Donald Loughridge, dean of Northwestern University, exchanges friendly news with Arnold Beckman before discussing chemistry professor Robert L. Burwell's complaints about the IR-2T spectrophotometer, its frequent breakdowns, the purchase of a competitor's double-beam spectrophotometer as a replacement, and the possibility of returning the faulty IR-2T.

The Beckman Instruments IR spectrophotometers began as a request from the Office of Rubber Reserve to Arnold O. Beckman in 1942, asking for an infrared spectrophotometer that they could use to create rubber. Under this contract, Beckman Instruments developed a single-beam spectrophotometer based on Robert Battrain’s extant design, which in 1942 was sold as the IR-1. With the IR-4 in 1956, Beckman Instruments branched out into double-beam design and kicked off a golden age of IR spectrophotometer production that lasted until 1973.