Letters Received to H.H. Barker, April 27, 1931

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI APR 30 1931 COLUMBIA DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY April 27th, 1931. Mr. H. H. Barker United States Radium Corporation 535 Pearl Street New York City, New York My dear Howard: Your letter reporting your meeting with Dr. Ewing and Dr. Craver I read with considerable interest and I shall try to write Dr. Craver in the near future. Craver has not replied as yet to my letter which accompanied the data on the radium content of the excreta. I expect some comment on this report from him very soon. I really regret that Dr. Failla has lost interest in the gamma ray and expired air methods of determining radium content of living persons. At this time it would be especially desirable to measure the activity of the girls who have been under Dr. Craver's treatment and I hope that Dr. Failla can be persuaded to do this. I should be very much surprised if the activity of these girls has materially changed since the time when we last made measuroments on them. I am especially pleased with Dr. Ewing's attitude with reference to the matter of publication and in my letter to Dr. Craver I shall suggest that we proceed to publish at an early date. I have been away for nearly a week attending the spring meeting of the Amerioan Electrochemical Society held in Birmingham. I saw a good many Missourians who have migrated to the South and had a very good time. Dr. Lind, however, did not attend the meeting and it foll to my lot to present the two papers for which he was scheduled. About two weeks ago we finally received our Wolf- Hess gamma ray machine. It is an instrument with very low natural drift. We get a fall of about two small divisions in 50 minutes which is a little better than the instrument that was used by Mr. Knowles in his work. As a result of some tests made on two of my students who are engaged in the refining laboratory I feel confident that the presence of one microgram of radium in a living person can be detected with certainty by means of this new electroscope. We shall be able to use this instrument for determining the radium content of residues and feces in the ani- mal experiments now under way. When a standard of 1/10 of a microgram of radium is strapped to the case of the instrument a very marked increase in drift is observed and a standard of only 1/100 of a microgram still produces a slight but distinct increase in drift. With very good wishes, I remain, Sincerely yours, Herman Schlundt hs.as Herman Schlundt.