CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC REMINISCENCES, THE EARLY DAYS. Cecil Arnold Beevers, Chemistry Department, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JJ, England

I have had a long history of contacts with the subject of Crystallography, and with Practitioners of the Art, from pre- X-ray days to the time when the Digital Computer took over. In the earlier years there were, of course, fewer workers and it was relatively easy to know them all. Some of us had to make their own X-ray tubes and cameras, and to spend much time devising means of reducing the labour of the long calculations. The main strategy was "Trial and Error", often long continued. The International Congresses every three years provided a most pleasant way of knowing what was going on. I was able to attend no less than ten of these, each with its unique flavour and its opportunity to travel and broaden the mind.

The paper describes some of the human contacts in my Crystallographic Experience.