| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he studied chemistry at Harvard. While still a freshman, he invented the first inexpensive 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 1937Events January January 1 Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua January 11 The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States. January 19 Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, to further develop and produce the sheet polarizers under the PolaroidPolaroid (a trademark of the Polaroid Corporation) is the name of a type of synthetic plastic sheet which is used to polarise light. The original material, patented in 1929 and further developed in 1932 by Edwin H. Land, consists of many microscopic cryst trademark. The initial major application was for sunglasses and science, but it has found many applications, for instance as an important component of LCDFor other meanings of LCD, see LCD (disambiguation). polarize the light as it enters. Glass substrate with ITO electrodes. The shapes of these electrodes will determine the dark shapes that will appear when the LCD is turned on. Vertical ridges are etcheds.
On February 21February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 313 days remaining, 314 in leap years. Events 362 Athanasius returns to Alexandria 1431 The trial of Joan of Arc begins. 1743 The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's o 1947Events January January 1 British mines nationalized January 1 Nigeria gains limited autonomy January 1 The Canadian Citizenship Act went into effect January 3 Proceedings of the United States Congress are televised for the first time. January 10 United Na, Edwin Land demonstrated an instant image camera and associated film. Called the Land CameraThe Land camera was the first "instant camera". It was invented by Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid. On February 21, 1947 in New York City, Land demonstrated his camera to a meeting of the Optical Society of America. See also: Instant film, Instant camera,, it was in commercial sale less than two years later.
In the 1950sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Years: 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb., Edwin Land's 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 a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, closer to MIT's campus than to Harvard's, was named after him.
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. Land however failed to cite earlier work on the concept and was later criticized for that.
In his retirement years, he founded the Rowland Institute for Science.