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166
[[red underline]] only knows French [[/red underline]] but he has as secretary [[red underline]] Dr. Engelͯ a chemical engineer in [[red underline]] heavy hot lieutenant uniform. [[/red underline]] 
ͯWith his long black beard he seems very hot and uncomfortable in this warm weather.
[[vertical annotation in left margin]] ͯEngel is below average height and has a long full grown beard, looks funny. [[/vertical annotation]]
[[red underline]] France seems to be short of everything. Benzol, chlorine methylalcohol, toluol, arsenic etc. etc. Gas warfare seems much more extended [[/red underline]] and more important than what [[red underline]] we supposed. Phosgene or carbonylchlorid COCl2 [[/red underline]] in mixture of liquid chlorine seems to be used in considerable quantities also. [[red underline]] prussic acid [[/red underline]] HCN in conjunction [[red underline]] with arsenic chloride; also brom derivatives of methyl-ethyl ketone. [[/red underline]] 
Evening other [[red underline]] special meeting [[/red underline]] the Frenchmen absent, in which each committee reported
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[[overwritten]] 166 [[/overwritten]] 167
about its work or its problems.
June 29. Met the frenchmen, [[red underline]] Fabry, Abrahams and de Guiche at lunch at Cosmos[[/red underline]] also a long lean [[red underline]] thin smiling Captain Cappart [[/red underline]] which a monocle on one eye, and his heart full of decorations. [[red underline]] A gaunt don quixotty looking figure in old cheap kaki uniform. [[/red underline]] They tell me he is a [[red underline]] Belgian [[/red underline]] who was electrical engineer at [[red underline]] Brown Bovery's [[/red underline]] in Switzerland who volunteered as private in Belgian army, then went thru many narrow escapes, and distinguished himself so much that he rapidly rose in rank.
Finally a French General picked him out to serve as his aide-de-camp in the French Army but he [[red underline]] still wears Belgian [[/red underline]] uniform. Cappart tells me he wants much to talk about [[red underline]] Bakelite [[/red underline]] with me. Says he     

Transcription Notes:
"toluol" is a flammable liquid obtained from coal tar, used as a solvent in the manufacture of benzoic acid. Dr. Baekeland may be referring to Charles Fabry, physicist, H. Abrahams of Univ. of Paris, and M. le Duc de Guiche, an expert in aerodynamics.