Narrator: When Linus was nine, his father died. The family moved to a rooming house in Portland,
which Mrs. Pauling managed. There Linus got his first taste of chemistry in the home
of Lloyd Jeffress, a neighbor.
Linus Pauling: One day when I was thirteen years old, he said to me, "Would you like to see some
chemical experiments?" and I said, "yes I would." We went into his house up to the
second floor where he had his little bedroom and he carried out about three experiments
which really astounded me. They pleased me immensely.
Narrator: That first experience sparked Linus’s interest in chemistry and soon he began his
own imaginative experiments. Paul Emmett, a childhood friend, recalls an outdoor
escapade in Portland.
Paul Emmett: In his grammar school days, when he had a chemical laboratory at home, on some occasions
he would make explosive chemicals and then go out and put them on the car track so
that when the street car came by they would explode.
