Early Days
Both Gearhart and Owen had been employees of Welex Jet Services, also located in Fort Worth. Gearhart had been the Chief Logging Engineer while Owen was the Chief Explosives Engineer. It was Welex who had previously developed the explosive lined shaped charge used for well perforation. As now competitors to Welex, GO was unable to buy perforating charges and in turn developed their own, with a lawsuit by Welex being the result. In 1962, the court's ruling went in favor of GO, but only after the Justice Department stepped in and eased the apparent constraint of trade. Being forced to manufacture their own perforating line was apparently a positive step for GO, as they eventually grew to be the largest supplier of jet charges in the world. The Perforating Supply Company (PSC) was formed as a subsidiary of GO, and made perforating supplies readily available to other independent wireline companies. Over the next six years, many perforating companies were started, with GO providing both the technical and financial aid.
In 1964, GO bought Electronic Instruments and the company's name was soon changed to Gearhart-Owen Industries (GOI). Later acquisitions included Widco Mandrel Industries, Pengo Manufacturing, Peterson Engineering, and Well Reconnaissance. It was during this period that GO built an ordnance facility at Cleburne, Texas for the manufacture of fuses and warheads for bombs and torpedoes. In July, 1973, three explosions at the GO ordnance plant injured 29 people and left three dead.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s GO was slowly built by selling cased-hole logging and perforating services and equipment also known as completion services. This operation is accomplished by way of a cable containing electrical conductors, called a wireline. The wireline is attached on the bottom end to various tools and sensors and on the upper end to a hoist unit. The hoist units are in turn mounted in trucks for mobility. With this requirement at hand, along with both the sensor tools and perforating supplies, Gearhart manufactured trucks at its Fort Worth facility. Its products were made for both in-house use and for sale to other independents. The company's domestic field operations were handled by its wholly owned subsidiary, GO Wireline from locations throughout the US while the foreign operations fell under GO International, SA.
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