One-Step Photography

• Author: Ronald K. Fierstein
• Profession: Lawyer on the team of litigators from the prestigious patent law firm of Fish & Neave
• Pages: 39-56

39

CHAPTER 3

ONE-STEP PHOTOGRAPHY

Edwin Land turned thirty-five in May 1944, as the tide of World War II

was about to turn following the D-day invasion of Normandy a few weeks

later. His newborn company would earn over $13 million that year (approx-

imately $176 million in 2014 dollars).1 His company’s contributions to the

war effort were widely recognized. One of his colleagues in the Academy

of Sciences characterized Land as “a commanding, an effulgent presence in

the world that was emerging from the war against Hitler.”2

Yet for all that success, Land was troubled about the future of his

company. His polarizing technology, so successful in military applica-

tions, had not established a substantial beachhead in the civilian sector.

The use of polarizers for sunglasses and optical instruments proved to

be the most viable commercial applications. Polaroid would remain in

that technological niche for many years. It was, however, clearly not

enough. Land continued to work on making three-dimensional motion

picture technology attractive to the major studios but did not make any

progress until, seemingly out of nowhere, in the 1950s, Hollywood pro-

duced a slew of films in a short period using the technology. At one

point, more than fifty productions were in the works, with an average

of seven three-dimensional productions being filmed every week.3 Pola-

roid was also reportedly manufacturing twelve million pairs of dispos-

able polarizing eyeglasses a month and selling them to movie theaters

nationwide. Total sales were around 100 million pairs.4 This helped the

company make a profit in 1953 of an estimated $26 million ($232 mil-

lion in 2014 dollars).5 Unfortunately, the demand for three-dimensional

movies ceased as quickly as it had begun.

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A Triumph of Genius

40

Land’s goal of getting Detroit to adopt his anti-glare technology

remained beyond his reach—the automobile companies considered it too

expensive, too impractical, and, arguably, unnecessary. He did not give up

easily, however. As Land later admitted, “I was too young, too romantic

to stop.”6 After the war, in an attempt to renew his campaign to encourage

the public to demand improved safety, Land participated in a demonstra-

tion of his system by the Automobile Manufacturers Association. Accord-

ing to a report in the New York Times, this test of the polarized headlights

“indicated their potential worth.”7 However, General Motors staged its

own elaborate thirteen-hour program to convince the public that the adop-

tion of polarization was not necessary. No one from Polaroid was present

at this event, and one journalist who did attend characterized it as General

Motors’ attempt to do “a snow job on [polarized headlights].”8

Despite General Motors’ argument against the desirability of using

this technology, some observers nevertheless thought “the Polaroid sys-

tem passed all the extensive tests on General Motors proving grounds.”9

The industry, however, continued to resist and, in early December, Gen-

eral Motors claimed that the highway glare problem was overstated, urg-

ing that further surveys be conducted to assess the actual extent of the

problem.10 This was part of the industry’s strategy to resist adopting

polarizing technology by subjecting it to the deliberations of an unending

series of boards and surveys and other bureaucratic dead-ends.

Later that month, Land made a presentation to the Highway Research

Board, a quasi-governmental group organized in 1924 to provide indepen-

dent advice to the president, Congress, and federal agencies on science

and technology issues affecting transportation. He described the advan-

tages of his system and estimated the cost to manufacturers as only seven

dollars per vehicle. If manufacturers wanted to pass the cost along to the

consumer, they could probably charge thirty to eighty dollars.11 Land was

convinced that the automobile industry exaggerated the cost and mini-

mized the benefits of his system.

If you will look back over the history of important new improve-

ments that we now take for granted in our day-to-day life, you

will find, I believe, that each was introduced for obvious and

overwhelming reasons, but that at the same time each of these

improvements presented a number of minor disadvantages which

may have seemed significant at the time the change was proposed

but which we have now come to disregard. You will also find that

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