23 August 1954
Professor F. J. Allen
118 E. Stadium Street
West Lafayette, Indiana
Dear Fred:
I have finished rewriting Chapters 1 to 7, but they have not yet been typed, and so there will be a little delay in sending them to you.
I am accordingly sending Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 to you under separate cover. It is my opinion that these chapters are in essentially their final form, except for the changes that you suggest, and for the exercises at the ends of the chapters and the summaries - that is, the sections entitled Concepts, Facts, and Terms Introduced in This Chapter.
I have not made copies of the manuscript for these five chapters. I suggest that you indicate minor changes in pencil on the manuscripts themselves, and major changes on separate sheets of paper.
You may be troubled by lack of knowledge of the material that is now in the earlier chapters. Perhaps the copies of the earlier chapters will reach you before you have returned these five - I am hoping to begin sending them to you in a few days, and to have all of them, all seven, in your hands within about ten days.
At the present time I should tell you that in Chapter 3 there is a discussion like that of Chapter 3 of GENERAL CHEMISTRY on the electron and the nuclei of atoms, somewhat simplified over GENERAL CHEMISTRY. Chapter 4, on Elements, Elementary Substances, and Compounds, has not been changed a great deal. In Chapter 5, on The Chemical Elements and the Periodic Law, there is now a rather detailed discussion of the electronic structure of atoms, subshells of electrons, ionization potentials, and the energy level diagram from atoms.
In Chapter 6, on Hydrogen and Oxygen, there is a section on the naming of compounds, a section on oxidation and reduction, a section on valence, including valence bonds and brief mention of positive and negative valence, a section on ions, with a discussion of Arrhenius and his development of the theory of ionization, a section on acids, bases, and salts, approximately as at present, and a section on the ionization of strong electrolytes, and writing equations for reactions involving ions. Chapter 7 covers and alkali and alkaline-earth metals, boron, carbon, nitrogen, and the halogens.
Please send the chapters back to me by Air Express when you have finished with them. Keep a record of the amounts that you have to payout in shipping the manuscripts, and I shall reimburse you later.
I am especially anxious to know whether you think that some of the material that I have included in these chapters could be left out of the book. Our situation is, of course, that any teacher who wants to have a more extensive treatment of general chemistry can use the book GENERAL CHEMISTRY; but, on the other hand, I do not want to simplify COLLEGE CHEMISTRY to the extent of leaving important topics out.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling:W