June 12, 1942
Mr. Edward C. Barrett
California Institute
CONFIDENTIAL
Dear Mr. Barrett:
While in Washington I obtained permission orally from the NDRC officials to have some work done for us by the Bell Laboratories.
This work was to be either on order from our Institute or under sub-contract. I find on reading supplement No. 1 of Contract
No. OEMsr-326 that we are not authorized to have the work done simply by order of our purchasing agent, but that instead a
sub-contract will need to be issued. Would you be good enough to prepare a sub-contract, according to paragraph 15 of this
document.
The sub-contract is to be issued to the Western Electric Company, and sent to Mr. F.A. Cunningham, addressed to 195 Broadway,
New York, New York. The work to be done under the sub-contract may be described in the following way:
To design a magnetic circuit with improved characteristics, as described in the letter of Linus Pauling to R.M. Bozorth,
May 6, 1942. The amount of the sub-contract is to be $1,000.
I judge from paragraph 15 that after the sub-contract has been prepared it must be submitted to Dr. Stewart for approval
before it is issued to the Western Electric Company.
If you agree with me that the work by the Western Electric Company must be arranged for in this way, I shall write to
Dr. Bozorth, sending him this information. I have previously told him that it would be done simply on order from us.
I am returning enclosed the contract from the OSRD. It seems to me to be satisfactory in every respect, with the possible
exception that it would be simpler for us if we could avoid issuing the sub-contract to the Western Electric Company. But
I am afraid that there is nothing we can do about this.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
LP:jr
Enclosure
