Narrator: Dr. Pauling feels that his experiments in x-ray crystallography helped develop his
understanding of the atom.
Linus Pauling: I was very fortunate in having A.A. Noyes suggest to me, or tell me, that I was to
work with Roscoe Dickinson on x-ray crystallography, determination of the structure
of crystals by x-ray diffraction. This technique gave for the first time detailed
information about how atoms are related to other atoms in a crystal and how far apart
they are from the other atoms. I was happy to be working the way I was, making perhaps
small discoveries about the structure of molybdenite and other minerals and inorganic
compounds. And I was eager to understand chemistry better than it was understood
in that early period but I didn’t have the idea, I think, that I was going to be the
person that clarified this whole question about the chemical bond.
