24 SEPTEMBER 2023 WorldWide Drilling Resource® History of the Edelman Auger Adapted from Information by Royal Eijkelkamp The Edelman auger is used all over the world for soil mapping and research. Although it is named after a professor at an agricultural college in Wageningen, Netherlands, Professor C.H. Edelman didn’t actually invent it. The origin story goes back to World War II, when students and teachers of Dutch universities were given the choice between forced labor in Germany, or a declaration of loyalty to the occupying forces. Many decided to create a third option, go into hiding. A group of students and teachers, mainly from Wageningen, ended up in the Bommelerwaard - a rural area in the south of the Netherlands. Among them was well-known soil scientist Professor Edelman. They dressed up as farmhands and continued studying and mapping the soil using a shovel as their main tool. Although this method worked well for the top layer of soil, they needed more to study the deeper layers. Several augers were used, but none were optimal. Developing their own hand auger, which was both easy to rotate and easy to empty while being capable of producing a relatively undisturbed soil sample, became a challenge. Designing the perfect auger would take time and research. Another member of the group, Henk Egberts, decided to accept the challenge and by 1948, he had perfected his design. The next step was to find a blacksmith to make it. He found a blacksmith shop in a nearby village run by second-generation owner H.J. “Jan” Eijkelkamp, who was able to meet the challenge and forge the auger to the specifications Egberts had given. One specification was the auger had to be a maximum of four feet long, so it would fit in the trunk of a Volkswagen Beetle. The prototype was approved and soon a larger order for the new Edelman hand auger followed. The new tool was named after the professor who continued soil mapping during the war, when the first activities for soil mapping took place in the Netherlands. This proved to be a pivotal moment for Eijkelkamp. Forging hand augers became a priority for the company. As the years progressed, the range was expanded to include instruments for soil sampling, research, then eventually water. More than 75 years later, Royal Eijkelkamp continues to manufacture the Edelman hand auger. Each one starts out as a metal plate; then, with the help of a mold, the plate is given a round shape. This is when the real work begins: through forging and welding, the auger head gets its iconic shape and is made into a long-lasting, strong, quality product. There are four different blade designs available for different soil types: sand, clay, coarse sand, and combination. They are all constructed with nontoxic steel to prevent contamination of the samples. Narrow blades are used for clay conditions, while wide blades prove best for sand, and extended winged blades are designed specifically for coarse sand. The combination type is designed to be used in both sandy and clayey soils Royal Eijkelkamp has quite a range of products today offering everything from field measuring equipment, smarter monitoring and sampling equipment, to its sonic and CPT drilling rigs. Since 1911, Royal Eijkelkamp has been designing, developing, producing and delivering solutions for soil- and water-related projects around the world. The Edelman auger is still forged by hand today. ENV The H.J. Eijkelkamp blacksmith shop was originally established in 1911.
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