University College London ● WC1

Professor Linus Pauling,

Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions,

Box 4068

Santa Barbara,

California 93103

U.S.A.

28th October, 1965.

Dear Pa,

Many thanks for your letters over the last year. I apologize for not answering them and not for writing to you in general.

Do you want me to stop having the Penguins sent to you or not? I have not done anything about it mostly because I cannot pay their bill and feel bad about cancelling the subscription without paying the bill. It is easy for me to stop them if you want that done. Can you send me some of the book bill from last year and then I will pay Heffers? You sent me part of it last year and said you would send the rest this year. I suppose I ought to send you another one for this year.

I am not sure whether the considerations in the paper on Molecular Packing in Crystals of Aromatic Hydrocarbons lead to a value for the Van der Waals radius of the hydrogen atom, but the work that we did a small portion of which was included in that paper do. This was to take all the Aromatic Hydrocarbons we could find and calculate various functions of the inter-atomic distances of different sorts, such as C-C, H-H, while we rotated the molecules about the molecular axes. These functions show a definite minimum at the observed orientation of the H-H interactions and from these I think I could get a Van der Waals radius for the hydrogen atom.

I shall send you a list of my publications and the things that are almost published. May I ask you to do the same for me?

I am very pleased you have been working on your theory of nuclear bond. The Goertzel told me that you had been working pretty hard and I was very pleased. Can you send me some reprints if you have any? I think there is some chance that you can make an important contribution and hope that you do so.

I am pleased you have moved into your new house. It sounds a bit like me, takes a long time and then there is no electricity. Except that my room in the basement is quite a mess, we are fairly well under control. It has rather an unfinished air about it but is reasonably comfortable. I bought a painting a couple of months ago and am very pleased with it. It is hung in the living room and I think adds a great deal.

I was in Sheffield last week and got the first few runs on the RDC instrument. I seem to be the only person who can run it and now I must get some sophisticated programmes to cope with the data. The instrument seems to work pretty well though the intensity is rather low. Thank you for the suggestion on CS₂. I shall look it up and see if I can’t get some. At the moment I am trying to prove that tetraethyl ammonium and tetramethyl ammonium tetrachlorozinc (II) both contain tetrahedral ZnCl₄.

Much love from,

Peter