TLS signed “Charles A. Lindbergh,” two pages, 8 x 10, Long Barn letterhead, June 13, 1936. Letter to John Zwick of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, in full: "Thank you very much for your letters of 28th May and 3rd June. I have just returned from a trip to France, where I saw Dr. Carrel and went over a few of the details in regard to setting up and demonstrating the apparatus at Copenhagen. If it is at all possible, I am planning on going to Copenhagen several weeks in advance to make sure that all necessary facilities are available for a satisfactory operation, and that there has been no breakage in shipment. I understand from Dr. Fischer that both direct and alternating currents are available, but only at 220 volts. I am writing again to Dr. Fischer, and it may be necessary for me to cable you to have a suitable motor made and sent to Copenhagen to operate the rotating valve. If it is at all practicable, however, I will arrange to obtain a motor in Denmark. Thank you very much for sending such detailed lists. They are already of great assistance. Also for sending the new leather valves. I am glad you have been able to solve the difficulty we had previously." In very good to fine condition, with short fold splits, a few light stains, and minor paper loss at fold intersections.
When his sister-in-law Elisabeth Morrow was discovered to have rheumatic heart disease in 1929, Lindbergh began a quiet collaboration with Nobel Prize-winning scientist Alexis Carrel on the development of a heart-bypass pump designed to enable open-heart surgery. Lindbergh corresponded regularly with the staff at the Rockefeller Institute, particularly John Zwick, one of Carrel’s main assistants, who dealt with any problems or modifications to the device. The result, a perfusion pump, was a hand-blown, 18-inch-high, clear Pyrex glass configuration devised to keep organs functioning outside of the body. Although Morrow sadly passed away in 1934, a year before the pump was completed, its creation served as a precursor to medical devices like the heart-lung machine, in addition to helping develop a practicable method for stopping the heart during surgical procedures. An exceptional letter relating to Lindbergh’s major contribution to the realm of biomechanics.
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