CAM

Cameron International Corporation

A Houston-based maker of equipment for drilling and producing oil and gas, best known for inventing the blowout preventer, the device that seals a well before it can blow out. It was founded in 1920 when machinist Harry Cameron and oil wildcatter J.S. Abercrombie partnered in a machine shop; legend says the blowout design started as a sketch drawn in the sawdust on the floor. Named Cameron Iron Works because Abercrombie already had a company carrying his own name, it later became part of Schlumberger.