Letter from Linus Pauling to Gary Felsenfeld February 6, 1956. Page 1  Larger Images / More Information. 1 p.  View Transcript

<   February  1956   > S M T W T F S       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Activity Listings

• Letter from Dr. George Tarjan, Pacific State Hospital, to LP RE: Invites LP to deliver one of the two lectures at the Southern California Psychiatric Society Annual Meeting on October 20. Plans to phone LP on the 10th. If LP answers affirmatively, then Dr. Allen Enelow will send the official invitation. Wonders if there has been any news from the Ford Foundation. Tarjan will be at Princeton around the end of the month and will stop at NIMH. [Letter from LP to Tarjan February 10, 1956] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1956s.31]
• Letter from J. A. Brown to LP RE: Responds to a letter sent by LP on January 5. Says that he will not be applying to enter Caltech in the fall. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (B: Correspondence, 1956), #38.2]
• Letter from LP to Bernard Berelson, Behavioral Science Program, Ford Foundation, RE: Thanks for the letter and states some preliminary investigations have begun but no significant discovers have been made. [Letters from Berelson to LP February 2, 1956, April 18, 1956] [Filed under LP Science: Box #11.088, Folder #88.2]
• Letter from LP to Dr. Martin A. Watkins, Humboldt State College, RE: Grants permission for the local radio station and CBS to broadcast LP's speech on "The Development of American Science" on February 17. Had planned to make his speech interesting to the audience, rather than the sort of formal presentation that would be expected suitable for broadcast. Does not plan to write out the speech, so cannot send a copy. LP and AHP will be arrive by automobile on Thursday afternoon or evening and will stay with Professor Arthur Smith and Mrs. Smith. Suggests that he ask Professor Smith to let him know when they get there so that the news conference can be arranged. [Letters from Watkins to LP February 3, 1956, March 16, 1956] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1956s.6]
• Letter from LP to E. Pekelis, Camarillo State Hospital, RE: Says he did not write out his San Francisco lecture but sends a copy of his Harvey lecture which covered similar topics. [Letter from Pekelis to LP February 3, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (P: Correspondence, 1956), #313.4]
• Letter from LP to G. W. Wheland, University of Chicago, RE: Comments on the man-made character of the theory of resonance addressed in Wheland's Resonance in Organic Chemistry. [Letter from Wheland to LP February 4, 1956, Letter from LP to Wheland March 22, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Wheland, G. W.), #437.7]
• Letter from LP to H. S. Mason, University of Oregon Medical School, RE: Comments on Masons' work with hemoglobin and oxygen. [Letter from Mason to LP February 2, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (M: Correspondence, 1956), #257.1]
• Letter from LP to Henry Allen Moe, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, RE: Looks forward to the Chemistry and Biochemistry digests. LP does not think that Dr. Earl T. McBee should receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. [Letter from Moe to LP February 1, 1956] [Filed under LP Science: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1953-1975: Box #14.015, Folder #15.4]
• Letter from LP to Kozo Narita, Ochanomizu University, RE: Sends some of his reprints on silk fibroin to Narita. Mentions Narita's work on silk fobroin. [Letter from Narita to LP April 12, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (N: Correspondence, 1956), #287.23]
• Letter from LP to Peter Pauling. [Filed under LP Biographical: Box #5.042, Folder #42.3]

  8 February 1956

  Mr. Peter Pauling

  Peterhouse

  Cambridge, England

  Dear Peter:

  I am writing to offer you an appointment in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the California Institute of Technology for the year 1956-57, with title Research Fellow in Chemistry, salary at the rate of $4500. per year, and the obligation to work on the determination of the structure of crystalline globular proteins by the x-ray diffraction method, in collaboration with other investigators in our laboratories.

  In case that you are interested in carrying on this work, and receive a fellowship from some other source, I extend to you an invitation to become a Research Fellow in Chemistry here without stipend from the Institute.

  I am making this offer for two reasons. First, I feel that we have a real need here for someone who has had the sort of experience in taking x-ray photographs of crystals that you have obtained during recent years. Your suggestion about mounting a crystal inside a thin spherical glass container seems to me to be a very good one. I am sure that within a few months we shall have a number of protein crystals ready for preliminary x-ray examination, and that we should get ready to subject them to this examination. Moreover, we shall need help and advice about instruments. I am not sure what we shall do about the routine job of collecting intensities. Perhaps we shall hire several girls, and train them to estimate intensities by comparing spots on a set of films.

  Did you know that the California Institute of Technology is buying an ElectroData computer? It is supposed to be installed by September.

  Another reason for my offering you this job is that I think that our effort to determine the complete structure of a crystalline globular protein is going to be successful, and that you, after working several years on the job, might like to be associated with the successful effort.

  The salary $4500 per year is our standard one for a postdoctoral research fellow in his first year after the Ph.D. degree.

  It is our custom to have postdoctoral fellows do the sort of work that they are interested in doing. We have some postdoctoral fellows (National Science Foundation Fellows, Noyes Fellows, etc.) who are free to carry on any sort of scientific work that is not incompatible with the facilities of the laboratories. Others are hired on special funds that permit their use in work on the structure of proteins. There are many different ways to attack the problem, and I feel sure that you would find one way, if you accept the job, that would be acceptable to Professor Corey and me. The main reason that our policy of allowing postdoctoral research fellows to carry on the sort of work they like is that we have found by experience (our experience and the experience of other people, such as Pepinsky) that a lot of work gets done by a man if it is what he wants to do, whereas if he is told to do something he may not get very much done.

  If there are any questions which you wish to ask about the proposed appointment or the work that you might do under it, please write to me.

  Love from

  [Linus Pauling]

• Letter from LP to Prof Ellsworth D. Dougherty, University of California, RE: Suggests a date for AHP and he to have dinner with Mr and Mrs Dougherty. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (D: Correspondence, 1956), #98.21]
• Letter from LP to Prof. Thomas Lee, University of Chicago, RE: Expresses disappointment at Lee's decision to not accept the position of Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Caltech. [Letter from Lee to LP February 2, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (L: Correspondence), #231.2]
• Letter from LP to Professor I. Fankuchen, Acta Crystallographica, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, RE: Emphasizes that he can not recommend that Geller's manuscript be published, outlines his reasons why. [Filed under LP Manuscripts of Articles: 1957a.4]
• Letter from LP to Robert R. Citron RE: Discusses LP's December 2 letter and 1955 paper. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Citron, Robert), #66.1]
• Letter from Rev. Raymond G. Manker, All Souls' Church, to LP RE: Two months after LP delivered the 75th Anniversary Address, they are still receiving compliments on his behalf. LP made a terrific impact on their little church. [Filed under LP Speeches: 1956s.37]