Prakla-Seismos

Prakla-Seismos was a German geophysical exploration company based in Hannover. Its historical roots trace to the founding of SEISMOS GmbH in Dortmund in 1921 by Dr. Ludger Mintrop together with Ruhr industrial groups, with headquarters in Hannover. The company carried out seismic investigations for oil, coal, ore, and quartzite in Germany and applied refraction methods internationally. A former-employee information site documents its history and activities, including reflection seismics over Lake Geneva as reported in the PRAKLA-SEISMOS Report 3+4/89.

The history of Prakla-Seismos is documented on a former-employee information site. In 1917 Dr. Mintrop received patents for a vibration meter, a light field seismograph, and a method for determining the location of artificial vibrations. In 1919 the EXPLORATION GmbH was founded in Berlin by Hugo Gornick, Arthur Freundt, and Kurt v. Mücke, with a North American subsidiary NAMEX in New York and daughters in London and Toronto. Dr. Ludger Mintrop filed a Reich patent for a method to determine the structure of rock layers (refraction method), and the first delineation of salt dome flanks in northern Germany occurred. In 1920 ERDA AG was founded in Göttingen, and ELBOF (Electrical Ground Research) was a department of the forwarding company Piepmeyer & Co in Kassel. For the first time worldwide, a Mintrop apparatus was practically used near the Neuengamme natural gas well. In 1921 SEISMOS GmbH was founded in Dortmund by Dr. Ludger Mintrop together with some Ruhr conglomerates, with headquarters in Hannover, aiming to explore rock layers and usable deposits. At that time there were three geophysical companies in Germany: Piepmeyer & Co, ERDA, and EXPLORATION. In 1922 successful seismic investigations by SEISMOS in Germany for oil, coal, ore, and quartzite took place. In 1923 the refraction method was applied in the USA, and the first 3-man survey team of SEISMOS (Dr. Mintrop, O. Weitershagen, G. Schwiening) worked in Mexico and later in Texas and Oklahoma, equipped with a field seismograph. The site also references a PRAKLA-SEISMOS Report 3+4/89 on reflection seismics over Lake Geneva.

1. 1Prakla-Seismos Infoprakla-seismos.de
2. 2Historyprakla-seismos.de
3. 3Prakla-Seismoswikidata.org