June 12, 1942
Mr. Edward C. Barrett
California Institute
CONFIDENTIAL
Dear Mr. Barrett:
While in Washington I obtained permission orally from the NDRC officials to have
some work done for us by the Bell Laboratories. This work was to be either on order
from our Institute or under sub-contract. I find on reading supplement No. 1 of Contract
No. OEMsr-326 that we are not authorized to have the work done simply by order of
our purchasing agent, but that instead a sub-contract will need to be issued. Would
you be good enough to prepare a sub-contract, according to paragraph 15 of this document.
The sub-contract is to be issued to the Western Electric Company, and sent to
Mr. F.A. Cunningham, addressed to 195 Broadway, New York, New York. The work to be
done under the sub-contract may be described in the following way:
To design a magnetic circuit with improved characteristics, as described in the
letter of Linus Pauling to R.M. Bozorth, May 6, 1942. The amount of the sub-contract
is to be $1,000.
I judge from paragraph 15 that after the sub-contract has been prepared it must
be submitted to Dr. Stewart for approval before it is issued to the Western Electric
Company.
If you agree with me that the work by the Western Electric Company must be arranged
for in this way, I shall write to Dr. Bozorth, sending him this information. I have
previously told him that it would be done simply on order from us.
I am returning enclosed the contract from the OSRD. It seems to me to be satisfactory
in every respect, with the possible exception that it would be simpler for us if we
could avoid issuing the sub-contract to the Western Electric Company. But I am afraid
that there is nothing we can do about this.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
LP:jr
Enclosure
