Feature

Polarizers, Torpedoes, and Bombs

R. Clark Jones

In June 1940 I was between my second and third year of work toward a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard and a friend suggested that I might find summer work at Polaroid. I made an appointment for an interview and, to my astonishment, the interviewer was Edwin H. Land. We talked for two hours; it was less of an interview than a discussion by Land of his hopes for the future of Polaroid. At this moment in time the U.S. was not involved in the war in Europe and Land was pursuing polarizers that would eliminate the glare of headlights from oncoming automobiles. Almost as an afterthought to the discussion, he offered me a summer job at $35 per week.