Emory L. Kemp

One of those technical, specialist books that is so well written that it becomes fascinating to the non-specialist. Illustrated with Victorian-era engravings and more recent photographs, it traces the origins of the jerker-line pumping system and other relatively low-tech solutions to the engineering problems of oil production. It also gives much information about how this simple, low-cost technology is still in use today, both in living history museums and in actual commercial production.

I cannot believe that our public library (which includes branches located within walking distance of still-producing Victorian oilfields) thought it was appropriate to deaccession this wonderful reference book. And people wonder why I own 6000 books when "you can just check any book out of the library".… (más)