drilling rig to

compensate (removal or fighting) for the hydro-

mechanical pressure acting upwards, that is contrary to

the drilling bit direction; the above mentioned weight is

up to 15% of the drilling rig weight plus 50 kg.

3. Rotary drilling equipment containing the drilling rig,

including drilling rods (pipe) and the drilling rig with an

opening for communication between the bottom of the

well and the interior of the drilling rods, with the

rigidly connected to the drilling bit; support means of

the drilling rig, pumping means of the cleaning liquid

through the drilling rods; the weigh concentrated at the

lower part of the drilling rig for neutralising the negative

hydro-mechanical pressure acting contrary to the drilling

bit direction; the above mentioned weight is 20% of the

weight of the drilling rod string plus 50 kg.

III Method for improving the output and process of rotary

drilling by percussion rotation and hydro-mechanical pressuredamping (except from the Romanian patent No. 22789, the 18

th of

May, 1934).

Claims1. Rotary percussion drilling combining rotation and

percussion, as well as the application of this process in

drilling apparata manufacturing.

This process is characterised by the generation of a vibration

region in the drilling rig, either by hydraulic action by means of

pressure variation of the liquid circuit, or by mechanical action on the

rods, resulting in percussion shocks of the drilling rotation.

2. Drilling process using a concentrated weight added in the

parts representing the lower part of the drilling rig to their

existing weight, until the weight calculated according to

the above mentioned principle is reached. The

characteristic of this process is to dampen the negative

resultant of hydro-mechanical pressure and to gradually

the weight of the drilling rig (which is under a definite

ratio with the rig weight) increase of the latter.

3. A process for the generation of the weight, that should be

concentrated at the lower part of the drilling rig,

commensurate with the increase of the total weight of the

drilling rig, that is characterised by the fact that it may be

obtained by, either replacing the parts (the bit, drill collar,

or any other parts) at its lower end by specially devised

heavier parts, or utilising the same parts from the drilling

rigs with higher nominal dimensions for drilling rigs

with lower minimal dimensions, or even extended, as the

weight of the drilling rig increases.

4. Machining and modifying the parts (bit, drill collar, any

other part) that make up the lower end of the drilling rig

and are sized in order to ensure a weight, that should

permit a shift from the present weight of the bit, drill

collar, or any part up to the concentrated weight, that will

ensure the required proportion (according to the above

mentioned principle) between the weight concentrated

at the lower part of the rig and the total weight of the

drilling rig.

Specialists in the domain expressed their opinion concerning these

achievements. In ‘The Oil and Gas Journal’ of the 21st of June, 1938, I. P.

Sanders mentioned the success obtained by the Shell Oil Co. in drilling

deep oil wells of the San Josquin Valley, in the article ‘San Josquing

Drilling Time Reduced by Improvements’. The last of these oil wells was

drilled and launched into production in 38 days as compared to the first

oil wells that had been drilled in about 70 days. That was an exceptional

achievement, if taking into account the fact that the oil well hole was

upright, and two pipe-columns were used at a depth of 8200 ft (2460 m).

The largest drilling installations in the world at that time were

used to drill the oil wells of Rio Bravo, namely the Derrick cranes of

176 ft and other oversized equipment. 9887 ft were drilled in 30 days

at one of these oil wells, including piping and cementing 1100 ft/day

deep drilling output and 6 min coupling and lowering were achieved.

Five oil wells were drilled by means of such equipment at

Rio Bravo. Drilling records were attained, higher than the traditional

drilling installations could yield.

The author claimed that shorter drilling time, that is higher

drilling bit advancing speed could be attained by increasing the pressing

weight on the drilling bit.

‘For many years the weight applied on the drilling bit has beencarefully maintained at a minimum level, in order to avoid theoccurrence of deviation drilling holes. Recently there has been adopted a

new method that permits to concentrate the weight directly above thedrilling bit. Therefore, the drilling rods that are placed above this heaviersection are maintained under stress. The drilling bit with the overweightis like a leader string (pendulum), thus the bending of rods being avoided,that produces the drilling bit deviation.’

Sometimes the drilling bits were made heavier by means of lead

segments attached to the ordinary drill collars, but often several heavy

drill collar were used.

120-140 ft heavy rods (drill collars) of the largest diameter

were used at the ‘Ten Section’ oil well, that should ensure a good

circulation of the drilling fluid. The drilling bit had a weight of about

1200 lb (6436 kg).

The ‘superior Oil Co’ utilised 365 ft (about 109m) drill collars

at the Rio Bravo oil wells, with a part of the drill collars weight of

about 16t being applied to the drilling bit.

Utilisation of heavy drill collars. The drill collars that were

utilised with the majority of oil wells on the Rio Bravo oil field had

147 lb/ft. About 1/3 of the total weight of the drill collars is held in

suspension, while 2/3 of the interior part are applied on the drilling bit.

There result several advantages. The additional suspended

weight generates stress in the drilling rig, which prevents excessive

bending to occur at relatively high speeds.

Moreover, it is in the neutral zone of the drilling rig, in which

the stress replaces compression, that the former is generated in the mass

of the drill collar, instead of the upper part of the drilling rods. This

method prevents damages as a result of stress generated by vibrations.

The author stated that: ‘The service life of ‘rock bits’ may beconsiderably extended even with soft rocks, when a heavier weight isapplied on the drilling bit’.

As it was mentioned in this chapter in a summary,

the actual drilling performed in 1938, that is 4 years after

the Basgan’s Patent registration in the USA, was

a confirmation of the fact that heavy drill collars were utilized

. As it may be seen, one third of their weight was not utilized

for pressing on the drilling bit. It had been admitted the

necessity to maintain the integrity of the drilling rods

under tension, which could only be achieved by taking into

account the effect of floating.

It was for the first time that the specialised literature

mentioned the principle of increasing the weight of the

drill collar by a weight that is meant to lower the neutral

zone from the rods to the drill collar mass.

CONCLUSIONS

any articles were written on the controversial

personality of Ion Basgan and his achievements. His

theories were slow to make their way into the

contemporary international world of science and technique. Scientists

and specialists still believed in the legendary and classical principle of

Archimedes. The new interpretations of the Archimedes’ force action

were viewed with scepticism. Ion Basgan would only be taken

seriously when his theories resulted in new deep drilling methods

under technical safety and economic profitability conditions.

The whole world would utilise them, replacing one of the

classical drilling processes, namely that with rotary plate. This process

had a disadvantage. More often than not the holes were not vertical,

resulting in significant drilling losses.

The rotary percussion drilling invented by Ion Basgan between

1930-1934, for the first time permitted to convey sonic energy

generated at the surface to the bit, through the drilling rig, by means of

up and down bit oscillation (without raising the drilling rig), so that

if may follow a vertical direction at a specified frequency, drilling

straight holes.

M

The sonic drilling and the utilisation of the heavy proportional

rods were Ion Basgan’s invention that played an essential part in the

progress of mankind. Spectacular results had been calculated: when

the kinetic and potential energies of the sonic flow in the drilling rig

walls are equal, then the maximum mechanical work is achieved. This

specific phenomenon takes place at the moment when the amplitude

of the current pressure and of the current itself are in one phase. The

essential condition for this state to be attained was that the drilling

rods should be under continuous stress, that is the neutral line dividing

between the compressed zone and the zone under stress should be in

the mass of the heavy drilling pressure should be properly adjusted, in

order to permit the up and down oscillation of the bit, so as to generate

a percussion travel. That was how the so-called break-up phenomenon

could be prevented from occurring with the drilling rigs.

The results that had been first obtained on the oil fields (sonic,

that is rotary and percussion drilling, with the advantages of both

the percussion and rotary systems, at Moineşti, Gura Ochiţei and

Moreni) were confirmed later by mathematical calculation Ion

Basgan utilised the mathematical formulas of his master, George

(Gogu) Constantinescu. Then, the results were also checked up by the

Allievi formulas and it was established that the speed of sonic waves

propagation in the drilling rig walls in 5,000 m/s and 1,330 m/sec in

the liquid circuit.

The patent is obtained in 1934 in Romania and later in the USA,

as well as various publications confirmed the importance of this

Romanian invention in the domain of sonic drilling.

The sonic drilling system was generalised in the USSR and

USA in 1950 and other industrial countries. This modern drilling

method has the advantage of reducing the drilling pressure. It increases

the working time of the drilling bit into the ground and results in

perfectly vertical holes, with higher drilling indices, as compared to

other classical processes. In Romania, this method has been applied

experimentally since 1936, by concern of Ion Basgan.

That was an episode of utmost significance in the creative life

of Ion Basgan, announcing the future struggle to recover his legal

author rights for the utilisation of these inventions in Romania and

abroad. The Basgan phenomenon was not a chance event. It was

created by Ion Basgan himself, by his passion for the continuous

renewal of the technique, on the basis of a deep scientific analysis.

Romania has been a part of the international oil family, as a

result of what the genius of its specialists have created in this domain.

As the facts of real life technical and scientific experience have

shown, the success of exploitation works has been favourably affected

by the technological level of the Romanian creativity. The cost of oil

products and energy was dictated by the creative potential of the

Romanian specialists. The emergence of a renowned scientist like Ion

Basgan in the history of Romanian science and technique was a real

privilege for the Romanian people, a scientist whom contemporaries

would not appreciate and reward according to his international status.

Unfortunately, even present, at the beginning of the third

millennium, the copyright and author rights policy proves to be still

rather subjective and discriminating when applied by various countries.

‘The truth has always been on the side of the most powerful’, as is said.

An authentic democracy has been always expected to harbour authentic

competition and progress.

That is why, from a moral point of view, any technological

application in the domain of deep drilling, that utilises the ‘Basgan

effect’ on the territory of Romania should be conditioned by the way

in which the dispute regarding the payment of the author rights to Ion

Basgan by the users was solved. This is an international rule of the

law and of commercial fair play in the domain of the international

technological transfer. It has been a remarkable fact about the life

and work of Ion Basgan his continuous struggle under unfavorable

conditions, in the hope of ever getting back what was his own.

Industrially developed countries are setting forth their models

of democracy, as a unique way towards the highest standards of

human civilisation and progress. Under these circumstances it has

been often mentioned that the respect of the intellectual property

rights is an essential condition of building up this type of civilisation.

As a result of annual revisions, the drawing up supervision lists is so

accurately performed especially when Romania is concerned.

Nevertheless, no remarks are ever mentioned regarding the way in

which those who are responsible for drawing up such ‘black’ lists of

respecting property rights, have they themselves paid their own debts

to those countries which they are under litigation with.

It is the very case of the Romanian scientist and inventor Ion

Basgan: there have always been neglected the official measures that

should have put an end to the illegal practices of Ion Basgan’s Patents

utilisation. These remarkable Patents of Ion Basgan, as a Romanian

citizen have been exploited, while Romania and Ion Basgan himself

could never benefit from their own rights.

Ion Basgan , the Romanian scientist, has always been a friendly

person and he knew how to establish and maintain a network, that had

been beneficent to whatever he would undertake to achieve.

Unfortunately, that was not enough. The life story of this man and his

life struggle are an authentic testimony to the fact that sometimes

history and international interests overpower the intention to be useful

to a nation and earn an honest living through the mere creative power

of a man’s mind.

What was achieved especially after 1989, regarding the promotion

and the support of the Basgan case, it was mostly through the efforts

of those who appreciated the genius of Ion Basgan, namely Prof. Ion

Ştefănescu, the Director of the National Oil Museum of Ploieşti,

Dr. Eng. Nicolae Diaconescu, the Director of the Technical Museum

‘Engineer Dimitrie Leonida’, the journalist Haralambie Lerea and

others.

They succeeded to organise and hold a series of conferences,

that were intended to highlight the life and work of Ion Basgan, as

well as to set up a memorial stand of Ion Basgan at the Notional Oil

Museum of Ploieşti and the Technical Museum ‘Engineer Dimitrie

Leonida’ of Bucharest.

In Focşani, the School No 2 and the street where the inventor

was born were named by his own name.

But the most significant action, that was ever taken to the memory

of Ion Basgan, was the setting up of the Foundation ‘Ion Basgan’ and

the awarding of the ‘Ion Basgan’ Prize by the Technical Museum

‘Eng. Dimitrie Leonida’.

In guise of a conclusion, it may be stated that all these actions,

that have been carried out to the memory of the renowned Romanian

creator of the deep drilling are a proof, that there have always been

Romanians who will not forget forerunners and will sometimes do

even impossible things in order to render them homage, who will

always cherish their memory in their hearts.

Bucharest 9 November, 1995 – 9 November, 1997