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920 HENRY STREET

DETROIT 1, MICHIGAN

Casce Acoress"DIFCO”

January 31, 1951

Dr. Joshua Lederberg

The University of Wisconsin
College of Agriculture
Madison 6, Wisconsin

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Thank you for your letter of January 29th and your suggestion regarding
the container for Bacto-Agar. We do appreciate that if this container
were of a wider diameter it would be suitable for a petri dish can. How-
ever, a few years ago, when we resumed the use of metal containers for
Bacto~Agar, we tried to have them made in the dJarger diameter but because
of the small number of cans that we use thiskh was not practical. of
course, the cans are made to order but the equipment used is more or less
Standard and we could not get the larger diameter,

Perhaps you would be interested to know that a number of years ago,
possibly 15 or 20, the Bacto-Agar can was of the proper diameter to
accomodate petri dishes and was widely used fcr this purpose. As a mate
ter of fact, some laboratories thet used the complete dehydrated media
and did not have occasion to purcnase Bacto-Agar would write in and re-
quest that we supply them with some cans for petri dish use. Then, for
Some years, cans were not available and when we went back to using them
again, three or four years ago, we were unable to get the proper diameter,
as indicated above. However this larger diameter specification is in mind
and is routinely investigated whenever we are having cans made, which is
about once every 18 months to two years, so that if and when the larger
diameter is available we certainly will start using it.

We very much appreciate your kindness in writing to us about this matter
and hope that we may comply with your wishes before too long.

Sincerely yours,

.-& Burne
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