Vandiver Brown to Leroy U. Gardner Sending J-M's First Quarterly Payment for the Asbestos Experiments (1936)

A one-page letter of December 2, 1936, from Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's general attorney, to Dr. Leroy U. Gardner of Saranac Laboratory, with a copy to Sumner Simpson of Raybestos-Manhattan. Brown noted Gardner's letter of November 23 accepting the proposal for asbestos dust experiments in Brown's letter of November 20, and enclosed Johns-Manville's check for $1,250, "representing payment for the first quarter of 1937 on account of the $5,000 annual retainer, as agreed upon." He was arranging to send "a few pounds of asbestos fibre dust for chemical and petrographic analysis."

What it shows

This is the first payment under the industry's agreement to fund Gardner's asbestos experiments. Brown wrote that J-M's factory was "not entirely certain" it could grind the fiber as fine as Gardner wanted, but would try, and would remove "so far as possible, any serpentine rock dust" so as to provide pure asbestos fiber dust. He would wait for Gardner's analysis of the sample before sending any large quantity. Gardner's thanks to Simpson is his letter of December 4.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Acknowledges receipt of letter dated 11/23/36. Informs check is enclosed from J-M for $1,250 to pay for first quarter of 1937. Informs arrangements being made for samples of asbestos dust fiber to be sent for analysis to determine if acceptable for study.

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to Leroy Gardner Authorizing the Saranac Asbestos Experiments (1936)
• Leroy Gardner to Vandiver Brown Accepting the Terms of the Saranac Asbestos Experiments (1936)
• Leroy U. Gardner to Sumner Simpson on Starting the Asbestos Research Program (1936)
• Asbestos Companies' Memorandum of Agreement to Underwrite Gardner's Dust Experiments (1936)
• Vandiver Brown to F. E. Schluter of Thermoid Rubber on the Progress of the Saranac Dust Experiments (1936)

About this copy

This is document 03064 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.