SOUTH EASTERN UNION OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



WOOLWICH CONGRE5S, 1907. 



When the Woolwich invitation was accepted last year by the 

 Council, a local Committtee was at once formed. All workers in 

 the neighbourhood were heartily invited to join, through the Press- 

 and such other channels as were available, and the first meeting was 

 held in the Council Chamber of the new Town Hall. 



At this meeting a suggestion was launched, that a series of sur- 

 veys of the Woolwich District should be attempted and a Handbook 

 presented to the Union. This was no new idea ; it had for some 

 years been germinating in the minds of a few Woolwich workers, 

 and the Woolwich Congress seemed likely to provide a unique 

 opportunity for giving it effect. 



At the second meeting of the Committee the following Sections 

 were formed : 

 GEOLOGY : Chairman, W. Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., F.G.S. ; V 'ice-Chairman > 



A. E. Salter, D.Sc., F.G.S. ; Hon. Secretary, R. H. Chandler. 

 BOTANY : Chairman, H. S. Bartleet, F.R.H.S. ; Hon. Secretary, J. F. Bevis, 



B.A., B.Sc. 



ZOOLOGY : Chairman, J. W. Tutt, F.E.S. ; Hon. Secretary, H. J. Turner, F.E.S. 

 ARCHEOLOGY : Chairman, W. T. Vincent (President Woolwich Antiquarian 



Society) ; Hon. Secretary, W. H. Evans, A.R.C.A. 

 SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIES : Chairman, Alexander Siemens, M.Inst.C.E., 



M.I.M.E. ; Vice-Chairman, T. A. Ingram, M.A., LL.D. ; Hon. Sec- 

 retary, J. Stuart Ker, B.Sc., A.M.I.C.E. 

 PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY : Chairman, J. Borthwick Panting, F.R.P.S. ; 



Hon. Secretary, F. W. Machen. 

 HOSPITALITY AND ENTERTAINMENTS : Chairman, J. J. Messent, Ex- Mayor of 



Woolwich ; Hon. Secretary, Alfred Ellis. 



The response by the workers of the district was even beyond 

 expectation. In tead of a Handbook of 100 or 150 pages, we had 

 already received double the number, and excellent material was 

 coming in every day, when the Congress itself was due. Publication 

 was necessarily delayed and our Executive Committee had to be 

 content with issuing for the Congress some sample pages instead of 

 the Handbook itself. 



The work of each Section will tell its own tale. For it the 

 Sectional Editors and their fellow workers take responsibility. Our 

 own share has been simply to gather up and present the whole. In 

 a final chapter we attempt a survey of surveys and a sketch of 

 work waiting to be done. 



B. C. POLKINGHORNE, 

 T. A. INGRAM, 



C. H. GRINLING, 



