February 18, 1937
Gentlemen
I should be very happy to be awarded a grant from your Fund for the purchase of a new refrigerated centrifuge, an instrument which was first built at my suggestion in order to facilitate the preparation of oxyhemoglobin in its active state. The instrument we have now is becoming unfit for the heavy strain upon it, having been in almost daily use for many hours over a period of nine years. It has been indispensible for this laboratory's work on absolute methods of immunological analysis, the mechanism of immune reactions, the isolation of bacterial proteins and polysaccharides, the preparation of immune sera and the isolation of highly purified antibodies and in studies of the thyroid hormone.
One of the new and improved machines will greatly aid in continuing and facilitating the laboratory's work along these and other lines. The grant would also be of value to the Department of Bacteriology of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, for I should give the old machine to that department, where it would still be suitable for the intermittent, light-duty service to which it would be put.
The total cost of the centrifuge and the necessary accessories is . Should this appear excessive, I should be most grateful for as large a fraction of this sum as seems fitting.
Very truly yours
Michael Heidelberger