A Milestone In Instant Photography

An article on CNN's web site indicates that Polaroid has decided to stop making instant film. The company has indicated that it will make enough of the file to last consumers until 2009 and hopes that someone will step forward to license the technology. I see from Polaroid's web site that they are concentrating on the digital arena as are all of the other camera makers that survive. I recall taking scope photos using a Polaroid during my school years and well into my career. I have many notebooks with photographs of curve traces pasted into them. (I'm sure that they are all falling off due to the aging tape.) I have some of my favorite micrographs of my chips on Polaroids scattered about my office. Thank you Dr. Edwin Land for being an amazing scientist and inventor.

I read a biography of Dr. Land some time ago that I thought was very interesting. He was intimately involved with the design of the cameras for the U2 program, Corona, and KeyHole satellites. In case anyone is interested, there was an excellent article in Physics Today about the Corona satellite program by a former CEO of Hughes Aircraft Albert Bud Wheelon:

Wheelon, Albert D. ("Bud") "Corona: The First Reconnaissance Satellites." Physics Today, Feb. 1997, 24-30.