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Edwin Herbert Land (May 12, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an American scientist and inventor. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, instant polaroid photography, and his retinex theory of color vision. At one time, it is said, he was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's richest scientist. However, there is no indication that Guinness has ever had a category for "richest scientist", nor that the anecdote about such a category has ever been applied to any person other than Land. (An article in the June 26, 1972 issue of TIME Magazine did describe Land as being "probably the world's richest scientist" at that time, with $500 million worth of shares of Polaroid) [1] Image File history File links Edwinland. ...
Image File history File links Edwinland. ...
May 12 is the 132nd day of the year (133rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
March 1 is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
This is a list of inventors. ...
This article treats polarization in electrodynamics. ...
Color constancy is a feature of the human color-perception system which ensures that the perceived color of objects remains (almost) constant under varying light conditions. ...
Color is an important part of the visual arts. ...
The visual system is the part of the nervous system which allows organisms to see. ...
The Guinness Book of Records (or in recent editions Guinness World Records, and in previous US editions Guinness Book of World Records) is a book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of superlatives: both in terms of human achievement and the extrema of the natural world. ...
Biography
Early years Edwin was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Harry and Helen Land. His father owned a scrap metal yard. He was an alumnus of the Norwich Free Academy n Norwich, Connecticut, a semi-private high school. The library there was posthumously named for him, having been funded by grants from his family. He studied chemistry at Harvard. After his freshman year, he left Harvard for New York City. Nickname: Location in Connecticut Coordinates: NECTA Bridgeport-Stamford Region Greater Bridgeport Incorporated (town) 1821 Incorporated (city) 1836 Government - Type Mayor-council - Mayor John M. Fabrizi Area - City 19. ...
The Norwich Free Academy (commonly called NFA) founded in 1854, is a high school located in the city of Norwich, Connecticut. ...
Nickname: Coordinates: NECTA Norwich-New London Region Southeastern Connecticut Settled 1659 Incorporated (city) 1784 Consolidated 1952 Government - Type Council-manager - City council Benjamin P. Lathrop, Mayor Mark M. Bettencourt Jacqueline Caren John D. Crooks Lawrence N. Goldman John P. Mereen John M. Newson - City manager Robert Zarnetske Area - City 76. ...
It has been suggested that the central science be merged into this article or section. ...
Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ...
In New York City, he invented the first inexpensive filters capable of polarizing light, Polaroid film. Because he was not associated with an educational institution, he lacked the tools of a proper laboratory. Instead, he would sneak into a laboratory at Columbia University late at night to use their equipment.[2] He also availed himself of the New York City public library to scour the scientific literature for prior work on polarizing substances. 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. This article treats polarization in electrodynamics. ...
Polaroid is the name of a type of synthetic plastic sheet which is used to polarise light. ...
Columbia University is a private research university in the United States. ...
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.[3] 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.[4]
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. The company was renamed the Polaroid Corporation in 1937. Land further developed and produced the sheet polarizers under the Polaroid trademark. 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. During World War II, he worked on military tasks 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. Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. ...
Polaroid is the name of a type of synthetic plastic sheet which is used to polarise light. ...
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, is an American company, formerly a producer of stringed instruments, woodwind, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electric pianos and jukeboxes. ...
A Zodiac jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media. ...
1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...
Reflective twisted nematic liquid crystal display. ...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
BOLT-117 laser guided bomb Precision-guided munitions (smart munitions or smart bombs) are self-guiding weapons intended to maximize damage to the target while minimizing collateral damage. Because the damage effects of an explosive weapon scale as a power law with distance, quite modest improvements in accuracy (and hence...
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. 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. Nickname: The City Different Location in the State of New Mexico Coordinates: Country United States State New Mexico County Santa Fe Founded 1607 - Mayor David Coss Area - City 37. ...
Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area Ranked 5th - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²) - Width 342 miles (550 km) - Length 370 miles (595 km) - % water 0. ...
A little more than three years later, on February 21, 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated an instant camera and associated film. Called the Land Camera, it was in commercial sale less than two years later. 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. February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ...
The Land camera was the first instant camera. It was invented by Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid. ...
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.[5] He once wore the same clothes for eighteen days straight while solving problems with the commercial production of polarizing film.[6] 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. 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). Some of this was written up later in the 1970s with his Retinex theory. 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. The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed Dragon Lady, is a single-seat, single-engine, high-altitude aircraft flown by the United States Air Force. ...
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. ...
Color constancy is a feature of the human color-perception system which ensures that the perceived color of objects remains (almost) constant under varying light conditions. ...
In the early 1970s, he attempted to explain the previously known phenomenon of color constancy with his Retinex theory of color vision. 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 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 relatively constant under varying illumination conditions. ...
Color constancy is a feature of the human color-perception system which ensures that the perceived color of objects remains (almost) constant under varying light conditions. ...
SX-70 with electronic flash attachment SX-70 folded up. ...
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 append the Dr. title to his name throughout his lifetime.[7] The Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with an average daily circulation of 1,800,607 (2002). ...
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. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. ...
Polavision was an instant movie camera system launched by Polaroid in the late 1970s. ...
In his retirement years, he founded the Rowland Institute for Science. Edwin Herbert Land died on March 1, 1991 in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 82. Upon his death, his personal assistant shredded his personal papers and notes.[8] The Rowland Institute for Science was founded by Edwin H. Land, founder of Polaroid Corporation, as a nonprofit basic research organization in 1980. ...
March 1 is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ...
Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: Country United States State Massachusetts County Middlesex County Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government - Type Mayor-council city - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area - City 7. ...
Awards 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. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to a U.S. citizen, in 1963 for his work in optics. He held 535 patents, second only to Thomas Edison's 1,097[9]. In 1977 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1988 Land was awarded the National Medal of Technology for "the invention, development and marketing of instant photography". The Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States and is bestowed by the President of the United States (the other award which is considered its equivalent is the Congressional Gold Medal, which is bestowed by an...
Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic - President George Walker Bush (R) - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from...
The word citizen may refer to: A person with a citizenship Citizen Watch Co. ...
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor or applicant for a limited amount of time (normally maximum 20 years from the filing date, depending on extension). ...
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. ...
The National Medal of Technology is an honor granted by the President of the United States to inventors and innovators that have made significant contributions to the development of new and important technology. ...
External links Patents - US2,435,720 -- Apparatus for exposing and processing photographic film
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