1947: The Land camera is demonstrated for the first time by its inventor, Edwin Land.
The camera, which became better known by the name of Land's company, Polaroid, was the first so-called instant camera. Using developer and fixer contained in sacs with the film and photographic paper in a layered packet, the first Polaroid camera could produce a black-and-white photo in 60 seconds.
After the exposure was made, the packet was pulled out of the camera, which squeezed the chemicals from their sacs and began the developing process.
Land introduced Polacolor film in 1963, which allowed the camera to take color pictures.
Edwin Herbert Land, who attended Harvard but never earned a degree, may be best remembered for the instant camera, but he was a prolific inventor, second only to Thomas Edison in the number of patents received. Land began experimenting with polarizing light after leaving school, and while still in his 20s invented the plastic sheet-light polarizer.
In 1932, he cofounded Land-Wheelwright Laboratories, which was renamed the Polaroid Corporation five years later. The company produced various polarizers that found a variety of scientific and commercial applications.
Polaroid became immensely profitable during World War II, producing high-quality optics for military use. Land and his Polaroid engineers also helped design the optics for the Cold War's U-2 spy plane.
Land was legendary for his eccentric and exhausting work habits, which dated back to his Harvard days. Like the proverbial mad scientist, when Land was immersed in a project, he would lock himself in the lab for days on end, stopping only long enough to eat and often not bothering to change clothes.
When he was on one of these jags, Land's assistants would be scheduled in shifts to keep up with him since they had a tendency to fold at the knees without sleep. He explained himself thusly:
"My whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people resources they didn't know they had."
The Polaroid Land camera remained in production until 1983. The Polaroid Corporation itself fell on hard times after Land's death and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001. In early February 2008, the company announced that it was closing the facilities that produce its namesake instant films, and concentrating instead on making digital cameras and portable printers.
This article first appeared on Wired.com Feb. 21, 2008.