POLAROID CORPORATION

major U.S. manufacturer of photographic equipment and supplies. Edwin Herbert Land, the founder, was the inventor of the instant camera. Headquarters are in Cambridge, Mass. The company was founded in 1932 as the Land-Wheelwright Laboratories by Land and George Wheelwright to produce Land's first invention, an inexpensive plastics sheet light polarizer. By 1936 Land began to use polarized material in sunglasses and other optical devices, and in 1937 the company was incorporated under the Polaroid name. During the 1930s and 1940s the corporation introduced a three-dimensional motion-picture process and polarized optical devices for military use. After World War II Land began to research an instantaneous developing film, and in 1947 the company brought out the Polaroid Land camera, which delivered a finished sepia-toned print 60 seconds after exposure. In the 1950s the cameras were refined to produce black-and-white prints in 15 seconds; in the 1960s a colour-developing process and film cartridges were introduced. The company introduced the compact Polaroid SX-70 in 1972. In addition to further technical refinements, the SX-70 combined the negative and positive prints in a single sheet. Instant motion pictures were introduced in 1977. Polaroid's cameras and films are sold both to amateur photographers and professionals. The company also manufactures both specialty films used for scientific purposes and polarizing filters used in sunglasses and for a wide variety of technical applications.