May 24, 1935

Dr. N.B. [sic] Sidgwick

Lincoln College,

Oxford, England.

Dear Dr. Sidwick,

I wish to thank you for inviting me to come to the meeting of the British Association at Norwich next September. I am sorry to say, however, that it will not be possible for me to accept the invitation,- partly because I am not able to afford the trip having just made a trip East, and partly because I feel that I can not take the time from my researches. I would of course like very much to hear and take part in the discussion on the magnetic properties of molecules, and I should like also to see you, Sutton, Taylor and all of my English friends again. Perhaps I can accomplish the second purpose before too many years have gone by.

I have just received a letter from Sutton who seems to be happy and to have hopes of becoming productive in the electron diffraction field. I hope that he does get his apparatus into operation very soon inasmuch as the field is such a promising and productive one. Everyone here liked Sutton very much and was glad that he stayed longer than was contemplated originally.

Jenkins has been a disappointment to us too; he does not seem to be very interested in the work that he is doing and accomplished almost nothing during the past year. I hope that after a summers [sic] rest he will come back with more interest and energy.

I have read your report in the Annual Reports on the resonance and coordination of hydrogen with much interest. Hendricks and Wolf at the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory have just discovered a very powerful spectroscopic method of testing for the presence of hydrogen bond and they have already obtained a number of results regarding the rules covering the formation of this bond. I think that a report of their work will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society within a few months.

With best wishes, I am

Yours sincerely,

LP:M