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February 7, 1959

Dear Dr. Schmitt:

Many thanks for your letter and following note. I had ordered the converter (as I found they are called) but was able to cancel the order easily. The one you described should do the trick very well, and has a greater watt capacity than the one I was thinking of.

Now I have a point which I hope will not be a problem. I was so impressed with your earlier statements about packing equipment well (and Carl's and Fenner's statements as well), that I attempted to have duplicated the kind of cases you described in a letter of a month or two ago. It seems I over-estimated the size of the crates you sketched, for your last letter gave me dimensions that are quite a bit smaller than the boxes I have had constructed and that were finished several weeks ago. They are 40 X 30 X 30 which is a few inches larger all the way around than the maximum size you mentioned. They are beautifully constructed, however, and completely weather-proofed with fitting lids, trays, and the like. Our master carpenter here on the maintenance staff went all-out on them, and if need be I'll bet we can put to sea in them! One will be for cartons of bottles for the collection i hope to make for our museum here, and of course will be routed to the Smithsonian first; the other will be for equipment and apparatus and will return here directly. My own personal effects will be in a foot-locker which I hope I will be able to have in my cabin.

Dick Darsie told me of his visit with you. We are both now actively planning on packing our crates and getting them to New York. In about a week [[strikethrough]] or ten days[[/strikethrough]] I will send you a complete itemization of what is to be shipped from Middletown, together with dimensions, weights, and contents. Then if the bills of lading (or whatever they are) are prepared in Washington and set up here by about the 21st of this month, I am sure the items will be in New York ready for further shipment by the 1st of March, which as I recall is the date you indicated as the deadline.

Carl and I have been talking about the aqualung, and wonder if I really will need and use it, since I am an inexperienced lung diver, but hope to do a lot of diving with schnorkel in shallow water. If the loan is necessary, do you think we could get (rent) bottles down there, sending down only the mouthpiece, valves, etc? Or will both Nicholson and Finley have lungs, and would a third one be superfluous?

I picked up some additional equipment for the 16mm movie camera that will enable me to shoot close-ups without much difficulty. With this in mind, I could use

Transcription Notes:
It's [[strikethrough]] not [[strikethru]]. Not a fast food chain.