Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on Two Sponsors Leaving the Saranac Experiments (1940)

A one-page letter of January 15, 1940, from Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's general attorney, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan. Brown reported that all the sponsors of Dr. Gardner's experiments had answered and that two, the Asbestos Manufacturing Company of Huntington, Indiana, and the Russell Manufacturing Company of Middletown, Connecticut, would not pay for another year. Because four other companies wanted to keep their $250 a year limit, Raybestos-Manhattan, the Thermoid Company, Keasbey & Mattison and Johns-Manville would each have to pay $1,000 for 1940 instead of the $667 of each of the last three years. Johns-Manville was willing, "even if the results of the further experiments do no more than corroborate the tentative conclusions thus far reached," and Brown asked for Raybestos-Manhattan's position.

What it shows

The letter shows how the asbestos companies shared the cost of Leroy Gardner's work at Saranac Laboratory and who stayed with it after the first three years. A postscript says similar letters went to Mr. Fabel of the Southern Asbestos Company (Thermoid) and to Mr. Scott of Keasbey & Mattison. Simpson agreed the next day to pay $1,000.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Informs that two companies will not continue to fund Saranac study for another year. These companies are: Asbestos Mfg. Co. and Russell Mfg. Co. This change means that RM, J-M, Thermoid Co. and Keasbey & Mattison will each have to contribute $1,000 per year instead of $666.67. Informs that J-M considers this a good investment and requests information on RM's position.

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown Agreeing to Fund Gardner's Experiments for One More Year (1939)
• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown Agreeing to Pay $1,000 for Gardner's 1940 Experiments (1940)
• Vandiver Brown to Dr. Leroy U. Gardner Authorizing the Experiments for 1940 (1940)
• Vandiver Brown to George S. Fabel on Southern Asbestos Staying in the Saranac Experiments (1940)

About this copy

This is document 04340 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.