| Edwin Herbert Land | |
 Edwin Herbert Land
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| Born | May 7, 1909 Bridgeport, Connecticut |
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| Died | March 1, 1991 Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard |
| Known for | polarizing light |
| Notable awards | Perkin Medal 1974 |
Edwin Herbert Land (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an American scientist and inventor. Events 558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. Cambridge Massachusetts is a City in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother" It was used in Ancient Rome as a title for the mother Goddess, and in Medieval Polarization ( ''Brit'' polarisation) is a property of Waves that describes the orientation of their oscillations The Perkin Medal is an award given annually by the American section of the Society of Chemical Industry to a scientist residing in America for an "innovation Events 558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A scientist, in the broadest sense refers to any person that engages in a systematic activity to acquire Knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices This is a list of Inventors. See also List of scientists, Timeline of invention, List of inventions named after people, List Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and his retinex theory of color vision. Polarization ( ''Brit'' polarisation) is a property of Waves that describes the orientation of their oscillations Color constancy is an example of Subjective constancy and a feature of the human Color perception system which ensures that the perceived color of objects remains The visual system is the part of the Nervous system which allows organisms to see.
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Biography
Early years
Edwin was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Harry and Helen Land. His father owned a scrap metal yard. He attended the Norwich Free Academy at Norwich, Connecticut, a semi-private high school, and graduated in the class of 1927. The Norwich Free Academy (commonly called " NFA " founded in 1854 and in operation since 1856 is a Norwich known as "The Rose of New England" is a city in and formerly county seat (when there were county seats in the state of New London County, Connecticut The library there was posthumously named for him, having been funded by grants from his family. He studied chemistry at Harvard. Chemistry (from Egyptian kēme (chem meaning "earth") is the Science concerned with the composition structure and properties After his freshman year, he left Harvard for New York City.
In New York City, he invented the first inexpensive filters capable of polarizing light, Polaroid film. The City of New York Polarization ( ''Brit'' polarisation) is a property of Waves that describes the orientation of their oscillations For the Polaroid instant camera see Instant camera. For the company see Polaroid Corporation. Because he was not associated with an educational institution, he lacked the tools of a proper laboratory, making this a difficult endeavor. Instead, he would sneak into a laboratory at Columbia University late at night to use their equipment. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. [1] He also availed himself of the New York City public library to scour the scientific literature for prior work on polarizing substances. A public library (also called circulating library) is a Library which is accessible by the Public and is generally funded from public sources (such His breakthrough came when he realized that instead of attempting to grow a large single crystal of a polarizing substance, he could manufacture a film with millions of micrometre-sized polarizing crystals that were coaxed into perfect alignment with each other.
After developing a polarizing film, Edwin Land returned to Harvard. However, he still did not finish his studies or receive a degree. Once Land could see the solution to a problem in his head, he lost all motivation to write it down or prove his vision to others. [2] Often his wife, at the prodding of his instructor, would extract from him the answers to homework problems. She would then write up the homework and hand it in so he could receive credit and not fail the course.
Land's company
In 1932 he established the Land-Wheelwright Laboratories together with his Harvard physics instructor to commercialize his polarizing technology. Wheelwright, his instructor, came from a family of financial means and agreed to fund the company. After a few early successes developing polarizing filters for sunglasses and photographic filters, Land obtained funding from a series of Wall Street investors for further expansion. Wall Street is a street in lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The company was renamed the Polaroid Corporation in 1937. Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin H Land. It is most famous for its Instant film Cameras which reached the market in 1948 and Land further developed and produced the sheet polarizers under the Polaroid trademark. For the Polaroid instant camera see Instant camera. For the company see Polaroid Corporation. Although the initial major application was for sunglasses and scientific work, it quickly found many additional applications: for color animation in the Wurlitzer 850 Peacock jukebox of 1942, for glasses in full-color stereoscopic (3-D) movies, to control brightness of light through a window, a necessary component of all LCDs, and many more. The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, is an American company formerly a producer of stringed instruments woodwind brass instruments jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device usually a Coin -operated machine that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. During World War II, he worked on military tasks, which included developing dark-adaptation goggles, target finders, the first passively guided smart bombs, and a special stereoscopic viewing system called the Vectrograph which revealed camoflauged enemy positions in aerial photography. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including
Although the war had been very good to Polaroid financially, Land knew to be prepared for eventual victory of the United States. He needed a product which could sustain the company after its military contracts had run their course. While on vacation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Land got his inspiration. Santa Fe ( Navajo: Yootó is the Capital of the state of New Mexico. New Mexico ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. After a day of local sightseeing with his three year old daughter, she asked to see the pictures they had taken. She was disappointed when Land tried, in vain, to explain that they needed to be developed and printed and that she wouldn't be able to view them that evening. She wanted to see her pictures right away.
A little more than three years later, on February 21, 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated an instant camera and associated film. Events 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria. 1245 - Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Types of Polaroid instant cameras See also List of Polaroid instant cameras Polaroid cameras can be classified by the type of film they use Called the Land Camera, it was in commercial sale less than two years later. Land cameras are the polaroid cameras made between 1947 and 1983 The first model was invented by Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid. Polaroid originally manufactured sixty units of this first camera. Fifty-seven were put up for sale at Boston's Jordan Marsh department store before the 1948 Christmas holiday. Polaroid marketers incorrectly guessed that the camera and film would remain in stock long enough to manufacture a second run based on customer demand. All fifty-seven cameras and all of the film were sold on first day of demonstrations.
During his time at Polaroid, Land was notorious for his marathon research sessions. When Land conceived of an idea, he would experiment and brainstorm until the problem was solved with no breaks of any kind. He needed to have food brought to him and to be reminded to eat. [3] He once wore the same clothes for eighteen days straight while solving problems with the commercial production of polarizing film. [4] As the Polaroid company grew, Land had teams of assistants working in shifts at his side. As one team wore out, the next team was brought in to continue the work.
Later years
In the 1950s, Edwin Land and his team helped design the optics of the revolutionary Lockheed U-2 spy plane. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Also in this decade, Land first discovered a two-color system for projecting the entire spectrum of hues with only two colors of projecting light (he later found more specifically that one could achieve the same effect using very narrow bands of 500nm and 557nm light). The two-color system of Projection is a name given to a variety of methods of projecting a full-color image using (only two different single-color projectors Some of this was written up later in the 1970s with his Retinex theory. Color constancy is an example of Subjective constancy and a feature of the human Color perception system which ensures that the perceived color of objects remains In 1957 Harvard University awarded him an honorary doctorate. Later Edwin H. Land Blvd. a street in Cambridge, MA was named in his memory. The street forms the beginning of Memorial Drive, where the Polaroid company building was located.
In the early 1970s, he attempted to explain the previously known phenomenon of color constancy with his Retinex theory of color vision. Color constancy is an example of Subjective constancy and a feature of the human Color perception system which ensures that the perceived color of objects remains Color constancy is an example of Subjective constancy and a feature of the human Color perception system which ensures that the perceived color of objects remains Color vision is the capacity of an organism or machine to distinguish objects based on the Wavelengths (or frequencies) of the Light they reflect or emit His popular demonstrations of color constancy raised much interest in the concept. His crowning achievement was his leadership and vision towards the development of integral instant color photography, the SX-70 film and camera. "Color film" redirects here For the motion picture equivalent see Color motion picture film. The SX-70 is a folding Single lens reflex Land Camera which was produced by the Polaroid Corporation from 1972-1977
Although he led the Polaroid Corporation as a chief executive, he was a scientist first. Despite the fact that he held no formal degree, employees, friends, and the press respected his scientific genius by calling him Dr. Land. The only exception was the Wall Street Journal. They refused to prepend the Dr. title to his name throughout his lifetime. [5]
He often made technical and management decisions based on what was right as a scientist and as a humanist, much to the chagrin of Wall Street or his investors. He led Polaroid to the forefront of the affirmative action movement after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Affirmative action in the United States|Employment equity (Canada|Reservation in India|Numerus clausus The term affirmative action describes many policies aimed at a historically Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader From the beginning of his professional career, he hired women and trained them to be research scientists. As a scientist Land made sure he performed "an experiment each day". Despite the tremendous success of his instant cameras, Land's unsuccessful Polavision instant movie system was a financial disaster, and he resigned as Chairman of Polaroid on March 6, 1980. Polavision was an instant Movie camera system launched by Polaroid in 1977.
In his retirement years, he founded the Rowland Institute for Science. The Rowland Institute for Science was founded by Edwin H Land, founder of Polaroid Corporation, as a nonprofit basic research organization in 1980. Edwin Herbert Land died on March 1, 1991 in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 81. Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. Cambridge Massachusetts is a City in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. Upon his death, his personal assistant shredded his personal papers and notes. [6]
Honors
Although Land never received a formal degree, he received honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Willams College, Tufts College, Washington University, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, University of Massachusetts, Brandeis University and many others. This article is about a center of higher learning For the foundation which supports scientific research refer to the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Brandeis University is a private research University with a Liberal arts focus located in Waltham Massachusetts, United States. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to a U.S. citizen, in 1963 for his work in optics. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is a decoration bestowed by the President of the United States and is along with the equivalent Congressional Gold Medal bestowed The United States of America —commonly referred to as the He held 535 patents, compared with Thomas Edison's 1,097 American patents [7]. A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an In 1977 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The National Inventors Hall of Fame is an organization that recognizes Inventors and invention everywhere promotes creativity and advances the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship In 1988 Land was awarded the National Medal of Technology for "the invention, development and marketing of instant photography". The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly known as the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American
References
- Wensberg, P. C. (1987) Land's Polaroid: a company and the man who invented it Houghton Mifflin, New York, ISBN 0-395-42114-4
- McElheny, Victor K. (1999) Edwin Herbert Land: May 7, 1909-March 1, 1991 National Academy Press, Washington, D. C. , ISBN 0-309-06644-1
Bibliography
- Land & Daw (1962), Binocular Combination of Projected Images., vol. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 138 (published 1962 Nov 2), pp. 589-590, PMID:17832004, doi:10.1126/science.138.3540.589, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17832004>
- Land & Hunt (1936), “THE USE OF POLARIZED LIGHT IN THE SIMULTANEOUS COMPARISON OF RETINALLY AND CORTICALLY FUSED COLORS.”, Science 83 (2152): 309, 1936 Mar 27, PMID:17749392, doi:10.1126/science.83.2152.309, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17749392>
See also
External links
- Short biography
- "Generation of Greatness: The Idea of a University in an Age of Science", Ninth Annual Arthur Dehon Little Memorial Lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. May 22, 1957
- Edwin Herbert Land
- POLAROID PHOTOGRAPHY RUTEN CLUB 台灣拍立得攝影同好會
- "Land's Polaroid"
Patents
- US2,435,720 -- Apparatus for exposing and processing photographic film
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