Vandiver Brown to F. E. Schluter of Thermoid Rubber on the Progress of the Saranac Dust Experiments (1936)

A two-page letter of December 16, 1936, from Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's general attorney, to F. E. Schluter of the Thermoid Rubber Company in Trenton, New Jersey, reporting on "the asbestos dust experiments" of Dr. Leroy U. Gardner. Brown explained that the Memorandum of Agreement, signed by Johns-Manville and by Sumner Simpson for Raybestos-Manhattan, had gone to Schluter to collect the other companies' signatures, and that he would keep the original and send each signer a photostatic copy. He had already sent Gardner Johns-Manville's check for $1,250, "representing advance payment on account of the first quarter of 1937," and had undertaken to supply Gardner with asbestos fiber in dust form, about 1,200 pounds a year. Copies went to Simpson, Lewis H. Brown, E. M. Voorhees and S. A. Williams.

What it shows

The letter sets out how the industry paid for the Saranac Laboratory work: Johns-Manville or Raybestos-Manhattan paid each quarter in advance and then billed the other sponsors their "pro rata portion." It also shows Johns-Manville supplying the dust Gardner would test. The agreement itself, with Brown's letter authorizing Gardner to begin, is the Memorandum of Agreement of November 20, 1936.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

Informs that payment has been sent to Saranac for first quarter of 1937. Asbestos fiber dust in fine form will be provided to Saranac by the sponsors. The sponsors will be billed their pro rats shares of the first quarter's payment as soon as the Memorandum of Agreement is returned to J-M.

Related documents

• Asbestos Companies' Memorandum of Agreement to Underwrite Gardner's Dust Experiments (1936)
• Vandiver Brown to Leroy Gardner Authorizing the Saranac Asbestos Experiments (1936)
• Vandiver Brown to Leroy U. Gardner Sending J-M's First Quarterly Payment for the Asbestos Experiments (1936)
• Sumner Simpson to F. E. Schluter of Thermoid Sending the Saranac Memorandum for Signatures (1936)
• Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on the Seven Sponsors of the Saranac Experiments (1936)

About this copy

This is document 03087-03088 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.