15 May 1963

Mr. Stanley Schaefer

W. H. Freeman and Company

660 Market Street

San Francisco, California

Dear Stan:

I enclose a page from Science" for 11 May 1962. It contains an advertisement by Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

At the upper left side of the page there is a drawing showing an atom of uranium 235 in the process of fission, after having interacted with a neutron. If the page is rotated through 90°, it can be seen that the drawing has with essentially no doubt been copied from the last figure in my books College Chemistry and General Chemistry.

This figure was in the first edition of the book and has been in every edition of this College Chemistry and General Chemistry, and in the translations.

The points of identity between my drawing and the copy are enumerous. At the left side of the drawing a neutron is shown approaching the uranium nucleus. It approaches from the upper right, at just the same angle in the Prentice-Hall drawing as in my drawing.

The middle part shows the nucleus in the process of fission. The deformed nucleus is shown with an upper curvature, essentially identical with that in my drawing. At the right of the drawing the two daughter nuclei are shown, with exactly the same relative positions, with respect to the axis of the drawing, as in my drawing. Moreover, they occupy the same positions on the page relative to the center of mass. On the right side there are five neutrons, and on the left side four. Starting at the top, on the right side, there is a neutron far out, one close in, one far out, one close in, and one far out, exactly as in my drawing. On the left side there is one far out, one at an intermediate distance, one close in, and one farther out, as in my drawing. Eight of the nine neutrons are in essentially identical positions in the two drawings, and the ninth is a little closer to the center in the Prentice-Hall drawing than in mine (which was, of course, made by Roger Hayward).

I think that the probability that the drawing was not copies from my books is so small as to be essentially non-existent.

I recognize that there is the possibility that permission was given by W. H. Freeman Company for the drawing to be copied. You probably can check the files to find out whether or not this was done.

I remember that some years ago a book appeared containing a good number of drawings that had been copied from my College Chemistry. It is my memory that the company made some restitution to W. H. Freeman Company.

I think that it might be worthwhile to have your lawyer write to Prentice-Hall and to ask for some sort of payment for this drawing.

Cordially yours,

Linus Pauling:hpg

Encl.