TLS signed “Charles A. Lindbergh,” one page, 8 x 10, personal letterhead, March 29, 1938. Letter to Dr. John Zwick at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, in full: “I am very much interested in knowing what results you have had with the new type of floating valve chamber I was working with at the time I left. Mr. Hopf told me he would have the new pump, containing these valves, finished within the next few days. That was just before I sailed to England. I am wondering whether or not the small clearances in the new valves will cause them to jam more easily due to small fragments of tissue etc. I would appreciate very much your writing to me, when you have time, and letting me know what the results have been.” Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. In very good condition, with light toning and small splits along intersecting mailing folds, some scattered light soiling, and some faint mirroring of letterhead at bottom.
Lindbergh, best known for his aviation and exploration, also invented an artificial heart between 1931 and 1935. He worked on the device with Alexis Carrel, a French surgeon and biologist whose research included experiments in keeping organs alive outside the body. Lindbergh's device could pump the substances necessary for life throughout the tissues of an organ. Though they published their findings the year this letter was written, it would be decades before such a device was built.
The year 1938 was a significant year in Lindbergh’s movement toward the political right. In April, while living in France, Lindbergh met with two American colonels in London to offer his views on England’s military weakness compared to Germany's strength. In October he accepted the German Eagle from Hermann Göring, Commander of the Luftwaffe, raising questions about his loyalty that would last a lifetime. This letter shows us Lindbergh the brilliant inventor, just one facet of a very complex man. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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