Land, Edwin Herbert

Land, Edwin Herbert
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b. 7 May 1909 Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
d. 1 March 1991 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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American scientist and inventor of the Polaroid instant-picture process.
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Edwin Land's career began when, as a Harvard undergraduate in the late 1920s, he became interested in the possibility of developing a polarizing filter in the form of a thin sheet, to replace the crystal and stacked-glass devices then in use, which were expensive, cumbersome and limited in size. He succeeded in creating a material in which minute anisotropic iodine crystals were oriented in line, producing an efficient polarizer that was patented in 1929. After presenting the result of his researches in a Physics Department colloquium at Harvard, he left to form a partnership with George Wheelwright to manufacture the new material, which was seen to have applications as diverse as anti-glare car headlights, sunglasses, and viewing filters for stereoscopic photographs and films. In 1937 he founded the Polaroid Corporation and developed the Vectograph process, in which self-polarized photographic images could be printed, giving a stereoscopic image when viewed through polarizing viewers. Land's most significant invention, the instant picture, was stimulated by his three-year-old daughter. As he took a snapshot of her, she asked why she could not see the picture at once. He began to research the possibility, and on 21 February 1947 he demonstrated a system of one-step photography at a meeting of the Optical Society of America. Using the principle of diffusion transfer of the image, it produced a photograph in one minute. The Polaroid Land camera was launched on 26 November 1948. The original sepia-coloured images were soon replaced by black and white and, in 1963, by Polacolor instant colour film. The original peel-apart "wet" process was superseded in 1972 with the introduction of the SX-70 camera with dry picture units which developed in the light. The instant colour movie system Polavision, introduced in 1978, was less successful and was one of his few commercial failures.
Land died in March 1991, after a career in which he had been honoured by countless scien-tific and academic bodies and had received the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in America.
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Principal Honours and Distinctions
Medal of Freedom.
BC

Biographical history of technology. - Taylor & Francis e-Librar. . 2005.

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  • Land,Edwin Herbert — Land (lănd), Edwin Herbert. 1909 1991. American inventor who developed (1932) the light polarizing plastic film called Polaroid and incorporated it into lenses for cameras and sunglasses. He also invented the one step photographic process (1947) …   Universalium

  • Land, Edwin Herbert — (7.5.1909 1.3.1991) Amerikanischer Physiker und Industrieller, entwickelte 1932 den ersten für fotografische Anwendungen brauchbaren Polarisationsfilter und machte sich anschließend mit der Polaroid Corporation selbständig, die anfänglich Filter… …   Das Lexikon aus „Bernie's Foto-Programm"

  • Land, Edwin Herbert — ▪ American inventor and physicist born May 7, 1909, Bridgeport, Conn., U.S. died March 1, 1991, Cambridge, Mass.  American inventor and physicist whose one step process for developing and printing photographs culminated in a revolution in… …   Universalium

  • Land , Edwin Herbert — (1909–1991) American inventor Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Land began his education at Harvard but left to develop a number of commercial ideas. His first success was a method of producing a relatively cheap filter that would transmit… …   Scientists

  • Land, Edwin (Herbert) — born May 7, 1909, Bridgeport, Conn., U.S. died March 1, 1991, Cambridge, Mass. U.S. inventor and physicist. After briefly attending Harvard University, he cofounded the Land Wheelwright Laboratories in Boston in 1932. Interested in light… …   Universalium

  • Land, Edwin (Herbert) — (7 may. 1909, Bridgeport, Conn., EE.UU.–1 mar. 1991, Cambridge, Mass.). Inventor y físico estadounidense. Después de asistir brevemente a la Universidad de Harvard, en 1932 fue cofundador de los Laboratorios Land Wheelwright en Boston. Interesado …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Edwin Herbert Land — Edwin H. Land Edwin Herbert Land né le 12 mai 1909 à Bridgeport (Connecticut), mort le 1er mars 1991 à Cambridge (Massachusetts), était un inventeur et scientifique américain. Sa principale contribution à la science est l invention du… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Edwin Herbert Land — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Edwin Herbert Land Nacimiento 12 de mayo de 1909 Bridgeport, Connecticut …   Wikipedia Español

  • Edwin Herbert Land — (* 7. Mai 1909 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA; † 1. März 1991 in Cambridge, USA) war ein US amerikanischer Physiker und Industrieller, der mit seiner Erfindung des Polaroid Trennbildfilm Verfahrens bis heute als einer der wichtigsten Pioniere… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Edwin Herbert Land — (7.5.1909 1.3.1991) Amerikanischer Physiker und Industrieller, entwickelte 1932 den ersten für fotografische Anwendungen brauchbaren Polarisationsfilter und machte sich anschließend mit der Polaroid Corporation selbständig, die anfänglich Filter… …   Das Lexikon aus „Bernie's Foto-Programm"

  • Edwin Herbert Land — noun United States inventor who incorporated Polaroid film into lenses and invented the one step photographic process (1909 1991) • Syn: ↑Land, ↑Din Land • Instance Hypernyms: ↑inventor, ↑discoverer, ↑artificer, ↑industrialist …   Useful english dictionary

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