BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource

February 2006 Upgrade 41

MANAGEMENT GIANT
Edwin Land
Timeline
1909 Born. 1926 Leaves Harvard University after his freshman year. 1928 Invents the first synthetic sheet polarizer. 1929 Files for a patent. 1933 Forms Land-Wheelwright Laboratories. 1937 Forms Polaroid Corporation, Boston. Polaroid day glasses are introduced. 1939 Polaroid moves its offices from Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1948 First instant camera and film go on sale. 1957 Polaroid lists on the New York Stock Exchange. 1963 Color instant camera goes on sale. 1982 Retires as president of Polaroid. 1991 Dies.

Summary
Edwin Land (19091991) pioneered instant photography for the masses with his invention of the Polaroid camera. The original idea was inspired by a question from his daughter on a sunny day in 1944 and a leisurely walk around the dusty streets of Santa Fe. Other important enterprises such as Lands groundbreaking work into light polarization at his Harvard University laboratories during the 1930s are less well known. And few people realize that it was a friends fishing trip that led to the invention of Polaroid sunglasses, or that Land released a revolutionary new instant movie camera at the same time Sony was introducing videotape in 1977. Lands life was a synthesis of invention and business. An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail, he observed. Even after he retired from Polaroid in 1982, he devoted his time to his hobbyinventing. He built a research laboratory complex and filled it with like-minded people.

Background and Rise

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on May 7, 1909, Edwin Herbert Land was the only son of Harry and Martha Land. Theirs was a comfortable household; Harry Land owned property and ran a scrap-metal yard. As a boy Land was an enthusiastic scholar, albeit a tired onehe is said to have slept with a copy of R. W. Woods Physical Optics under his pillow. According to his high school yearbook, the young Land was a star in his

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studies. He was a student first at Norwich Free Academy, from which he graduated with honors, and later at Harvard University. Lands academic interests werent sufficient to keep him at Harvard. As a freshman he was already developing a cheap, effective polarizer of light that he called Polaroid. In 1926, after that first year, he abandoned his formal physics studies, continuing his education instead at the New York Public Library. Although he didnt graduate, Harvard University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1957, one of many honorary degrees.

Defining Moments
Land is best known for the invention of the Polaroid camera. Although the idea came to him in a moment of inspiration, he had already laid the foundations for instant photography with his advances in the field of light polarization. When Land began to apply his mind to the subject, the main tool in use was the Nicol prism. Developed in 1828, it was a bulky and expensive piece of equipment. Land was convinced that he could improve on William Nicols invention. His idea, following observations based on his studies in the New York Public Library, was to place a large number of aligned crystals in transparent plastic. The plastic would then be set, fixing the position of the crystals. Land gave a lecture on his idea at Harvard after a few preliminary experiments. He patented his invention in 1929 and then created companies to develop and exploit it. The first, in 1933, was Land-Wheelwright Laboratories, established with Lands Harvard physics instructor George Wheelwright III. Next came Polaroid Corporation, founded in Boston in 1937. The next task was to find commercial applications for the invention. Lands original idea had been to use the technology to reduce glare in car headlights. Because this application involved an increase in wattage with a commensurate increase in fuel consumption, however, Land was unable to persuade automobile manufacturers of its benefits. This rejection led him to develop a string of products that used the new technology. Many of them were inspired by chance discoveries. The world has a trout fisherman to thank for the invention of Polaroid sunglasses. One of Lands colleagues went on a fishing trip and took a piece of Polaroid film with him. When he returned he told Land that looking through the Polaroid reduced the surface glare from the water and enabled him to spot the fish. This discovery led to the manufacture of Polaroid glasses. At first these were sold in specialist hunting and fishing stores, but eventually they became the ubiquitous Polaroid sunglasses. The sunglasses led to the development of other products such as camera filters and antiglare screens. Land attracted the finest minds he could find to his Boston laboratories and led his research team in developing a variety of products. He invented a new method of 3-D photography that was used extensively for reconnaissance during World War II. Then there were inventions such as nighttime goggles and the polarizing ring sight. Land also

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contributed to the technology used during the Cold War, including the surveillance equipment employed in the high-altitude U2 spy planes and spy satellites. Land is probably best known for his invention of instant photography and the Polaroid camera. The idea came from a conversation with his three-year-old daughter Jennifer in 1944. It was a sunny day in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Land took a snapshot of her. Why, she asked, couldnt she see the picture he had taken of her right away? This set Land thinking, and after pacing around the town for an hour he arrived at a solution. The first demonstration of Lands revolutionary new instant camera took place in February 1947, at a meeting of the Optical Society of America. The commercial model was on sale within two years at a retail price of $89.50. Land was well aware that correct pricing was a key to the cameras success, and he priced it for the mass market. The Polaroid camera was a phenomenal success. Land could easily have retired to a life of luxury. Instead he continued to conduct his research into the nature of light. He also invented a number of other products, including the Polavision instant movie camera, which hit the stores in 1977. Unfortunately it was an advanced product in a soon-to-bedefunct technology: the invention of magnetic videotape spelled the beginning of the end for 8mm film. Land retired as president of Polaroid in 1982, but he continued his research. He built himself a research institute, the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he continued to experiment along with a group of fellow researchers until his death in 1991.

Context and Conclusions

Edwin Land was an inventorbusiness executive in the tradition of Thomas Edison. He possessed the rare combination of an inventive mind and the discipline to address the often mundane but challenging demands of running a big corporation. In a world in which commercial research is often jealously guarded, Land profited from his openness. He was happy to show friends and colleagues his research, and to challenge them to find commercial applications for his work. This led to the development of a number of new products, most famously Polaroid sunglasses. Had it not been for the advent of Betamax and VHS videotape, Lands invention of the instant movie camera might have been his crowning achievement. Sadly, with Land gone, the company he founded struggled. In 2001, faced with debts of $950 million, the company laid off some 25% of its work force and was fighting to avoid bankruptcy.

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For More Information

Book:
Olshaker, Mark. The Polaroid Story: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience. Lanham, MD: Madison. 1983

A & C Black Publishers Ltd 2006