February 7, 1959 
Dear Dr. Schmitt: 
Many thanks for your letter and following 
note. I had oiJdered the converter (as I found the^ are 
called) but was able to cancel the order easily. Ihe one 
you described should do the trick very well, and has a 
greater watt capacity than the one I was thinking of. 
Kow I have a point which I hope will not be 
a problem. I was so Impressed with your earlier statements 
about packing sQUipment well (and Carl's and Fenner's 
statements as well), that X 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 
ar° Quite a bit smaller than the boxes I have had constructed 
and that were finished several weeks ago. Tney are 4-0x30x30 
which is a few inches larger all the way around than the 
maximum size you mentioned. They are beautifuxly ^constructed, 
however, and completely weatner— proof ed wit^ fitting lids, 
travs. and the like. Our master carpenter here on the main- 
tenance staff went all-out on them, and if need be I'llLbet 
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 ap^i apparatus and will ^return here 
dir^ctlv. My own perso’^nil effects will be in a foot-locker 
which f hope I will be able to have in my cabin. 
Dick Dariie told me of his visit with you. 
Vv'e both are now actively planning on packing our crates^and 
getting them to Kev/ York. In about a week 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 pre- 
pared in VVashington and sent 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 Marcn, w'^hich as I recall is tne 
date you indicated as the deadline. 
Carl and I have been talking about the aqua- 
lung, 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 schnorkle in shallow water. If the lung is necessary, 
do you think we could get (rent) bottles down there, sending 
down only the mouthpiece, valves, etc? Or will both Kicnolson 
and Finlay have lungs, and would a third one be superfluous. 
I’ve picked up some additional 
the l6mm movie camera that w'ill enable me to 
without much difficulty. With this in mind. 
equipment for 
shoot close-ups 
I could use 
