Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on the Sponsors' Impatience for Gardner's Final Report (1942)

A one-page letter of October 14, 1942, from Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's secretary, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, headed "Asbestos Dust Experiments." Brown acknowledged Dr. Gardner's letter of October 9 and wrote that "several of the companies which have underwritten this project" had asked when they might expect the final report, so he had written Gardner himself the day before. "Two of the companies are exhibiting a little impatience," Brown wrote, "but it is my feeling that the delay can be justified under the circumstances."

What it shows

Brown kept a file on the experiments Dr. Leroy Gardner was running at Saranac Laboratory "for our group," and answered the sponsoring companies' questions about them. His last word from Gardner had pointed to a report toward the end of the summer of 1942; by October some sponsors were pressing for it, and Brown defended the delay. The report was still not finished in March 1943, when Gardner sent the sponsors an outline of his planned monograph (Simpson's office acknowledging it).

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 10/13/42. States that several sponsors of the asbestosis experiments are relaying impatience over the delayed completion of the final report. Informs that Brown recently corresponded with Dr. Gardner on this question.

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown Enclosing Leroy Gardner's Letter on Wartime Delays to the Final Report (1942)
• Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on Dr. Gardner Completing the Asbestos Experiments (1942)
• Sumner Simpson's Secretary to Vandiver Brown Acknowledging Gardner's Outline of a Monograph on Asbestosis (1943)

About this copy

This is document 05110 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.