April 12, 1938

Dr. L. E. Sutton

1, Eastchurch

Iffley, Oxford, England

Dear Sutton:

I am astounded to note that your letter of the 9th of February remained unanswered this long. This may be due in part to the visit of Todd, who with his wife left on the Grand Canyon Limited just two hours ago on their way back to London, and in part to the first steps of moving into the new laboratory. I was interested to read about your dream and to put you in bettor shape for further dreaming, I am enclosing a clipping from the Los Angeles Times.

Having got this far in the letter, I decided that the time had come to move from Astrophysics to Crellin so my secretary, Mrs. Shaffer, and I picked up some pencils, paper and the typewriter and made the move.

I have a nice big laboratory in the north east corner on the first floor of Crellin, the situation being the same as in the Astrophysics Building. This laboratory is twenty feet square. It has two chemical desks and a hood and sink in one corner, a writing desk and table and a black board and a blue rug on the floor under the writing desk. Next door is a smaller room about ten by fifteen, containing a writing desk for me, for business, a desk for the secretary, and miscellanies. To the west is a large room about twenty by thirty, which will contain Weinbuam, crystal models, plotting tables etc. I do hope that you will come to Pasadena again on your next leave of absence from college.

Hampson and Springall have been working very hard this spring and I think that they will finish up their work in fine shape. I heard from the Commonwealth Fund that a man named Laidler is applying for a fellowship. I would be glad to have any of your able men come here to work, even including those in organic chemistry, since we are developing our work in this direction.

Brodkway has just sent me a copy of his paper on the phosphorus compounds. He seems to have been enjoying himself very much at Oxford.

I am sorry that I am not coming to England this summer, and I hope that a European trip can be arranged before too many years have gone by.

With very best regards, I am

Sincerely yours,

LP/bcs