Memorandum from Linus Pauling to Richard La Force. November 15, 1962. Page 1  Larger Images / More Information. 2 pp.  View Transcript

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Activity Listings

• Check from LP to Green, Hennings, Henry, Evan & Arnold for $176.35. [Filed under LP Biographical: Bank Statements and Canceled Checks: First Western Bank, January 1962-December 1962: Box # 4.027 Folder #27.1]
• Hotel bill: Hotel Bristol, Oslo, Norway [Filed under LP Travel, Box #1.003, Folder 3.2] 
• Itinerary [handwritten]: Copenhagen [Filed under LP Travel, Box #1.003, Folder 3.2] 
• Letter from Adam Lohaus to Linda Hopkins RE: Lohaus has finished the forward for his booklet and asks Hopkins to add it to the booklet and enclosure he sent LP.  [Letter from Hopkins to Lohaus November 9, 1962] [Filed under LP Peace: Materials re: Nuclear Fallout; Radiation Hazards, 1962-1963: Box #7.005, Folder #5.14]
• Letter from Donald W. Cox to LP RE: Says that he is working on a book about the roles of the American scientist in politics. Asks for any material LP could send that might help with the book. [Letter from LP to Cox November 27, 1962] [Filed under LP Correspondence, C: Individual Correspondence, 1961-1962 Box 76 Folder 76.2] 
• Letter from Executive Editor, Quattrosoldi to LP RE: Encloses an article about Strontium 90 in human milk which will be published in their magazine. Asks if LP could read it and give them an authoritative opinion of it. Discusses the Quattrosoldi and it goals. [Letter from Agostini to LP May 28, 1963] [Filed under LP Correspondence, Q: Correspondence, 1948-1995, No Date Box 324, Folder 324.9]  
• Letter from Gerald Clarke to LP RE: Encloses material related distantly to LP’s work on the structure of water. [Letter from LP to Clarke December 3, 1962] [Filed under LP Correspondence, C: Correspondence 1961-1962 Box 76, Folder 76.2]
• Letter from LP to Dr. Richard La Force. [Filed under LP Correspondence, L: Individual Correspondence (Lacey - Lattimer) Box 212, Folder 212.2] 

  15 November 1962

  To: Dr. La Force

  From: Linus Pauling

  Subject: Research on Carbon-carbon Bond Lengths

  I should like you to carry out a somewhat routine research on carbon-carbon bond lengths in aromatic and conjugated molecules. I want to bring the discussion of this subject up to date, partly because I think that something new may be discovered in the course of the work and partly because the treatment in the last edition of The Nature of the Chemical Bond is sketchy.

  There are two standard ways of discussing the carbon-carbon bond lengths in naphthalene and other aromatic molecules. One is based upon the valence-bond discussion of these molecules and the other on the molecular-orbital discussion.

  I have contended that for naphthalene and similar molecules it is just about as good in applying the valence-bond discussion to use only the unexcited structures as to consider also the excited structures.

  A very simple consideration of the four unexcited structures for anthracene, page 237 of NCB, leads to bond lengths (using the values given in Table 7-9) in good agreement with experiment. Reference is made to MO calculations, which are said to give the same agreement.

  On page 238 a similar calculation for 1:14-benzbisanthrene is given. The agreement with experiment is again good. I don't know whether this molecule has been treated by the MO method.

  In Acta Cryst. for 10 October 1962 (15, 949) there is a paper on self-consistent bond lengths for tetracene and pentacene. The MO calculated bond lengths agree reasonably well with experiment.

  I suggest that you read the paper and the papers referred to, and also check the last few years of Acta Crystallographica and the Journal of the Chemical Society, where J. M. Robertson sometimes publishes, for experimental and MO theoretical values for various aromatic hydrocarbons, and also apply the valence-bond treatment with unexcited structures only to tetracene, pentacene, coronene (see J. M. Robertson's book on organic structures), and some other molecules of this sort. I should like to know to what extent the simple VB treatment gives calculated bond lengths in agreement with the MO treatment, and to what extent there is agreement with experiment.

  In the Acta Cryst. paper there is reference to exact self-consistent calculations for diphenylene. I'm not sure what this molecule is. In conjugated systems I think that the first excited structures have to be used. Perhaps a simple treatment of conjugated systems could be developed in which the first excited structures as well as the unexcited structures are considered, with the first excited structures given a standard weight, decided on in part empirically.

• Letter from Leslie Navran to LP RE: Tells LP that the Public Information Committee has been told that LP’s luncheon address on December 14 warrants a press conference. Asks LP some questions related to helping them prepare for one. [Letter from Harold Kelley to LP October 15, 1962] [Filed under LP Correspondence, P: Correspondence, 1960-1963 314, Folder 314.3]  
• Letter from Walt Schroeder to LP RE: Tells LP that Dr. Perry asked him to send LP the attached manuscript. Says that he has sent extensive comments to Perry with the suggestion that Perry split the paper up into two separate ones. [Letter from LP to Perry October 24, 1962] [Letter from LP to Perry December 4, 1962] [Filed under LP Correspondence, P: Individual Correspondence (Pais - Perry) Box 304, Folder 304.15] 
• Newsletter, “SANE World.” [Filed under LP Peace: (Publications by and about SANE, 1960-1964), Box #4.005, Folder #5.19] 
• Newspaper clipping: “Nobelinstituttet” AftenAdsten. [Filed under LP Biographical: Scrapbooks: Box #6.008 Folder #8.351]
• Newspaper clipping: “Pauling Denies ‘Wrangling’” New York Times Paris Edition. [Filed under LP Biographical: Scrapbooks: Box #6.008 Folder #8.348]
• Newspaper clipping: “På Blindern I dag” Dagbladet. [Filed under LP Biographical: Scrapbooks: Box #6.008 Folder #8.351]
• Photo: An unidentified woman talking to Linus and Ava Helen Pauling at the Nobel Hall. Ava Helen looking at the camera. Oslo, Norway. “Nobel Hall, Oslo, November. 15, 1962.” Photographer unknown. Black and white print.  [Filed under LP Photo Box: 1962i.6]
• Photo: Ava Helen Pauling standing in front of a large bronze bust of Alfred Nobel. Oslo, Norway. “Nobel Hall, Oslo, November 15, 1962.”  Photographer unknown. Black and white print.  [Filed under LP Photo Box: 1962i.7]
• Photo: Linus Pauling at Nobel Hall. Oslo, Norway. “Nobel Hall, Oslo, November. 15, 1962.”  Photographer unknown. Color print. [Filed under LP Photo Box: 1962i.4]
• Publication: “A Study of Sr-90 and Ca-137 in Norway 1957-1959,” Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. [Filed under LP Peace: Materials re: Strontium-90, 1961-1963: Box #7.014, Folder #14.15] 
• Telegram from Murray Goodman to Linda Hopkins RE: Says that a meeting was impossible to arrange and that he will contact LP to arrange a date for him to come to Pasadena to discuss editorial problems. [Letter from Hopkins to Goodman November 6, 1962] [Letter from LP to Goodman November 26, 1962] [Filed under LP Correspondence, G: Correspondence, 1962-1965 Box 142 Folder 142.1] 
• Various receipts: Hotel Bristol, Oslo [Filed under LP Travel, Box #1.003, Folder 3.2]