Biography written by E. Reitsch:

It was 26 years ago that I met Elmer for the first time. I was fairly new to Texaco and he was a seasoned veteran. I have learned from him ever since.

Early Years

Elmer was born on 8 March 1919, in Poughkeepsie, New York. He got a bachelor's in physics, mathematics, and chemistry from Brooklyn College and, in 1943, a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University. After a brief stint at the National Bureau of Standards working on proximity fuses, he returned to academia: first at Johns Hopkins, then at Wesleyan, and as an assistant professor at Rutgers. His last stop before joining The Texas Company was the Argonne National Laboratories, where he worked with Maria Mayer in developing a Monte Carlo simulation of a breeder reactor on the ENIAC computer. He spent four years there and rubbed elbows with many of the people associated with the Manhattan Project.

Computing at Texaco

Texaco was a different company when he joined in 1951. This was a time when oil companies believed in the application of science to solve their exploration problems and believed in the benefits of R&D. They also believed in secrecy. And Texaco was the most secretive of all of them. It must have been a tough environment for someone accustomed to academic freedom, the free exchange of ideas, scientific discussions with peers, knowing that there was much parallel development anyway.
The 1950s saw the emergence of electronic computers and digital signal processing. Always open to new ideas, methods, and tools, Elmer was instrumental in getting scientific computing into Texaco's geophysical research. It was the time for the all-around man and Elmer was up to the task, patenting a floating point A/D amplifier and, in cooperation with Mobil and Texas Instruments, developing the TIAC computer for digital seismic processing, writing operating systems, compilers, and scientific software. In the early 1960s, he achieved some celebrity as a "hacker" on the IBM 7094 computer, trying to make full use of its capabilities. His interest in and involvement with computers continued and culminated in his compiling and editing the book, Supercomputers in Seismic Exploration.

Writings

Elmer was not a prolific writer; however, knowing the attitude toward publications within the old Texaco, I consider it a small wonder that he published as much as he did. And when he wrote, his style was lucid and clear; he had thought a lot about the topic, had something to tell, and really wanted to be understood. Best remembered probably is his Geophysics paper on acoustic reciprocity, which posed what is now known as Eisner's Paradox. It is an example of his way of thinking and the way he provoked others to think by posing unorthodox or simple-sounding questions.

Diversions

In my mind, Elmer never specialized in the sense of focusing on one area only. He is fascinated by too many things to exclusively devote his time to only one of them. Geophysics, and more generally physics, is just one of many areas in which he is interested and in which he keeps up to date. He has an inventive mind that tries constantly to improve the things around him. This resulted in a number of patents even at a time when the United States Patent Office frowned upon computer programs and took a dim view of inventions it considered "instructions to the human mind."
Like many others with mathematical talents, Elmer is an accomplished musician. He plays the piano and the violin and even sang in the Houston opera chorus.

Service

Elmer served geophysics and the SEG in many ways. He was an Associate Editor of Geophysics and he still is, after many years, a very active member of the SEG Research Committee, whose Annual Meeting Workshops owe much of their current form to him. He himself organized quite a few of them, frequently on rather unorthodox topics.
Elmer Eisner has been very disturbed by the continuing loss of capable geophysicists that our profession is experiencing as a result of the persistent downsizing of our industry. He has devised a scheme that would identify otherwise uninvestigated yet meaningful research topics which could he addressed by those retired by their companies but not willing to retire from geophysics. He discussed his proposal with many colleagues and finally published it in The Leading Edge in June 1992; unfortunately, the response has been limited, since many of the retirees are at a stage at which they require income.
Elmer has been elected a Life Member of the SEG. This is essentially an official recognition of what he would have been, anyway. He will be "Life Member" not only of the SEG but of the scientific community as a whole.
 

Biography written by Ray Brown (2002)

The exploration industry has gone through several gigantic steps in technology throughout its history.  One of these steps was the move to digital computing.  This story is about Elmer Eisner and his participation in moving Texaco into the digital age. 

The Beginnings

Elmer Eisner was born March 8, 1919 in Poughkeepsie, New York.  He is married to Edith Dubow Eisner and they have three children: Julian Russell Eisner, Diana Eisner and Sharon Alice Gillett.  Elmer s father, Moses Eisner, taught Hebrew and his mother, Lena Weiss, was a housewife.  Elmer grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

Early Sign of an Interest in Science

On one occasion, when his bicycle brakes seemed inadequate, Elmer used a pair of pliers kindly supplied by a postman to disassemble the coaster brake.  When many pieces fell on the ground, he was faced with either no bicycle or learning how the thing worked.  Success here sparked interest and confidence.

First Impression of Physics

When their only radio started to smell and smoke, Elmer and his older brother were faced with learning how to repair it or do without.  They successfully undertook replacing the power transformer. This encouraged Elmer to take a high school class in building a radio. Most of the class had previously done this, but it soon became apparent to Elmer that he was the only one in the class who understood what was going on. He took physics the next semester, but unfortunately soon embarrassed the teacher (clearly not versed in physics) by solving the problems the instructor said were too difficult.  This first class in physics left Elmer with a bad impression of the subject.

Changing Directions in College

When Elmer got to college, he had no intention of majoring in Physics (after his experience in high school).  He took chemistry instead. The first half of the course involved experiments and Elmer enjoyed that portion of the course.  Unfortunately when the second semester veered towards memory tasks, e.g., "what is chemical formula for Prussian blue?" Elmer was not happy.  He asked when the class would get back to what they had been doing, and he was politely informed  that was physics .  As a result, Elmer wound up majoring in chemistry, physics and mathematics.

The Violin, a Key To Physics?

As a side note, all three of Elmer s brothers wound up with a PhD in Physics.  Their routes to the study of physics were different, but the results were the same.   However, all four of the brothers play the violin.

Graduate Work and Important Experience

Elmer obtained a Quincy fellowship at Johns Hopkins University and was a elected to Sigma Xi.  His graduate degree was in theoretical nuclear physics.  World War II dictated working on proximity fuses at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC.  Since he was the only physics graduate student in his class, he had very limited opportunities to interact with contemporaries.
As an entering graduate student in physics at the Johns Hopkins University in 1939 Elmer was told that there were three important things to remember:

1. If you are the last to leave the Physics-Mathematics library, lock the door.
2. When your turn arrives, you are to tidy up after the weekly coloquia.
3. There was an arrangement with the Enoch Pratt public library, that the department would accept responsibility for handling questions which the library got dealing with physics and mathematics. If the department secretary asked you to respond to a particular inquiry, you did not have the option of refusing.

Regarding the third responsibility, questions arrived in profusion, so Elmer was faced with the task of dealing with such issues as the validity of special relativity and quantum uncertainty without offending the questioners, whose level of understanding was usually rather dismal. When Elmer later arrived at the Texaco lab he was well prepared to respond to the rather frequent proposals for improvements in exploration technology.  These types of questions were often referred to Elmer by front-office types asking his advice. Very rarely was there even a glimmer of valid physics, but the person making the proposal of the benefit of a 100.6945Hz signal for example, was to be treated in such a fashion as to prevent making them an enemy of Texaco. Elmer s experience answering questions for the public library was a very useful preparation for his work at Texaco. This early exposure to answering questions for a non-technical audience should be included as a fundamental part of educating geophysicists today.

Transition from Argonne to Texaco

Elmer Eisner was working at the Argonne National Lab in Chicago when he was invited to visit the Texaco Lab in Houston, TX. He was not particularly interested, but the visit made clear to him that the time was ripe for introducing digital computers into this application.  The interview with Texaco changed Elmer s life. Although Elmer s early direction was in nuclear physics at the Argonne National Lab, his fate was destined for the oil industry.

The Texaco Interview

Elmer Eisner may have been the first to introduce digital computing to the Oil industry. He was definitely the person who introduced the idea to Texaco.  At Argonne, he had worked with Maria Mayer using the Eniac computer to try to validate proposed designs for a breeder nuclear reactor. When he visited Texaco, after the visiting was over he met with the manager of the lab, and asked what they had in mind for him.  Since Elmer was a theoretical nuclear physicist and had not met any others with this background during his visit, the question was a valid one. The reply really caught Elmer s attention-- They wanted Elmer to tell them what work he should be doing! This is a dream come true for any scientist.  Naturally Elmer took the position.  The manager was interested in nuclear -magnetic -resonance well logging, but although Elmer helped with his patent application, digital computing seemed to him the most important direction for research.  In this respect Elmer was moving the industry towards a giant step in technology development.

Texaco Beginnings

"Before digital computers ruled the roost, I think there was more familiarity and appreciation of the actual data than today  Elmer concludes. When Elmer asked why shooting seismic lines were not straight he was promptly sent into the field to shoot through a pig sty!  Early geophysical training was rather difficult in those days and convincing people to change to a new technology was even harder.

Bits and Pieces of a Great Idea

When Elmer came to work he found that at the lower levels of Texaco there was quite a bit of resistance to the idea of digital recording and processing. An early problem faced by the Texaco was the task of performing normal moveout corrections (NMO).  One of the Texaco employees with an electrical engineering background was trying to design equipment to perform NMO. A young MIT graduate was given this task, and Elmer was able to persuade him that writing a computer program was a more sensible approach. The young man told this to his supervisor, but this did not persuade the supervisor. Elmer and the MIT graduate then undertook a campaign to feed the supervisor bits and pieces of the idea, so that eventually the supervisor was persuaded that it was all his own idea, which naturally he supported.

Texaco Moves to Digital

Once the idea of digital recording and processing was sold to management, the job of getting an appropriation to buy a digital computer was faced.  The supervisor took advantage of a (then) five-hour air trip from Houston to NYC, accompanied by the gentleman in control of the purse strings. At the end of the trip, this person said he was not convinced himself, but since the other party was so enthusiastically convinced, he would OK the purchase.
Elmer and the supervisor then visited every manufacturer of digital computers.  There were about five at that time. IBM had a computer, which was far from the best choice.  Another potential choice for a computer refused to make a suggested change made by the Texaco group. The best logical design was the Elecom, made by Underwood typewriter Co. Texaco bought the computer. As the computer was being built, Underwood offered to provide training on both software and hardware aspects of their computer.  Elmer and a mathematician ( W.S.Currie) went to learn about the software and a Texaco EE  (Bob Loofburrow) and a technician (  Leo Bodden ) were assigned the task of learning the hardware at the site of the computer company, the former site of a Bakery in Queens, NYC.  Since there were only the four people, Underwood suggested that all of the members of the Texaco group attend the sessions. This proved very helpful later when the Texaco group decided to improve the design. Since the entire group understood both software and hardware aspects, they were able to criticize all aspects, and the designs uniformly worked as they had hoped.
When time came for Underwood to deliver the computer, they informed Texaco that they were leaving the computer business, and gave the Texaco group all of the hardware and software information they had. The Texaco developers were able to use information to construct an operating system and to improve the hardware. The Texaco group had not anticipated that all the plug-in amplifiers had cold solder joints, so they took them all apart and re-soldered them.  There were few problems with the computer after that correction was made. Many at the laboratory found it easier to sit at the teletype machine and use the computer rather than a desk calculator of the day.
Of course a computer would be of little use if the data was not available in digital form. Thus Elmer had been working on designing Analog to digital equipment.  The hard part of being first is that one has to do everything from first principles (on your own). Elmer received the basic patent in this area of digital recording. In applying for the patent he suggested to the patent agent that this would have application in recording music as well.  Elmer had built some "high fidelity amplifiers", but was told that it would complicate the patent procedure.
Can you imagine having the patent on digital music today?  At a party later Elmer overheard a conversation about how Texaco had missed this goldmine opportunity.  However, Elmer did not let this missed opportunity slow his progress.
To validate the ideas, the Texaco group organized an effort to read paper seismic records with a graticule and thus hand digitize them. They then punched the data on cards and used IBM tabulator equipment with a deck of sin-cos tables.  This approach was used to calculate Fourier Transforms. The effect of a ghost (an extra wave due to the reflection from the surface) was clearly visible.
Carl Savit, one of the pioneers with Western Geophysical, indicated to Elmer Eisner that he had done something similar at Western.  The relative timing of the development of digital recording at the two companies is unknown.  It is needless to say that the dam had been broken, so to speak, and the digital word was out for the oil industry thanks to early work such as that of Elmer Eisner described in this note.

Texaco and Mobil Collaborate

Later, Texaco and Mobil collaborated with Texas Instruments (TI) to make a field digital tape seismic recorder and the TIAC computer. The TI crew in Dallas had a very modest view of what computations would be needed, but since the Texaco group had written many Elecom programs for seismic processing, they wanted more than a simple correlation computer. It is interesting to note that all of these early programs were based on 3-D data. With 2000 words of memory, the Texaco group used the attached tape units. Elmer says  It was a sight to behold, with the tapes moving seemingly at random . The issue of what the capabilities of the computer should be was resolved when the project was transferred to TI in Houston.  This part of TI had not initiated the project and was more receptive to what Texaco and Mobil suggested.
The one-inch wide tapes were ready to record the first digital seismic data.  The initial digital recording was still using AGC rather than true amplitude.  This was quite a bit before the TIAC would be available.  Texaco contracted with IBM to make a tape reader that would allow reading the data from the field tapes into their IBM 7090 computer which was being used at the time. This was project called  Bluebonnet , but Elmer thinks it should have been given a different name.

Get Your Own Computer

When the Bluebonnet was delivered, Elmer had written the code to use it and promptly found that that the code did not work.  It is nice to see that aspect of programming has not changed, but this problem was a little more serious.  IBM responded that the problem was in the code, and it took most of a year to finally convince Texaco management and IBM to send engineers to locate the problem. It turned out that an important interrupt signal was intermittent. When that was finally repaired, the Texaco group took their backlog of field tapes to be read at once. The Texaco digital group were then informed by the department that operated the computer that the group had used up its entire year of allocated computer time!  When it rains, it pours.  This led the Texaco group to conclude that they needed their own computer.  After a struggle, they bought one from Control Data and the rest is digital recording history.

Summary