American scientist and inventor, best known for his instant photography process and as founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He was born Edwin Herbert Land on May 7, 1909, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He studied chemistry at Harvard, where he became fascinated by interaction of certain organic compounds with polarized light. While still a freshman, he invented the first inexpensive sheet filters capable of polarizing light. Edwin Land did not finish his studies, but instead set up the Land-Wheelwright Laboratories in 1932 together with his Harvard physics instructor. He then went on to establish the Polaroid Corporation in Boston in 1937, to further develop and produce the sheet polarizers under the Polaroid trademark. The initial major application was for sunglasses, photography and optics, but it has found many other applications. On February 2 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated an instant image camera and associated film. Called the Land Camera, it was in commercial distribution less than two years later. Color Polaroid film was marketed in 1963 and the whole instant photography product line became hugely successful, so much so that rival Kodak brought out a competing line of instant photography products that were remarkably similar Polaroid's. In 1976 Land sued Kodak for patent infringement and won in court, in a 1985 judgment that forced Kodak out of the instant photography business and forced them to compensate owners of instant cameras they had sold, who now would be left with no source of film. In 1957 Harvard University awarded Land an honorary doctorate. Later a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was named after him. In his retirement years, he founded the Rowland Institute for Science. He died on March 1, 1991.
American scientist and inventor, best known for his instant photography process and as founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He was born Edwin Herbert Land on May 7, 1909, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He studied chemistry at Harvard, where he became fascinated by interaction of certain organic compounds with polarized light. While still a freshman, he invented the first inexpensive sheet filters capable of polarizing light. Edwin Land did not finish his studies, but instead set up the Land-Wheelwright Laboratories in 1932 together with his Harvard physics instructor. He then went on to establish the Polaroid Corporation in Boston in 1937, to further develop and produce the sheet polarizers under the Polaroid trademark. The initial major application was for sunglasses, photography and optics, but it has found many other applications. On February 2 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated an instant image camera and associated film. Called the Land Camera, it was in commercial distribution less than two years later. Color Polaroid film was marketed in 1963 and the whole instant photography product line became hugely successful, so much so that rival Kodak brought out a competing line of instant photography products that were remarkably similar Polaroid's. In 1976 Land sued Kodak for patent infringement and won in court, in a 1985 judgment that forced Kodak out of the instant photography business and forced them to compensate owners of instant cameras they had sold, who now would be left with no source of film. In 1957 Harvard University awarded Land an honorary doctorate. Later a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was named after him. In his retirement years, he founded the Rowland Institute for Science. He died on March 1, 1991.
Bio by: Edward Parsons
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