A Glimpse into the Past: Jan Cornelis Mol

June 19th, 2009

This month we bought an original Barentsen CPT penetrometer (ser.nr. 180) on the internet from a very nice family in the north of The Netherlands. The family had inherited the penetrometer from their grandfather Mr. Jan Cornelis Mol (1921 – 2003).

Mr. Mol, or Opa Mol as he was called in the family, started working for Engineering Bureau Grontmij just after the 1953 North Sea flood disaster and was primarily involved in survey works in those days. Survey was important at that time because of the huge land reparcelling projects to gear The Netherlands up for large scale farming. For his job he used both a beautiful “Wild” water level instrument and the Barentsen CPT penetrometer. And he has really taken good care of it. Both instruments are nowadays on display in the Gouda-Geo office. We are proud to have a piece of history and we will take good care of it. Thanks Opa Mol and your nice family!