Letter from Linus Pauling to Victor Rothschild. July 1, 1953. Page 1  Larger Images / More Information. 1 p.  View Transcript

<   July  1953   > S M T W T F S       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31   Travel: London

Activity Listings

• LP and AHP travel from New York to London.
• Letter from Carl Niemann to Dean Lacey RE: Admission of Miss Dorothy Semenow into Caltech graduate school has been approved in a 17 to 3 vote by the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Notes that Semenow shows great promise as a chemistry research scientist. [Filed under: LP Biographical, Box 1.018, Folder 18.2]
• Letter from John C. Kendrew to LP. [Filed under LP Safe: Box 2.038, Folder 38.4]
• Letter from LP [signed in his absence by Beatrice Wulf] to Dr. Stafford L. Warren, Dean of School of Medicine, U of California RE: Thanks Dr. Warren for his letter and agrees with his points for not accepting Jack Behncke into the medical school as LP had recommended in an earlier letter. [Letter from Dr. Warren June 22, 1953]
• Letter from LP [signed in his absence by Beatrice Wulf] to Mr. Jack Behncke RE: Writes that he has just received word from Dr. Warren of the U. of California Medical School that they have now closed the class, and so he, Mr. Behencke, will not be admitted this year. [associated letter from LP to Dean Warren of the Medial school of U of California May 13, 1953, associated letter from Dean Warren to LP June 22, 1953] [Filed under B: Correspondence 1953, Box #37, Folder #20]
• Letter from LP to David W. Baily, of Harvard University RE: Thanks Mr. Baily for sending him information regarding the faculty who were summoned as witnesses before the Congressional investigating committees. [Letter from Baily to LP July 1, 1953]
• Letter from LP to Dr. Kuebler, Ripon University RE: reply containing a positive reference of Dr. Spitzer explaining his academic and personal attributes and recommending his academic appointment. [Reply to letter form Kuebler to LP May 5, 1953].
• Letter from LP to Dr. P. C. Gaines, Acting President of Montana State College RE: has received a letter from B. L. Johnson, Acting Head, Department of Chemistry at Montana State College regarding the wish that the college be empowered to give the Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry and chemical engineering. Goes on to write about his understanding of the situation and gives his support in favor of the proposal. [related letter from B. L. Johnson to LP June 25, 1953] [Filed under G: Correspondence 1953, Box #140, Folder #17]
• Letter from LP to I.C.M. Maxwell of the Inter-University Council for Higher Education RE: Reply containing a positive recommendation of Dr. Ralph Spitzer to an academic post at the University College of the West Indies. [Reply to letter from Maxwell to LP April 24, 1953].
• Letter from LP to Lewis Pino, RE: LP suggests that he and AHP come to Meadville on November 4th and LP will present his college lecture on November 5th and his technical lecture on November 6th. [Pino’s letter June 19, 1953] [Pino’s reply August 20, 1953] [Filed under LP Speeches: (Speeches by Linus Pauling, 1953), Box 1953s, Folder 1953s.16]
• Letter from LP to Lord Rothschild. [Letter from Lord Rothschild to LP June 9, 1953] [Filed under LP Correspondence: Box #336, Folder #6]

  1 July 1953

  Lord Rothschild

  Merton Hall

  Cambridge

  England

  Dear Victor:

  I am afraid that I cannot tell you very much about Dr. L.E.R. Picken.

  I don't think that I have ever met him. We have had some correspondence with him, and I have read his 1942 paper in Helvetica Chimica Acta and his 1937 paper, with Meyer, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

  I think that I would say that this work seems to be good but not outstanding. It cannot be described as x-ray work of high order - the principal contribution that Picken and his co-workers made was that of getting the photographs. I may mention that the interpretation of the x-ray photograph given in the 1942 paper has turned out to be a rather poor one. Lotmar and Picken attempted to force the measurements to conform to a rather small unit, which has turned out to be just half as big as necessary to account for them. Picken sent us his original photographs, and we measured them up ourselves - I measured them, and went through the job of interpreting the measurements. I soon found that Lotmar and Picken had made an error, and that it was in fact necessary to double the size of their unit.

  I must point out that probably Dr. Lotmar was the x-ray authority in this joint work, with Picken contributing mainly from the biological side, and that this fact should not be taken as a reflection on Picken's ability. I am not in a position to make an estimate of Picken's ability.

  With best regards, I am

  Sincerely yours,

  Dictated by Linus Pauling

  Signed in his absence:W

• Letter from LP to Mr. Bentley Glass of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences RE: writes that he is pleased to receive their letter with the news about their plans for their publication of Science [a magazine]. Their request to publish LP's new paper on ferromagnetism is in vain, for it has already been recently published in the June issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Has asked Dr. Edsall to prepare a report on their Conference on the Structure of Proteins, as the magazine has requested for use in their publication. [Letter from Mr. Glass to LP June 25, 1953].