PETROPHYSICS, VOL. 51, NO. 4 (AUGUST 2010); P.

273-276

Historical Note

Marcel Schlumberger (1884-1953)1

Philippe Theys2

The Schlumberger brothers were the first (and thus far, to a dynasty of protestant businessmen who thrived around
only) persons to receive the SPWLA Pioneer Award. It was Mulhouse, in Alsace. Nicolas, the grandfather, a textile
presented to them posthumously during the SPWLA Annual businessman, was the president of the local parliament of
Symposium in Paris in 1995. Marcel Schlumberger has Strasbourg, and was ennobled von Schlumberger by the
also recently been honored by École Centrale Paris. This Kaiser. On the
school, also known by its original name École Centrale des maternal side,
Arts et Manufactures, was founded in 1829. It is one of the their great-
oldest and most prestigious engineering schools in France. grandfather was
Since 2007, École Centrale has selected one of its best Henri Guizot,
students to decorate the yearly alumnus card, successively: a minister of
Gustave Eiffel, of Tower fame, Étienne Œhmichen, the Louis-Philippe,
inventor of the helicopter, Louis Blériot, who crossed the last king of
the Channel by air for the first time in 1909, and now France. Henri
Marcel Schlumberger. was the founder
École Centrale gave SPWLA permission to use the text of the primary
and the pictures from an article recently published in their school system
internal magazine Centraliens. This allows our members an in France. He
opportunity to know more about the history and traits of this also launched
exceptional man. the idea of
protecting the
Where does the Schlumberger name come from? French historical
monuments, a
Unlike many entrepreneurs who started from humble first for Europe. Conrad Schlumberger, 1911
beginnings, blue blood flowed in Conrad and Marcel
Schlumberger’s veins. On their paternal side, they belonged The Schlumberger brothers

Conrad and Marcel had three brothers: Jean, co-founder

2010 Ecole Centrale Alumnus Card
with André Gide (1947 Literature Nobel prize) of Nouvelle
Revue Française, a major French publisher; Maurice,
founder of the eponymous bank; and Daniel, who died on
the World War I battlefields. Their sister Pauline completed
the group of siblings.
Conrad began at École Polytechnique in 1898 and
ranked second. He then took a complementary degree at
École des Mines de Paris. In 1907, he became Professor at
the young age of twenty-nine. During the summer of 1912,
in the Guizot family property of Val-Richer in Normandy,
he spread miles of copper wires over the lawn, connected
them to an electricity generator, and established a map of
the underground scaled by levels of resistivity. In August

Historical note received by the Editor August 2009; revised manuscript received April 2010.
1
Copyright of the original French text: Ecole Centrale de Paris (2010). Original French text, translation by Philippe Theys
(Centrale 1971). The paper was edited for publication in Petrophysics.
2
Email: otheys@aol.com
©2010 Society of Petrophysics and Well Log Analysts. All Rights Reserved.

August 2010 PETROPHYSICS 273

 Theys
1914, as World War I began, he joined the French artillery.
While in the artillery he developed a technique to recognize
the location of the enemy’s guns. When the war was over, he
became a hardcore pacifist and contemplated embarking on
a speaking tour to spread his ideas.
The first steps of Marcel
Younger than Conrad by six years, Marcel was more
of an extrovert. His niece, Anne Doll, described him as tall
and good-looking. He loved mechanics and liked to visit
his father’s plant to experiment with spinning machines. At
ten, he won a prize given by the magazine Mon Journal for
the design of a churning machine. At fourteen, he fixed his
father's car. At fifteen, he studied at Lycée Carnot, then at
Lycée Jean-de-Sailly. At one point he used his inventive
mind to compensate for an uncharacteristic moment of
laziness: after failing to prepare for an exam, he poured oil
in the inkwells, thus disabling the penholders. In 1904, as a
student at École Centrale, he organized a riot in the school
and was expelled for a week.
After obtaining his degree, Marcel was hired by
Decauville and designed locomotives. He became bored
very quickly, left that position and opened a machine
shop near the Bastille area in Paris where he designed an
automatic gearbox. In 1909, he married Jeanne Laurans,
the daughter of the École Polytechnique alumnus who had
created the Mines of Bor (Serbia), controlled by the Michaud
Bank. Marcel then traveled to explore for copper in Serbia,
coal in Heracleus (Asia Minor, now Turkey) and lead in
Ouasta (Algeria).
Between two trips, Marcel managed to sneak into a
hangar where his boss kept a prototype plane. He removed
the plane holds and took off, flying 100 m at the height of the
first floor. He managed to land, and then took off again, this
time climbing to the level of the second floor. Unfortunately
he crashed the plane, thus terminating his attempted imitation
of Louis Bleriot.
Though exempted from military service for a heart
condition he volunteered as a private and joined the army
at the beginning of World War I. He ended the war as a
lieutenant in the tank corps, and was awarded the Legion of
Honor and the Croix de Guerre.
Marcel and Conrad
After the war, Conrad and Marcel could have followed
two separate and bright careers, if Paul, their father, had
not guessed the invincible strength of these complementary
personalities. The three men signed a contract in November
1919. Paul agreed to fund 500,000 francs to develop the
measurements of underground rocks. The contract stated
that scientific interest must be put above any financial
success. The sons pledged to stay focused on this task. From
274 PETROPHYSICS
then on, they made a formidable pair. Conrad often said:
“I'll talk to Marcel,” and Marcel was often heard saying
“I'll ask Conrad.”
The first steps of their collaboration were difficult.
Contracts for work only lasted a few weeks each, in Europe,
North America, Africa and Japan. Marcel visited Texas in
1925, but the results were not convincing. In September
1927, the company had 16 engineers, but Marcel and Conrad
were yet to receive a paycheck. This situation persisted
until 1935!
In the mean time, a simple idea, to perform downhole
measurements, was slowly maturing. In 1921, Marcel
performed a single measurement at a depth of 800 m in
Molières sur Céze (Gard, France). On September 5th,
1927, this approach was generalized over an interval of 130
m with a measurement performed every meter in a well:
Diefenbach 2905, rig 7, Pechelbronn field, Alsace. This job
is generally considered to be the first well log. Marcel and
Conrad prepared the job, but were not present to complete
it. Henri Doll, Conrad’s son-in-law, was the team leader. A
detailed account of the job shows a mix of black magic and
genial tinkering.
Pechelbronn became the laboratory for the technique
that was called carottage électrique and was much less
expensive than actual coring. There, the brothers and their
teams collected a vast understanding of the field work that
complemented the theoretical research performed at rue St
Dominique, in Paris. This way, the process became robust
and professional. A few years later, the Soviet Union, where
the small company did not make a profit, became the second
laboratory where the technologies and the processes were
continuously improved.
The components of success
Let us interrupt the story of the brothers for a few
moments and spend some time on the early attributes of the
organization the brothers launched.
Early Field Recorder
August 2010
 Marcel Schlumberger
• Perseverance: Some may call this obstinacy, as was
already noted above.
• Exceptional recruiting: First from École Polytechnique
and École Centrale, École des Arts et Métiers and
Supélec, the best institutes in France, then many
foreigners (Melikian, from Baku, Gillingham and
Markam from the USA).
• High quality of communication: At that time,
without internet and email, especially between the
research center and the field locations. It enabled a
continuous and quasi-instantaneous improvement of
the processes. For instance, innovations developed
in Sumatra were very quickly known in the rest of
the world.
• Field and client visits: Continuously made by a
minimalist management. The internal magazine,
Prosélec (November 1930), shows the posting of 52
engineers. In front of the 14 engineers located in the
USSR, there is a comment: The Russian teams are being
visited by Mr. Marcel Schlumberger.
• Strong sense of perfection and of presentation:
Demonstrated by two anecdotes-
1. Just before a wellsite visit by Dr. Mekel, of Royal
Dutch (the organization that later became Shell):
Marcel's notebook showing a design of the first core
sidewall taker.
August 2010 PETROPHYSICS
access to the well was carefully refilled with sand,
and the truck wheels received an extra coat of paint.
2. Much later, in Venezuela, Marcel was asked by Jean
de Ménil about the Schlumberger blue color: “I
wonder who had the idea to select this color which
fades so quickly?” Marcel answered: “I did. I did
not have in mind pale blue. I wanted the dark blue
of the French racing cars.”
• Inventiveness without limits: While Conrad developed
theoretical models and mastered lab experiments,
Marcel was involved with every project to improve
the design of the tools and of the equipment. The book
“Schlumberger: Histoire d'une technique” (Allaud and
Martin, 1977) contains a litany of Marcel's inventions,
including the first sidewall sample taker and numerous
others. He even invented a coat with electric heating
resistors to provide some comfort to the field engineers!
Marcel was awarded more than 100 patents. Henri
Doll’s inventiveness complemented that of the
two brothers.
• Development of a common contract: This was created
for all the field engineers who work as expatriates. It was
based on the exceptional principle that an engineer of
any origin would earn the same salary when he worked
outside his own country. John de Ménil, another of
Conrad's sons-in-law, elaborated this set of rules in a
document called the international staff manual.
Marcel, now alone
Let us come back to the history of the brothers. The first
enterprise in Russia ended badly. The Soviet government
held the field teams in the country, not allowing them to return
home, and confiscated the equipment. In 1936, Conrad tried
to negotiate and spent weeks in Moscow. Disappointed and
exhausted, he collapsed and died from a stroke in Stockholm
on his way back to Paris.
Logging unit in the 1960's.
275
 Theys

Conrad’s death took place in the middle of the depression, Bibliography

with World War II threatening. Marcel, helped by Jean de
Ménil, moved the headquarters from Paris to Trinidad. War Allaud, Louis and Maurice, Martin. 1977.
was not good for business, but Marcel held on. In 1940, Erle Schlumberger, the History of a Technique. New York,
Halliburton, the strongest competitor, proposed to buy the New York, USA: Wiley-Interscience.
company for 10 million dollars. Marcel did not answer, but Bromberger, Merry. 1953. Comment ils ont Fait Fortune.
asked his visitor to leave his office immediately. Paris, France: Librairie Plon,.
Prosélec. November 1930. Internal Schlumberger document.
Towards a multinational corporation
Selected Reading
By the early 50s, the company operated in 50 countries
with 40 different currencies and legal systems. However, Auletta, Ken. 1984. The Art of Corporate Success.
Marcel approached financial issues with reluctance. At the New York: New York, USA: Putnam,.
end of 1951, he received a recommendation to hire Jean Bowker, Geoffrey. 1994. Science on the Run, Information
Riboud, who later became the chairman of the board of Management and Industrial Geophysics at Schlumberger,
the company and put it on the list of the international stock 1920-1940. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: MIT Press.
exchanges. Marcel’s comment at the time: "He is friendly, De Ménil, Jean. 1953, Intercom. Schlumberger internal
but I have no clue how to employ him. Finances are not document.
part of our business and I do not believe in them. We are Schlumberger, Gruner, Anne. 1982. The Schlumberger
engineers. Technology, not finance, drives us.” Adventure. Arco Publishing, New York, New York, USA.
Marcel preferred to leave his office for his underground Schlumberger, Jean and Schlumberger, Dominique.
laboratory in the center of Paris. The neighbors complained 1949. Conrad Schlumberger. Privately published.
about the noisy experiments he was leading in test wells. Schlumberger Oilfield Services Marketing Communications.
Those experiments were his primary form of entertainment. 2007. 80 Years of Innovation. Sugar Land, Texas, USA.
He led a frugal life in rue Las Cases. His car was not an
Italian sports car, but a family-type 11 CV Citroen. His wife
was mostly interested in the grandchildren, among others,
Jérome, Nicolas and Didier. Marcel enjoyed his weekends in
Normandy where he chopped wood and stayed close to the
tombs of his father and brother.
In 1953, he was interviewed by Merry Bromberger,
who admired his modesty that was close to shyness. Marcel
said: “The secret of success is to put work above everything,
comfort, cravings, need for rest. The person who sacrifices
all satisfactions that require time and money to his job, to his
company is guaranteed to succeed. He is putting luck and
time on his side.”
When he gave that interview, Marcel was aware that he
had little time to live, but he did not inform anybody. Only
a few days before his death, he confided to his wife: “My
motor is stalling.” On August 20th 1953, in the late morning,
he retired to his room without a complaint, and died. He
died as he had lived: standing up.

Epilogue

On September 30th, 1977, fifty years after the first well

log, Jean Riboud, now chairman of the board of a group with
75,000 employees, said in memory of his mentor: “The most
important thing I learned from Marcel Schlumberger was to
have an independent mind—to think for oneself, to analyze
by oneself, not to follow fashions, not to think like everyone
else, not to seek honor or decorations, not to become part of
the establishment, but to preserve one's independence at all
cost, one's freedom of thought—that is the most important
thing I learned.”

276 PETROPHYSICS August 2010