CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
GATES CHEIMCAL LABORATORY
December 28, 1925
Research Fellowship Board,
National Research Council,
Washington, D.C.
Gentlemen:
I have recently become interested in a field of research such that study
with Professor Sommerfeld and Professor Bohr seems highly desirable. Accordingly I
have applied to the Guggenheim Fellowship Board, and have received such encouragement
from President Aydelotte as to lead me to believe that I shall be granted a fellowship
by them for study abroad from March, 1926, to September, 1927. I feel that this opportunity
for foreign study is of sufficient importance to justify my asking to be allowed to
resign my National Research fellowship.
In accepting a National Research Fellowship in Chemistry I agreed to remain
at the California Institute of Technology for not longer than six months. The researches
which I am now prosecuting, described on the included pages, are progressing favorably,
and could be satisfactorily completed in the two months between January 1 and March
1, 1926, in case the work were to be continued at this Institute. If, however, I were
to leave here and take up residence in some other university for this period, there
would be such delay and inconvenience involved in the preparation of apparatus as
to make it impossible to conclude the experimental studies being made. For this reason
I request permission to remain at the California Institute of Technology until March
1, 1926.
Yours respectfully,
(Signed) Linus Pauling
RESEARCHES IN PROGRESS.
1. The Crystal Structures of Simple Gases solidified at low temperatures.
With the cooperation of Mr. S. B. Hendricks the crystal structure of
solid carbon dioxide has been elucidated, the results agreeing with those of one of
the two previously published papers, which led to conflicting conclusions. The investigation
of other substances will be carried on by Mr. Hendricks.
2. The study with X-rays of certain solid solutions, and of the structure of
complicated crystals.
The crystal structure of martite, the cubic form of ferric oxide, is
being studied by means of Laue and spectral photographs with the assistance of Mr.
R.K. Day, for the purpose of explaining the formation of solid solutions between martite
and magnetite. With Mr. Day solid solutions in the system (NH4)2SiF6 – (NH4)3A1F6
are also being investigated.
Solid solutions between sodium nitrate and sodium nitrate are being studied
with powder photographs with the help of Mr. L.M. Kirkpatrick, in order to obtain
information regarding the nature of solid solutions and the structure of the nitrite
ion.
These researches can not be completed by the graduate students who are
assisting with them, for they have not had sufficient experience. In case that I should
remain here until March, however, this work could be completed.
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3. Theoretical research in atomic and molecular structure.
a. A principle by mans of which the relative stabilities of isosteric
isomeric ions and molecules can be predicted has been discovered, and applied to a
number of substances. A paper describing this work, written in collaboration with
Mr. Hendricks, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical
Society.
b. The quantum theory of the dielectric constant of diatomic dipoles,
as given by Pauli, has, after the correction of an error, been applied to Zahn’s measurements
of the dielectric constants of the hydrogen halides. In this way values of the electric
moments of these molecules very much smaller than those given by the classical theory
interpretation of the data are obtained. An abstract of this work has been submitted
to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for publication, and a paper
is also being prepared for the Physical Review.
