LUFK

Lufkin Industries, Inc.

A maker of artificial-lift equipment for the oil and gas industry, Lufkin Industries builds the beam pumping units — the nodding "pump jacks" that dot oilfields — along with the hardware and software to run them. It began in 1902 in Lufkin, Texas, as a foundry that repaired sawmill and railroad machinery before pivoting to oil. Its engineer Walter Trout patented a modern counterbalanced pumping unit in the 1920s, a machine so "funny looking" that early nicknames like "nodding donkey" and "grasshopper" stuck for good.