Letters Sent to C.S. Stephenson, November 11, 1938

Nov. 11,1938. Commander C.S. Stephenson, Buroau of Medicine & Surgery, Washington, d.C. Dear Commander Stephenson: Since your visit hore we have given considerable thought to the practicability of the use of the sensitive electroscope developed by Dr. Curtiss as a control method in luminous material application plants. Thero is no doubt about this being a very delicate instrument and if used by an expert. suoh as Dr. Curtiss would have value in locating any possible hazards from radioactivity, especially in plants handling quantities of material such as ourso However, in the hands of those not specially trained or possessing considerable knowledge and skill, in our opinion the instrument is too delicate to have any great value. It seems to us that the hoalth angle so far as the luminous application is concerned is largely dependent on strict supervision of the operators to see that sanitary conditions are obsorved. In the average application plant, there is very little possibility of any radium contamination except through careless of sloppy handling of the material. Periodic examinations by the ultra violet light method would determine any wasted luminous material and would have the advantage of locating it, whereas if the electroscope was used the only thing it would do would be to deternine the presence of radio-activity wâthout specifically locating it. Our reactions given above may not conform to your own ideas, but we are sure you will accept thom in the spirit in which they aro offerod. Very truly yours, CBLeo :DK President