August 14, 1945

Dr. Edward U. Condon

Westinghouse Research Laboratories

East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dear Ed:

I was sorry to learn that you were prevented at the last moment from going on the junket to Russia. I would have liked to go along, but I felt that my health hardly permitted me to take the chance of starting out on such a long trip when the arrangements for travel were so uncertain.

I am writing to you now to ask for information about the Westinghouse mass spectrograph. I have been thinking about the plans for the future research program of the Gates and Crellin Laboratories of Chemistry, and I believe that it would be very much worth while for us to have a mass spectrograph of the best possible design here. We have in mind a program of study of bond energy in molecules, similar to the work which Dr. Stevenson carried out when he was with you. We would also like to use the mass spectrograph in connection with a fundamental investigation of the kinetics of reaction and of the nature of intermediate complexes. A possible further use would be as a tool in isotope studies in chemistry and biology.

All of the work that we would do with the instrument would relate to pure science, and I think that I can say confidently that we would put the instrument to very good use. I would accordingly be glad to have detailed information about the Westinghouse mass spectrograph, and its price, and also whether there is any chance that our laboratories could get the instrument at an especially low price, our funds being at the present time rather limited.

Cordially yours,

[Linus Pauling]

LP:gw