September 11, 1942

Sept 11, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro, Calif

Dear father, mother, and anyone else who may read this,

In my last letter I told you a little bit about the laboratory. This tim I guess I will try to reconstruct a sort of plan of the Shell Development Co’s buildings here. They are not very large, any of them, and the laboratory is about a representative size.

On the south side of the road is a big ditch and on the other side of the ditch is the manifold thru which all of the pumping here is done. All the pumps are in one place sp that they can be used continuously and therefore more economically. Farther south are the stabilizers where unstabilized gasoline from the other Shell refinery near here (at Dominguez) is stabilized (that is, compounds too volatile for gasoline are driven off; that is compounds of the properties similar to those used in natural gas).

A is a building housing a couple of desks, gas analysis equipment & AB Cox’s office. B is a mechanic’s shack where Shorty Coe has been building another lab sized model of Plant I, similar to plant IV lately. B also houses the centrifuge that is used in sulfanations. E and W are indiscriminate areas of which I know little. The outside gate of the refinery is about ¼ mile north of the Shell development plant. A road runs north from the east side of Plant I, passing some fractionating columns and the solvent extraction plant for lubricating oils, then stops and turns east & west near the furnaces. By following the east branch for awhile you come to a rather large vacant space across which you walk, past the loading racks, the Shell Oil Lab, the office building and finally out thru the main gate, opening on Sepulveda Blvd. (see map I sent you at one time).

I do not know a great deal about the refinery here except incidentally, because we have little to do with it. A toluene production plant is being built at the Dominguez refinery which is a couple miles north of the Wilmington refinery. A similar plant is being built at the Wood Rive Refinery near Chicago.

The Shell Development plant started here about 7 years ago as I have already said and has grown considerably since then. However, its growth has resulted in a considerable degree of disorganization I think. The laboratory records, while complete, are kept somewhat unsystematically and the laboratory, due more or less to the fact that nobody has the time or the inclination is never thoroly cleaned up. Probably the worst phase in this respect, in my opinion, is the sample situation. I think that is an many samples are to be kept as now are, more and better storage space than the inadequate cupboards, should be provided. Moreover many of the samples are kept for a considerable length of time since it is never known when they might become important.

Nevertheless, I think that if I am to continue working for the Shell Dev Co, I’d as lief work here as in Emeryville. The climate here, tho rather foggy as I have already implied, is not as bad as near San Francisco. Moreover I believe that the establishment here will continue to grow altho that is problematical. At any rate, it is a much smaller organization and I think easier to work in than at Emeryville. Also, at Emeryville, there was been considerable labor trouble, I gather which does not sound so good.

All this may be rather looking into the future too far. I can’t see that I am going to enjoy the work here very much, probably for a considerable length of time. I believe that when I have enough saved to start farming I will leave because I just cannot see myself doing work like this all my days. Ig I were really keen about my work, as Raiford was always saying, I suppose I wouldn’t mind keeping on with it, but the more I think about it and come in contact with it, the less I really like it. Perhaps if the war continues I will land up in the army. At any rate, I am managing to stay out of it for awhile which is something.

I scarcely, if ever, read any newspapers and I don’t have a radio so I am sort of out of contact with the war. I picked up a newspaper left on the P.E. the other morning, but the most interesting news I could find was that the Cards were 2½ games out of first place and the Browns seem to have annexed 3^d place rather conclusively. If it weren’t for the newspapers grabbing hold of every happening in the war and playing it up in big headlines, the was would begin to be a dead issue I think.

As usual, I am disgusted with what I am doing, with life, and with the world in general. Maybe that’s why I would like to be a farmer — where there is a minimum of contact with people etc if you want to make it that way. I have no desire to make a lot of money or influence people or do remarkable things or make contributions to science. The extent of my ambition is to have enough to eat, something to wear (preferably covert pants & shirt and Rockford sox), books to read, paper & pencils to fool around with and enough to keep me busy so that the leisure I get will be appreciated, all with as little contact with others as possible.

The farm seems to be almost ideal in this respect, except for the books. However, the books worth reading are relatively scarce and they probably could be obtained without too great hardship. Moreover, living on a farm by yourself would probably involve the least responsibility and the least danger of economic want neither of which I am particularly anxious to encounter. The only disadvantage I can possibly think of is that there probably will be another war 25 or 30 years hence and I might not be old enough to stay out of it. However, that is rather far in the future and it’s easier not to consider it altho it seems to be a relatively real possibility. If there were any uninhabited part of the globe not ruled by some asinine form of gov’t that is run by a bunch of loco-minded nit wits and which did not blithely assume that its citizens exist for its benefit, I would be tempted to hie myself thither provided it wasn’t 100% desert (like Calif).

Well, I guess that’s enough of that. I’ll probably be able to exist another week without thinking too much about it.

You asked me mother about how to get in the coast guard. I really don’t know but I think that inquiry at a large enough post office, at the dean of Men’s office at I.S.C. or at the individual in charge of the ROTC there might be able to supply the information. I do not believe that more than a high school education & reasonable physical health is required altho I am not certain.

If I were you Vincent, I would not immediately buy a slide rule. If you do, don’t be in a hurry but look at the bulletin boards etc & you might be able to pick one up second hand for a reasonable sum. The first year you probably will use a rule for multiplication & division only and after that for about 95% of the time. A Mannheim rule for $2 or $3 serves this purpose. In buying a rule make sure that the sliding part (that is the long part that has the numbered scales on it) works easily. It should not fall out when the rule is held vertical (that is, from the rule proper) but it should move easily.

The 25¢ rule I left at home moves entirely too hard and when I say entirely I mean entirely. The sliding part (reader) should be more difficult to move than the long sliding part having the scales on it. This part (the sliding part) is the glass part with the single line in it that can also be moved along the rule. However, here again reason should be observed. Besides this it is sufficient to see to it that the rule is not warped, as would be apparent by discrepancies between the long sliding part & the rule proper. Most rules nowadays are made of mahogany covered with celluloid or some similar substances. Distrust any that are not unless possibly in the $2 class of Mannheim rules.

If you want to get a better rule for permanent use, it should have, besides the usual multiplying & dividing scales (called a & b usually) the following (1) the c scale (or inverted b scale) on the long sliding part (2) log-log scales (3) trigonometric scales. Beyond these there is nothing to be gained I think and most any rule above $10 has them. You probably can ask an engineering teacher, or you might encounter it in one of your freshman courses, if you want to know anymore about. However, don’t be in a hurry — You probably won’t need it for a good while.

I have deposited my money on a checking acct in a bank here and will send home periodically any excess that occurs. There is one now so I will enclose a check for it in this letter.

Tomorrow I might decide to go up to Los Angeles and look around or maybe out to Pasadena to see some of the things of interest. As for looking up Earl Strand I will leave that to people who are more capable of enduring his peculiar and eccentric character than I am.

As I write this I am sitting in a sort of easy chair with my feet on the bed and I am noticing that I have a lot of hair on the top of them that I really was never conscious of before. Something of an accomplishment no doubt. The toes also have hair on them. I shall have to grow a mustaches to even things up, otherwise I will have too much hair on my feet and not enough on my head.

With love and in boredom

C.P.