9 October 1956

Dear Peter:

I have had a telephone call from Perryman Mojonier Co., Custom House Brokers, 354 South Spring Street (telephone Michigan 1178), Los Angeles. Mr. Folmer talked with me. He says that the Mercedes Benz will arrive on the steamship Lochhaven due about the 23rd of October. He said that we need documents authorizing clearance: ownership documents, German motor license book, carnet de passage, and a statement about the number of miles that the car has been driven since you got it. I told him that I thought that it had been purchased in Germany, although I was not sure.

Also, Mr. Folmer said that their company could take care of the whole job of bringing it through customs and delivering it to our house, so that I shall not have to do anything about it. However, I need the documents.

I am sending a carbon copy of this letter to Crellin. In case that you have sent any documents to him, he can send then on down to me.

I have not yet got a license on the Porsche. Crellin said that the officials here were apt to be rather sticky about ownership, and that we would have to have a notarized statement about ownership of the car. Could you send such a statement to me? suppose that I can be the registered owner, and you the actual owner, or whatever the documents require. If you want, we can put the Porsche in storage. I have not yet sold the 1953 one.

Mama and I are going to Beer Flat Ranch on Thursday afternoon. Barclay Ray is going up with us, in order to check over the geology of the place, and especially to look at the rock cliffs to see whether he can estimate the rate at which it is being eroded away. My estimate is about one foot average in ten or twenty years - there was a fence put up close to the edge thirteen years ago, by Mr. Evans, who homesteaded the place in 1916, and this fence is still close to the edge, with apparently a few of the posts having been freed through rock falls from the cliff. The rock looks pretty hard to me, and I think that it would be possible to build a house quite close to the edge of the cliff, without danger. Linda will probably go up with us, and come back Sunday morning, since she is to pour at Mrs. DuBridge's tea for the faculty. I am going to take the plane Sunday evening from San Luis Obispo, so that I can spend a few days at Oberlin College, returning on Friday. Mama will stay up at the ranch probably until Thursday, and then drive back to Pasadena.

We had the tea for the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering day before yesterday. It was a great success. As usual, Mama had arranged fruit and vegetables in a beautiful display on the old picnic table, up north of the big oak trees. She had bought hundreds of very small frankfurters, about 2 inches long, and one of the boys, Dr. Forrest Carter, took charge of roasting them over a charcoal fire on the patio. The punch was very good. Although it had been cold and rainy for two or three days, the day of the tea turned out to be beautifully clear and pleasantly warm. Pauline and Michael came over. Pauline is in the middle of a lawsuit - she has sued some of the department stores for selling cheap imitations of her shoes and the verdict will be rendered on 1 December. She thinks that her patent will be found valid.

About a week ago I moved into my new office, on the second floor of the Church Laboratory. It is perhaps a little larger than my other office. Different in shape, too - 16 by 33 feet. The windows face to two doors. It is 18 feet long, has from the floor to 3 feet high, tiers of 5 drawers each, and above that 4 feet of cabinet space, with sliding glass doors. It is beautifully finished, made with a nice wood - maple,in a light oak finish. The cabinet is 27 inches deep, as are the drawers. I have some models and some books in it at present. I have a chemical bench, sink, and hood at the west end, and a group of filing cases.

Much love to Julia and Gregorio. I hope that everything is going along well in the University of London.

Love from

[Linus Pauling]