CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
PASADENA
June 28, 1942
Air Mail
Professor Warren C. Johnson
Department of Chemistry
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
Dear Warren:
I can now report progress on the carbon monoxide instrument. The lines of
attack which I have though of have been followed up, but have not so far come to anything.
However, about six weeks ago I told Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, formerly Assistant Professor
of Chemistry in our Department, and now Head of the National Technical Laboratories,
about the need for this instrument, and about ten days ago he came ot me with an idea
which he thought would work. He has now made further calculations, with results that
look very promising.
The instrument which he has in mind would work in the following way. Air
would pass through a tube such that the absorption of a beam of light through the
air could be measured, then through a layer of heated iodine pentoxide, which would
be reduced by the carbon monoxide with formation of iodine. The air would then continue
through another tube in which the absorption of light could be measured. The change
in light absorption in a region where iodine vapor is absorbing, as measured by a
split-element photovoltaic cell, would give the amount of carbon monoxide initially
present in the air.
Using the 1936 data of Rabinowitch and Wood, for light with wavelength about
5000 Å, Dr. Beckman has calculated that it should be practicable to detect the presence
of carbon monoxide in quantities as small as ten parts per million, that is, one thousandth
of one per cent of an atmosphere. Larger quantities could presumably be determined
with considerable accuracy. This calculation is based on the use of a cell one meter
long, which presumably could be a tube bent around into a circle, with the light transmitted
through it by internal reflection.
The volume of the apparatus as planned would be perhaps one-half cubic foot,
its weight not over ten points, and the power source any convenient supply, 6 or 12
or 110 volts. The instrument would indicate amount of carbon monoxide continuously,
and could be arranged to provide an alarm. The estimated price of the instruments
in quantity production is a few hundred dollars.
I would be glad to know what the present situation is about a carbon monoxide
instrument. If there is still the need for the instrument described in your letter,
I would recommend that Dr. Beckman be given a contract for developing an instrument
along the line which he has suggested. From the success which he has had with his
pH meter and spectrophotometer, I would expect him to do a good job.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
LP:jr
