THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY

Abstract

In the words of its retiring President, Mr. P. Mogensen, the VIIIth International Congress of Photogrammetry has now passed into history. For those who attended, about six hundred and fifty participants and about two hundred ladies representing 42 different countries, this Congress was most enjoyable and unforgettable. Our Swedish hosts went to prodigious lengths to ensure not only that everything was smooth running and efficient from the technical point of view, but also to provide for the entertainment of all. Nearly every day there was a sightseeing tour for the ladies—Stockholm has much of interest and beauty to show visitors in the summer—and there were technical tours to such diverse places as Esselte, which is a large commercial map printing organization, the Swedish Land Survey Board, the Geographical Survey Office, the City Surveyor's Office, and the Royal Institute of Technology (Divisions of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, the Board for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Optical Research). Whole day visits were made to the air base of the Geographical Survey Office, the Royal Observatory and Uppsala University, the latter being one of the oldest in Europe; in addition, tours up-country lasting several days were organized for those who could afford the time after the Congress had finished. Finally, in the evenings and over the week-end, our hosts had arranged a reception party, a midnight concert, a grand banquet in Stockholm's famous City Hall, a boat trip in the archipelago and a visit to Drottningholm Palace, with an open air performance of an “Opera Comique” in its famous ancient theatre. When one adds that there were some three hundred technical papers, many technical films and an absolutely first-class exhibition of photogrammetric instruments, not to mention other evening entertainment, it may be seen that no little stamina was required of the participants. The gale of July 29th provided a most undignified anti-climax to those who, like your reporter, had the misfortune to be caught in the North Sea at the time.