Victor K. McElheny

This is a very in-depth look at Edwin Land, the man who founded Polaroid. It covers his earliest efforts to make polarizing sheets in his college years, through the founding and exponential growth of the Polaroid corporation, and his life after he left the company (and briefly, it's decline), ending with his death. The text gets a little technical at times, but not such that anyone with a basic science background will have any difficulty following.

The details of the Polaroid corporation are not the main focus of this book, it is Edwin Land the man. In many ways he was like Henry Ford, a very driven, self made man, who was either loved or hated, and sometimes both, for his intensity. The book discusses things like polarization, the U2 spy plane, and a number of foundations that he founded, as well as his work with Polaroid.… (mer)