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ADDRESS OF PROF. DR. W. SCHERMERHORN AT THE FAREWELL
BANQUET OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF
PHOTOGRAMMETRY, 15 SEPTEMBER 1952.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
“As a representative of the group which organized The Hague Congress
of 1948, it is an honor and a pleasure for me to give some comments on this
Washington-world Congress on Photogrammetry.
First of all, you will keep in mind that I am, just as in 1948 in The Hague,
only the speaker of the group and that, as many of you know quite well, the
job itself was done in 1948 by my friend, Scherpbier.
If I now try to compare both important events in photogrammetry, we
have first, the difference in size. For comparison, it would be useful to put The
Hague Congress in an American plotting instrument such as the Kelsh Plotter,
and apply to it the enlargement necessary in the Kelsh. Then we could perhaps
discuss the American C-factor of both Congresses.
Although those among you who attended the meeting in 1951 of the
American Society of Photogrammetry perhaps will remember that I, at that
time, strongly rejected the use of that not-very-exact expression. I have to
admit that I now find myself sometimes using this C-factor. It seems to be
typically American; that is to say, easy to use and practicable.
Besides this, I believe that the determination of the standard deviation in
the efficiency of this Washington Congress would not be more exact than its
C-factor, taken from the air. I believe the moment of the observation during
the various lectures in relation to the influence of the use we made of the pre
ceding nights and days is too important. We do not know all the correlation-
factors between lectures, technical tours, expositions, etc. We can, therefore,
better stop this effort to apply the theory of photogrammetry to this World
Congress of photogrammetry and simply make the statement, without much
theorizing, just as with the C-factor: ‘It was a great success’.
If I now try to make a few more serious remarks, we see the greatest dif
ference between The Hague and the Washington Congresses in the appearance
of Commission VII, Photo-Interpretation.
The introduction of this technical Commission by the ISP is a token of
the recognition of the importance of the aerial photograph as a highly im
portant tool in the hands of all those who are involved in some way in eco
nomic development programs and their execution.
The proposal for this addition of a new Commission VII came from our
U.S.A. friends. The idea originated here in Washington, in the Capital of this
powerful country, which political leaders understood earlier and deeper than
others the severe requirements of an improvement of the economic conditions
and purchasing power of what we call “underdeveloped countries”. (Are we
not all of us, in one way or another, underdeveloped?)
The American leaders understood that the technical development itself
makes it impossible to keep the poor masses of the people sleeping. The people
are awakening through the means that the Western World has put into their
hands. They are, through their leaders, educated by ourselves, aware of better
