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grammetry for the splendid work which he has performed in preparing these 
testing specifications. 
Dr. K. Pestrecov, U.S.A. 
When Mr. P. D. Carman, Secretary of Commission I, invited me to pre 
sent this summary, I accepted the invitation as an honorable assignment, which, 
I believed, would not require much effort on my part. Soon I found it other 
wise. 
The task would be easy in a country where photogrammetric activities 
are either concentrated in one organization or are controlled by one auto 
cratic body. The situation in this country is entirely different. Here numerous 
governmental and private organizations are engaged in theoretical and prac 
tical photogrammetry, but none of them occupies a position from which it 
could dictate to all others. These conditions encourage diversity of procedures, 
interpretations, and opinions, and they create serious obstacles to any unifica 
tion and standardization. The situation is further complicated by the tremend 
ous amount of new research material which often reveals faults in previously 
established concepts without necessarily leading to new workable concepts. 
After giving much thought to this situation, I was almost ready to give up 
as hopeless the task of presenting a summary of the American point of view. 
Then I was lucky enough to realize that the calibration practices of the Nation 
al Bureau of Standards are a highly representative condensation of the Amer 
ican point of view, and that there are two excellent documents which provide 
an authoritative basis for a summary of this view. These documents are: 
Chapter XVII, “Nomenclature and Definitions”, of the Manual of Photogram 
metry x ), and the Military Standard on Photographic Lenses * 2 ). 
I am telling this personal story not because it is important in itself, but 
because it may suggest a foundation which could be successfully used to bring 
about a national and an international agreement on standardization of con 
cepts, terminology, and practices of calibration of photogrammetric cameras. 
Since the Manual of Photogrammetry, the Military Standard, and the 
complete description 3 ) of the Bureau of Standards procedures are generally 
available, it is not necessary (and hardly possible within the time allowed) to 
attempt here a review of this material. I feel that the purposes of our discourse 
can be served better by my bringing to the fore a few fundamental factors 
pertaining to the American point of view and its relation to the views expressed 
in the international proposal. 
Paramount in the American photogrammetric scene, to my mind, is the 
fact that the “Nomenclature and Definitions” of the Manual of Photogramme 
try and the Military Standard are the results of the tremendous efforts of a 
large group of organizations and individuals whose aim was to provide, for 
x ) American Society of Photogrammetry, “Manual of Photogrammetry” (Preliminary Edition), 
Pitman Publishing Corp., New York and Chicago, 1944. 
2 ) Munitions Board Standards Agency, “Military Standard Photographic Lenses”, MIL-STD- 
150, 23 October, 1950, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 
Note: This standard is in agreement with the practices sanctioned by the various standards 
published by the American Standards Association. 
3 ) Washer, F. E. and Case, F. A., “Calibration of Precision Airplane Mapping Cameras”, 
Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, Vol. 45, p. 1—16, July 1950.