Letter from Linus Pauling to Herschel Hunt. December 13, 1956. Page 1  Larger Images / More Information. 1 p.  View Transcript

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Activity Listings

• Check from AHP to H.L. Byron Tax Collector for $83.66. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, February 1956-December 1957), Box #4.024, Folder #24.2]
• Check from AHP to Keepsake for $22.56. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, February 1956-December 1957), Box #4.024, Folder #24.1]
• Hotel receipt: Sheraton Plaza, Boston [Filed under LP Travel: Box #1.002, Folder 2.2]
• Letter from Dora E. Young, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation to LP RE: Thanks LP for his recommendation concerning Gabay and encloses a copy of her letter to Dr. Bauer asking him how to respond. [Filed under LP Science: Helen Hay Whitney Foundation—Scientific Advisory Committee: Postdoctoral Biomedical Research Fellowship Applicants, 1956-1957: Box #15.004, Folder #4.11]
• Letter from Dudley W. Faust to LP RE: Sends a gift of $100 to aid Caltech in the research they are conducting on the biochemistry and structure of mental illness. Discusses his daughter who died at age 19 due to schizophrenia and hopes that his small memorial to her can be as meaningful as possible. Wishes luck in their research. [Letter from LP to Faust December 22, 1956] [Filed under LP Science: Box #11.088, Folder #88.6]
• Letter from LP [Signed by Beatrice Wulf] to Herschel Hunt, Purdue University. [Note from Hunt to LP December 8, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (H: Correspondence, 1956), #167.1]

  13 December 1956

  Mr. Herschel Hunt

  Chemistry Department

  Purdue University

  Lafayette, Indiana

  Dear Mr. Hunt:

  I am pleased to have your letter about the calculation of the heat of combustion of formaldehyde, and I have made a check of the calculation, to see whether I get the same result as you.

  Your figures for formaldehyde seem to me to be right. For oxygen you have taken the double-bond value given on page 131, which does not apply to the normal state of oxygen -the normal state has a different structure, and the correct value for oxygen is 118.2, as given in the table on page 54. For carbon dioxide the correct value is 317, and not 190 - I don't know where your value 190 came from. The value 317 can be obtained by adding together twice the value for the carbon-oxygen double bond, as given on page 131 and the value of the resonance energy for carbon dioxide as given on page 139. I find that there is no value for liquid water in the book. The table on page 52 leads to 220.3 for gaseous water, and the heat of vaporization is about 5.5, which would give 225.8. All of these numbers lead to a positive value for the heat of combustion of formaldehyde, of about 103 kcal/mole. I should think that this should agree with experiment, because the value for the carbon-oxygen double bond energy as given in the table on page 131 was obtained by taking the experimental value for the heat of combustion of formaldehyde and working backward. Of course, I may have made a numerical error in the original work.

  With best regards, I am

  Sincerely yours,

  Dictated by Linus Pauling

  Signed in his absence :W

• Letter from LP [Signed by Beatrice Wulf] to Dora E. Young, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation RE: Provides his reports on Louis Brahen recommending that he not be given a Fellowship. [Filed under LP Science: Helen Hay Whitney Foundation—Scientific Advisory Committee: Postdoctoral Biomedical Research Fellowship Applicants, 1956-1957: Box #15.004, Folder #4.12]
• Letter from LP [Signed by Beatrice Wulf] to Dr. Russell H. Brown, Vice-President, Whiting Science Club, RE: Apologizes for the delay in answering. Notifies him that he is speaking to the Chicago section of the ACS on April 29 and can accept the Club's invitation if April 30 is possible. [Letters from Brown to LP October 30, 1956, December 19, 1956] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s.16]
• Letter from LP [Signed by Beatrice Wulf] to Gilbert Stork, Columbia University, RE: Asks if he may visit Stork at Columbia University while he is in New York in January. [Letter from Stork to LP November 15, 1956, Letter from LP to Stork December 28, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (R: Correspondence, 1956), #341.2]
• Letter from LP to Maurice M. Rapport, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, RE: Gives Rapport permission to reproduce fig. 2 from LP's paper in the JAC in a paper for presentation before the New York Academy of Sciences. [Letter from Rapport to LP December 10, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), #253.7]
• Letter from Ricardo Carvalho Ferreira, University of Recife, School of Chemistry, to LP RE: Asks for LP's criticism of Ferreira's paper on "A Criterion for Bond Type." Outlines the main features of the paper. [Letter from LP to Ferreira January 11, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Ferreira, Ricardo), #119.7]
• Letter from Valdemar H. Madis, Vice President, Meer Corporation, RE: Offers their services as a company that deals with botanical drugs which may help for memory improvement in the mentally retarded. [Letter from LP to Madis December 19, 1956] [Filed under LP Science: Box #11.088, Folder #88.13]
• Letter from W. H. Freeman, W. H. Freeman and Co., to LP RE: Inquires about LP's opinions on a Canadian publication by Grahm-Cragg. [Letter from LP to Freeman December 27, 1956] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (W.H. Freeman and Company, 1956), #439.14]