[Rarebooks] fa: VENEZUELA OIL FIELDS RAINFALL DIARY 1929-31 - Bound Manuscript

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 24. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/t3pjr78

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[VENEZUELA] Manuscript Diary largely relating to rainfall in and around oil fields in Lagunillas and La Concepcion, Venezuela; ca. 110 pp. (excluding blank leaves) written by an unknown hand, dated April 1st 1929-March 18, 1931. Small 8vo (18.5 cm) in original roan-covered boards, front cover blind-stamped: "Mining Transit Book 363." Binding rubbed and worn but intact, with the contents clean and sound, securely bound.

The diary opens with the diarist situated in Lagunillas, on Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela, where he observes: "The first rain this year fell today... The last rain on record in my diary was on December 18th 1928..." Over the next twenty-three months, the diarist, apparently an American employed (as a meteorologist?) in the oil extraction business, records occurrences of rainfall and accompanying phenomena (clouds, wind, lightning, etc.), often in lengthy and dramatic detail ("About 8:15 began an electrical display such as I have seldom seen here..."; ). In mid-1930, "upon my return from Curacao where I was on sick leave," the diarist is "transferred to La Concepcion field on account of it being a dry climate and would be better for my health."

Interspersed among the obsessive meteorological observations and meticulous rain gauge readings are occasional glimpses of the diarist's non-precipitation-related life: "We all went down to the Lago's Camp in the south end of the field for dinner and 'whoopee'..." -- "A rain occurred about 7:15 this evening while we were listening to the U.C.-Stanford football game over the radio..." -- "About 8:00 this evening while we were at the show ('Tons of Money' [British, 1930, starring Ralph Lynne and Yvonne Arnaud]) a heavy wind began to blow..." -- "About 1:15 p.m. a large cloud of "flies" came in from the lake... the largest... I have seen here. It was as if an immense brown cloud of dust was blowing along, and the cloud was so dense the houses and tanks were blotted out... It passed on over the swamp and into the 'Monte'..."

On April 16 (1929), there's a rather sinister sounding entry: "'Burning of village @ 4:30 a.m.'... Rained until 2 p.m.... Very disagreeable and tough on the refugees from the village..." This incident was significant enough to be referred to in a Nov. 16, 1939, New York Times article about a later, similarly fatal fire affecting the same village: "Ten years ago this month [i.e., 1929], Jerome L. Gunn saw fire raze Lagunillas, just as it did on Monday. The 1929 death toll, never definitely fixed, was between eighteen and thirty-five. American oil-field workers piped live steam from their boilers to help peons combat the fire... Ninety-five percent of the village was destroyed... Mr. Gunn...was stationed at Lagunillas in 1929 as chief field clerk for Gulf Oil Corporation."

Additionally, at the front of the diary there is some unrelated material regarding artillery, of all things, including a folding table listing specifications of guns, howitzers, etc., two pages of ms. instructions for dismantling and assembling a French 75 mm. gun, model 1897, and an English-French glossary of artillery nomenclature.