Letter from Linus Pauling to Don C. McMillan. December 17, 1957. Page 1  Larger Images / More Information. 1 p.  View Transcript

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Activity Listings

• Check from AHP to L. Sharon for $23.18. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, February 1956-December 1957), Box #4.024, Folder #24.2] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.2]
• Check from AHP to Sears Roebuck Company for $19.94. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1]
• Check from AHP to Sears Roebuck Company for $34.06. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1]
• Check from AHP to Unesco Courier for $5.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1]
• Check from LP & AHP to SSRS for $10.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to Alpha Chi Sigma for $3.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: B
• Check from LP to American Association Advancement of Science for $8.50. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to American Chemical Society for $45.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to American Crystallographic Association for $5.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #75.6]
• Check from LP to American Institute of Physics for $50.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to California Institute of Technology Bookstore for $17.79. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to Cashier, State Department of Agriculture for $2.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to D.C. Grahame for $2.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1]
• Check from LP to Division of Biological Chemistry, American Chemical Society for $3.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to Frontier for $8.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #25.1, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Check from LP to Mineralogical Society of America for $4.00. [Filed under LP Biographical: (Business and Financial: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks, December 1957-December 1959), Box #4.025, Folder #25.1] [Also filed under LP Biographical: Business and Financial: Check Registers, 1957-1962), Box #4.076, Folder #76.1]
• Handwritten note from Lina Litinskaya (Weinbaum) to LP, RE: Asks LP about his opinions on casualties. Speaks about her home country, the Soviet Union. Talks about articles she read at the library. Tells LP about some of the poetry translations that she has done. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Weinbaum, Sidney and Lina Litinskaya (Weinbaum), 1941-1993, No Date.), Box #433, Folder #433.10]
• Letter from A.K.U. Lytre to LP RE: Talks about his criticisms of the form of the petition, but says he signed it despite these because of the ever-worsening world situation. [Filed under LP Safe Contents: Drawer 2, Folder 2.001]
• Letter from Dr. Phil Staudinger to LP RE: Written in German. Handwritten notes at top, "N.L.," "61," and "ans'd 12/13." [Filed under LP Safe Contents, Drawer 3 Folder 3.004]
• Letter from Dr. Teopont E. Nikulins T., Mining Engineer and Geologist to Secretary of the Chemistry Department, CIT RE: Requests the title of the book by LP that deals with crystallographic theories, the chemical bond, and resonance theory, as well as the price of the book and the editor. [Letter from Ms. Wulf to Dr. Nikulins January 14, 1958] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (N: Correspondence, 1957), #288.1]
• Letter from Dr. W.W. Moyer, Committee on Coordination of Research, American Paper and Pulp Association to LP RE: Informs him that the organization puts a report together each year entitled Research Projects of the Pulp and Paper Industry, and includes in it a list of any research done that would be of interest to the pulp and paper industry. Invites him to send a list of anything that he would like to have included in the report. [Letter from Ms. Wulf to Dr. Moyer December 26, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (M: Correspondence, 1957), #257.2]
• Letter from J.D. Bernal to LP, RE: Informs LP that he knows many of his colleagues received letters about the appeal and circulated them amongst the scientists they know and collected as many signatures as they could before people went off on vacation. Says that he understands that about 250 signatures were collected and sent to LP. Also tells him about a recent meeting on Physics and Chemistry that Peter made a contribution to the discussion and was very well received. Handwritten note at top says "not submitting sigs." Also labels it number 68. [Filed under LP Personal Safe, Drawer 3 Folder 3.003]
• Letter from James R. Goergen, to LP. RE: Asks about the differences between the first and second edition of College Chemistry. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (G: Correspondence, 1958) #141.2]
• Letter from Jerome Gross, Massachusetts General Hospital, to LP. RE: Informs him of a research fellow he has been working with. Encloses his abbreviated curriculum vitae. Informs him that he would like to spend a while in LP's laboratory. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (G: Correspondence, 1958) #141.2]
• Letter from John A. Donnan, Chemistry teacher, Sherman E. Burroughs High School, to LP RE: Thanks him for his lecture on "Molecular Structure" and requests help in finding books to figure out atom sizes and angles between atoms in a molecule so that his students can build their own models. Also asks for the dimensions LP used in his model. [Letter from LP to Mr. Donnan December 23, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (D: Correspondence, 1957), #98.22]
• Letter from LP to Don C. McMillan, City Manager, Pasadena. [Letter from Douglas Mackenzie to Mr. McMillan March 28, 1957, Letter from Mr. McMillan to LP December 19, 1957, Letter from LP to Mr. McMillan December 23, 1957, Memo from LP to Barclay Ray December 23, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (M: Correspondence, 1957), #257.2]

  17 December 1957

  Mr. Don C. McMillan

  City Manager

  Pasadena, California

  Dear Mr. McMillan

  I am writing to remind you that you said that you would write to me about the water drainage situation on Fairpoint Street after you had received a report from the city engineers. I have not yet got the letter that you said that you would send.

  You will recall that my wife and I own property at 3500 Fairpoint Street, just at the northeast corner of the City of Pasadena, and that some time ago the drainage of storm water as determined by the natural contour was greatly changed by the action of the City of Pasadena, which installed a paved street and curbing in such a way as to collect storm water from an extensive front and to discharge it so as to cause a stream of water to run across our property, during storm periods, thus causing erosion and other damage to our property. The situation has been slightly aggravated by the action of our neighbor to the west, Mr. Elmer, who has changed the contours on his land in such a way as to change the flow of the runoff water.

  I shall look forward to hearing from you about this matter.

  Sincerely yours,

  Linus Pauling:w

• Letter from LP to Morris Fishbein, Brain Research Foundation. RE: Would like more information about the Foundation. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (F: Correspondence, 1958) #129.2]
• Letter from LP to Mrs. Jean W. Underhill, RE: Returns the chart that Underhill sent in her December 16th letter and says that he can not understand it because she is trying to present too much in one chart. Suggests that instead of trying to describe everything that she has discovered at once, she should select one point that is important and present her discovery in terms that a physicist or mathematician would understand. [Letter from Underhill to LP, December 16, 1957] [Postcard from Underhill to LP, December 19, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (U: Correspondence, 1936-1970), Box #421, Folder #421.15]
• Letter from LP to Peter Pauling. [Filed under LP Biographical: Box #5.043, Folder #43.1]

  17 December 1957

  Dear Peter:

  I am sorry to have been so slow about sending you the set of slides of the water pictures that you asked for in your letter of 26 November. I read the letter carelessly, and thought that you were asking for a set of prints. I haven't been able to find a set of prints; although I know that I have a set somewhere around here -- I think that I gave you a set when I was in London, but I am not sure. Now I have got out a set of slides, and am sending them on to you.

  Dorothy Hodgkin has been here for several days. We have had a good time. Thomas has been here also.

  I have been supposed to write an article for the hydrogen-bond symposium that was held in Ljubljana, where I spoke about the structure of water, but I have not yet succeeded in getting it written. Professor Nadzi probably has given me up as hopeless. I hope that you will get some of the calculations made, in order that we can publish a detailed paper. If we don't watch out, someone else will do the job, especially after my talk in Ljubljana. Also, I was interested to see the article of which you sent me photostats, on similar ideas in relation to silica glass.

  The reference to Cross, Burnham, and Layton is J.A.CS., 59, 1134 (1937).

  I am pleased to hear about your crystal containing nickel and arsenic. I judge that the 8 arsenic atoms are present as unipositive cations, with three benzene rings and three methyl groups attached. Presumably the nickel has tetrahedral ligancy, with 4 chlorine atoms about. We could expect the nickel-chlorine distance to be approximately 2.23 Å (I don't remember that we have any reliable values for tetrahedral radius of nickel, and the value 1.24 may well be in error). This would lead to 3.62 Å for the edge of the tetrahedron, an excellent value for the contact distance of chlorine atoms, inasmuch as it is just twice the ionic radius of chloride ion, which I have taken to be also the van der Waals radius of chlorine. Accordingly the structure might approximate the fluorite structure, with the tetrahedral arsenic cations replacing the fluoride ion and the nickel tetrachloride anion replacing the calcium ion. The decrease in symmetry would fellow from the fact that there is one methyl group attached to each arsenic, together with three phenyl groups. I do not see any reason to expect that the four nickel-chlorine distances would not be equal, and the tetrahedron close to regular. It is not possible to conclude from the space-group symmetry that the nickel has tetrahedral coordination, rather than trigonal pyramidal or even trigonal planar, but I think that it is highly likely that there are tetrachloronickelate lens present, approximating regular tetrahedral structure.

  I suppose that the orientation may well be such that three chlorines project into each of four of the small cubes, and only one into each of the other four, rather than four in four of the small cubes and none in the other four. The arsenics, of course, have to be of two kinds. You might well be able to predict the structure reasonably closely, if you make some good packing models. I should think that it would be better to attack the problem in this way rather than to calculate a three-dimensional Patterson and go on from there, because the Fourier calculations for cubic crystals are pretty complicated. If you were to make a complete structure determination, you could end up with some least-squares refinements. It seems to me to be a pretty interesting crystal, and I could understand Nyholm's being interested in it.

  Crellin and Lucy and the baby are at the ranch this week, on their way from Portland to Pasadena. I bought a lettering set, and mailed it to San Simeon, and Crellin bought a drawing board and T-square. I had taken some of the drawings for THE NATURE OF THE CHEMICAL BOND up there - sketches and unfinished drawings - and Crellin is supposed to get a lot of work done on the preparation of drawings, during this Christmas vacation. It has been raining now for several days, so probably he has had to stay inside, and he may have accomplished a good bit. Perhaps we shall all go to the ranch over New Year's day. We had Thanksgiving there, with Luther Williams and his wife and children and their husbands' wives and children as guests - they also brought a turkey and some food.

  There was a bad fire in the mountains at Thanksgiving time. It burned over 25,000 acres, in the region north of Monrovia. However, it did not come closer than about 4 miles to houses, those in Fish Canyon, north of Azusa, and was at no time closer than perhaps 8 miles from Pasadena.

  I enclose a check for $750, for living expenses for January, February, and March 1958.

  Much love from

  Linus Pauling

  P.S. Dorothy says that you spoke very well at the Royal Society meeting on water. I have been wanting to find out what had happened there. It is too bad that we did not know about it in time, or in such a way, as to permit you to present one of the papers - I do not know what was said there, but I shall try to get Dorothy to tell me, if she isn't kept too busy between now and the time when she leaves, a few hours from now. LP

• Letter from Professor D.P. Craig, Chemistry Dept., University College London, to LP RE: 1958 has been chosen by the Section of Organic Chemistry of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry for the centenary commemoration of the chemical discoveries of Kekule including the quadrivalency of carbon and the cyclic structure of benzene. Invites LP deliver the opening lecture of the Symposium on Theoretical Organic Chemistry to be held in London on September 15-17, 1958. LP's expenses will be covered. [Letter from D.P. Craig to LP January 21, 1958] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1958s2.4]
• Letter from Secretary to LP to William Eberhardt, RE: Since there has been such a response to LP's petition the deadline for signatures has been pushed back from December 1st to December 31st. It would be most appreciated if Eberhardt could pass around the appeal to any interested parties at the Georgia Institute of Technology. [Filed under LP Peace: (An Appeal by Scientists to the Governments and People of the World, 1957-1959), Box #5.002, Folder #2.1]
• Memo from Peter Fay to LP RE: Informs him that he teaches a course on modern French History which has five students in it. Comments that he would be pleased to have Pierre Morel come and speak to his class. Multiple handwritten notes list different dates and times, multiple professors, and the subject of M. Morel's talk, which will deal with scientific achievements in France. [Letter from M. Morel to LP December 6, 1957, Memo from LP to Hallet Smith December 11, 1957, Memo from R.F. Bacher December 11, 1957, Letter from LP to M. Morel December 11, 1957, Letter from Ms. Wulf to M. Morel December 13, 1957, Letter from M. Morel to LP December 16, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (M: Correspondence, 1957), #257.2]
• Newspaper Clipping: "Pauling Sure There'll Be No Nuclear War," Pasadena (California) Star-News, December 17, 1957. [Filed under LP Biographical: (LP Scrapbooks, 1956-1960), Box #6.007, Folder #7.34]
• Note from Dr. Chia-Si Lu to LP RE: Informs him of all the changes to China since they last wrote to one another. Notifies him that they are developing a crystallography program in China. Invites him to visit his university in Amoy. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Lu, Chia-Si, [Lu, Jiaxi] 1938-1941, 1944-1945, 1948-1949, 1957, 1975, 1981, 1983-1985, 1987, 1991), #218.7]