Editor's Note: In collaboration with the Bartlesville Area History Museum, the Examiner-Enterprise is reviving the late Edgar Weston's 'Revisiting the Past' columns that ran in the newspaper from 1997-99. Weston's columns recount the history of Bartlesville as well as Washington, Nowata and Osage counties. He was a beloved figure who, in retirement as a Washington County court bailiff, followed his passion for unearthing area history and sharing it with others through his bus tours and writings. Weston died in 2002, but his work lives on. His collection of columns was recently donated to the museum by the Weston family. We will run one of his columns every Wednesday as part of our new Weston Wednesday feature.

Last week, we took a look at the engineering achievements made in the development of the Bartlesville area in recognition of Engineers Week, 1976. We continue:

· 1951: The Chemical Engineering Award was given to Phillips for pioneering work with cold rubber production. Hulah Dam went into operation.

· 1952: National Zinc became the first smelter in the nation to mechanize the charging and discharging of horizontal retort furnaces.

· 1953: National was the first smelter in the U.S. to utilize fluid bed roasting of zinc concentrates.

· 1955: Price Tower built. Phillips developed on-stream gas chromatographs.

· 1956: Phillips announced Marlex, the first in a series of hi-density plastics. Price developed the Line-up Clamp for use in pipeline construction. Bartlesville Petroleum Research Center (BPRC) did pioneering research in rotating-bomb calorimetry. Phillips built the first Research & Development building at the research complex.

· 1957: Price pioneered the double jointing process which is now an industry wide technique.

· 1958: Phillips invented Cis4 polybutadiene synthetic rubber.

· 1951-1961: BPRC did pioneering work on the techniques of using radioactive tracers for petroleum reservoir studies.

· 1961: Price made a major breakthrough in automatic welding by using an automatic welder on 36 in. pipe in the field. BPRC with the AGA developed use of foaming agents to remove liquids from gas wells.

· 1962: Phillips announced a new additive to prevent icing in aircraft jet fuel systems was approved by the Federal Aviation Agency and adopted by the U.S. Armed Forces. Phillips developed a chromatograph for continuous stream analysis and automatic plant control.

· 1963: Phillips Building constructed. Price announced an automatic C02 welder.

· 1964: BPRC showed the effectiveness of STP for improving injection rates of water floods. The concept of using nuclear explosives to stimulate oil and gas production was developed at BPRC. Radiochemistry techniques were developed at BPRC for gasoline stability studies.

· 1965: Bureau engineers solved the problem of removal of water blocks from gas-producing formations. Mathematical methods were developed at BPRC to describe the variables involved in the transient flow of reservoir gas and liquid so computers could be used to forecast delivery capacity of gas wells for the projected life of a new field. Micro-hydrogenation equipment and techniques were developed at BPRC to study organic sulfur compounds. X-Ray analytical techniques were developed at BPRC for studying petroleum composition. BPRC developed equipment and procedures for sampling automotive exhaust gas and reactivity of hydrocarbons in both automotive and diesel exhaust emissions were studied.

· 1966: BPRC determined thermodynamic properties of organic compounds of the lighter elements for use in the space program. Phillips developed a new process for making general purpose furnace black.

· 1967: Phillips designed and constructed the world's most successful LNG plant at Kenai, Alaska, and began shipping LNG by tanker.

· 1968: Phillips designed and constructed the first natural gasoline plant on an off-shore platform in Lake Maraciabo, Venezuela. Applied Automation Inc. was organized to design, develop, manufacture, and sell chromatographic instrumentation and computer control systems. Phillips introduced large particle furnace black.

· 1969: Phillips introduced K-Resin, a new copolymer of butadiene and styrene. Reda Pump Co. merged with TRW. National Zinc Co constructed a new 2 million dollar sulfuric acid plant at Bartlesville. Price developed new holiday detector for coated pipe.

· 1970: Skyline Corp. started operations in Dewey. BPRC established improved values of interatomic forces by studying the velocity of sound in compressed helium.

· 1972: BPRC successfully emplaced and detonated the largest nitroglycerine charge ever shot in an oil well. AAI offered 2C computer operated chromatographs. Phillips developed, designed and built the process for producing a viscosity index improver which improved the oil flow characteristics of motor oil. Phillips developed Ryton, a new plastic for engineering applications. Phillips developed and began construction of facilities for North Sea operations. This includes the million barrel concrete crude oil storage tank resting on the bottom of the sea with initial crude oil pumping and gas pipeline compressor stations on it, centrifugal compressors for high pressure gas injection, and water-filled fire protection systems for the production and processing platforms.

· 1973: AAI introduced a liquid chromatograph for process industries

· 1974-76: ERDA is developing methods for enhanced oil and gas recovery and improved shale oil production.

· 1975: Heston Waste Equipment Division began operations in Dewey. AAI offered the CRT terminal for process computer control systems. BPRC renamed ERDA, Energy Research Development Administration.

· 1976: National Zinc Company replaces the smelting furnaces with a new electrolytic refinery. Seaway pipeline system from the Freeport, Texas, receiving terminal to Cushing, Okla., distribution terminal will be completed, having completely automated computerized system for re-note control of all operations from the Adams Building