This half 2 of the Secret Historical past of Polaroid and Edwin Land. Learn half 1 for context.
Kodak and Polaroid, the 2 most well-known digicam corporations of the 20th century, had an amazing partnership for 20+ years. Then in an inexplicable turnabout Kodak determined to destroy Polaroid’s enterprise. To this present day, each story of why Kodak went to warfare with Polaroid is flawed.
The true motive will be discovered within the extremely categorized world of overhead reconnaissance satellites.
Right here’s the actual story.
In April 1969 Kodak tore up a 20-year manufacturing partnership with Polaroid. In a shock to everybody at Polaroid, Kodak declared warfare. They terminated their settlement to provide Polaroid with detrimental movie for Polacolor – the one shade movie Polaroid had in the marketplace. Kodak gave Polaroid two years’ discover however instantly raised the movie value 10% within the U.S. and 50% internationally. And Kodak publicly introduced they had been going to make movie for Polaroid’s cameras – a knife to the guts for Polaroid as movie gross sales had been what made Polaroid worthwhile. Shortly thereafter, Kodak introduced they had been additionally going to make on the spot cameras in direct competitors with Polaroid cameras. Briefly, they had been going after each a part of Polaroid’s enterprise.
What occurred in April 1969 they triggered Kodak to react this fashion?
And what was the consequence?
Learn the sidebar for a Background on Movie and Immediate Pictures
In the present day we take with no consideration that photographs will be seen and despatched instantaneously on all our gadgets — telephone, computer systems, tablets, and many others. However that wasn’t at all times the case.
Movie Pictures
It wasn’t till the mid-19th century that it was attainable to completely seize a picture. For the following 30 years pictures was within the fingers of an elite set of pros. Every picture they took was captured on particular person glass plates they coated with chemical substances. To make a print, the photographers needed to course of the plates in additional chemical substances. Neither the cameras nor processing had been inside the realm of a client. However in 1888 Kodak modified that after they launched an actual disruptive innovation – a digicam preloaded with a spool of strippable paper movie with 100-exposures that buyers, slightly than skilled photographers, might use. When the roll was completed, all the digicam was despatched again to the Kodak lab in Rochester, NY, the place it was reloaded and returned to the client whereas the primary roll was being processed. However the actual revolution occurred in 1900 when Kodak launched the Brownie digicam with replaceable movie spools. This made pictures out there to a mass market. You simply despatched the movie to be developed, not the digicam.
Up till 1936 client cameras captured photographs in black in white. That yr Kodak launched Kodachrome, the primary shade movie for slides. In 1942, they launched Kodacolor for prints.
Whereas shoppers now had easy-to-use cameras, the time between taking an image and seeing the image had a protracted delay. The movie contained in the digicam wanted to be developed and printed. After you clicked the shutter and took the image, you despatched the movie to a drop-off level in a retailer. They despatched your movie to a big regional picture processing lab that developed the movie (utilizing a shower of chemical substances), then printed the photographs as bodily footage. You’d get your footage again in days or every week. (Within the late Seventies, mini-photo processing labs dramatically shortened that course of, providing 1-hour picture growth.) In the meantime…
Immediate Pictures
In 1937 Edwin Land co-founded Polaroid to make an optical filter known as polarizers. They had been utilized in photographic filters, glare-free sun shades, and merchandise that gave the phantasm of 3-D. Throughout WWII Polaroid made anti-glare goggles for troopers and pilots, gun sights, viewfinders, cameras, and different optical gadgets with polarizing lenses.
In 1948 Polaroid pivoted. They launched what would change into synonymous with an “Immediate Digital camera.” In its first on the spot digicam — the Mannequin 95 – the movie contained all the mandatory chemical substances to “immediately” develop a photograph. The moment movie was fabricated from two components – a detrimental sheet that lined up with a constructive sheet with the chemical substances in between squeezed by means of a set of rollers. The detrimental sheet was manufactured by Kodak. As a substitute of days or perhaps weeks, it now took lower than 90 seconds to see your image.
For the following 30 years Polaroid made evolutionary higher Immediate Cameras. In 1963 Polacolor Immediate shade movie was launched. In 1973 the Polaroid SX-70 Land Digital camera was launched with a brand new kind of on the spot movie that now not needed to be peeled aside.
A Secret Grudge Match
To grasp why Kodak tried to place Polaroid out of enterprise you could know a few of most categorized secrets and techniques of the Chilly Warfare.
Challenge GENETRIX and The U-2 – Balloon and Airplane Reconnaissance over the Soviet Union
Throughout the Chilly Warfare with the Soviet Union the U.S. intelligence group was determined for intelligence. Within the early Nineteen Fifties the U.S. despatched unmanned reconnaissance balloons over the Soviet Union.
Subsequent, from 1956-1960 the CIA flew the Lockheed U-2 spy airplane over the Soviet Union on 24 missions, taking photographs of its navy installations. (The U-2 program was kicked off by a 1954 memo from Edwin Land (Polaroid CEO) to the director of the CIA.)
The U-2 cameras used Kodak movie, processed in a secret Kodak lab codenamed Bridgehead. In Could 1960 a U-2 was shot down inside Soviet territory and the U.S. stopped plane overflights of the Soviet Union. However fortunately in 1956 the U.S. intelligence group had concluded that the way forward for gathering intelligence over the Soviet Union could be with spy satellites orbiting in house.
Air Pressure – SAMOS – 1st Era Photograph Reconnaissance Satellites
By the late Nineteen Fifties the Division of Protection determined that the way forward for picture reconnaissance satellites could be through an Air Pressure program codenamed SAMOS.
The primary SAMOS satellites would have a digicam that might take footage and develop them whereas orbiting earth utilizing particular Kodak Bimat movie, then scan the detrimental and transmit the picture to a floor station. After a number of rocket failures and realization that the decision and variety of photographs the satellite tv for pc might downlink could be woefully insufficient for the sort and variety of targets (it might take 3 hours to downlink the photographs from a single cross), the movie read-out SAMOS satellites had been canceled.
Sidebar– Kodak Goes to The Moon
CIA’s CORONA – 2nd Era Photograph Reconnaissance Satellites
It was the CIA’s CORONA film-based picture reconnaissance satellites that first succeeded in returning intelligence photographs from house. Designed as a fast low-cost hack, it was supposed as a stopgap till extra succesful programs entered service. Fairchild constructed the primary few CORONA cameras, however in the end Itek turned the digicam system supplier. CORONA despatched the uncovered movie again to earth in reentry automobiles that had been recovered in mid-air. The movie was developed by Kodak at their secret Bridgehead lab and despatched to intelligence analysts within the CIA’s Nationwide Photographic Interpretation Middle (NPIC) who examined the movie. (Whereas orbiting 94 miles above the earth the cameras achieved 4 ½-foot decision.) CORONA was saved in service from 1960 to 1972, finishing 145 missions.
Movie restoration through reentry automobiles could be the usual for the following 16 years.
Sidebar – The CIA versus the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace (NRO)
With the CIA’s success with CORONA, and the failure of the Air Pressure unique SAMOS program, the Division of Protection felt the CIA was usurping its position in Reconnaissance. In 1961 it was agreed that every one satellite tv for pc Reconnaissance could be coordinated by a single Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace (the NRO). For 31 years satellite tv for pc and spy airplane reconnaissance was organized as 4 separate covert packages:
Program A – Air Pressure satellite tv for pc packages: SAMOS, GAMBIT, DORIAN…
Program B – CIA satellite tv for pc packages: CORONA, HEXAGON, KEENAN…
Program C – Navy satellite tv for pc packages: GRAB, POPPY …
Program D – CIA/Air Pressure reconnaissance Plane: U-2, A-12/SR-71, ST/POLLY, D-21…
Whereas this setup was rational on paper, the CIA and NRO would have a many years -long political battle over who would specify, design, construct and job reconnaissance satellites. The CIA’s exterior professional on imaging reconnaissance satellites was… Edwin Land CEO of Polaroid.
The NRO’s existence wasn’t even acknowledged till 1992.
Air Pressure/NRO – GAMBIT – 3rd Era Movie Photograph Reconnaissance Satellites
After the failure of the SAMOS on-orbit scanning system, the newly established Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace (NRO) regrouped and adopted movie restoration through reentry automobiles.
Prodded by the NRO and Air Pressure, Kodak put in an “unsolicited” proposal for a next-generation imaging satellite tv for pc codenamed GAMBIT. Kodak cameras on GAMBIT had a lot higher decision than the Itek cameras on CORONA. In orbit 80 miles up, GAMBIT had high-resolution recognizing functionality – however in a slim area of view. This complemented the CORONA broad space imaging. GAMBIT-1 (KH-7) produced photographs of 2-4 ft in decision. It flew for 38 missions from July 1963 to June 1967. The follow-on program, GAMBIT-3 (KH-8), offered even sharper photographs with decision measured in inches. GAMBiT-3 flew for 54 missions from July 1966 to August 1984. The decision of GAMBITs photographs wouldn’t be surpassed for many years.
CIA – HEXAGON – 4th Era Movie Photograph Reconnaissance Satellites
In the meantime the CIA determined it was going to construct the following era reconnaissance satellite tv for pc after GAMBIT. Hexagon represented one other technological leap ahead. In contrast to GAMBIT that had a slim area of view, the CIA proposed a satellite tv for pc that would {photograph} a 300-nautical-mile-wide by 16.8-nautical-mile-long space in a single body. In contrast to GAMBIT whose cameras had been made by Kodak, HEXAGON’s cameras could be made by Perkin Elmer.
CIA Versus NRO – HEXAGON versus DORIAN
In 1969 the brand new Nixon administration was seeking to minimize spending and the intelligence finances was an enormous goal. There have been a number of new, very costly packages being constructed: HEXAGON, the CIA’s faculty bus-sized movie satellite tv for pc; and a navy house station: the NRO/Air Pressure Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) with its DORIAN KH-10 film-based digicam (made by Kodak). There was additionally a proposed high-resolution GAMBIT-follow-on satellite tv for pc known as FROG (Movie Learn Out GAMBIT) – once more with a Kodak Bimat digicam and a laser scanner.
In March 1969, President Nixon canceled the CIA’s HEXAGON satellite tv for pc program in favor of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), the Air Pressure house station with the Kodak DORIAN digicam. It appeared like Kodak had received and the CIA’s proposal misplaced.
Nonetheless, the CIA fought again.
The following month, in April 1969, the Director of the CIA used the advice of CIA’s reconnaissance intelligence panel – headed by Edwin Land (Polaroid’s CEO) to get President Nixon to reverse his resolution. Land’s panel argued that HEXAGON was important to monitoring arms management treaties with the Soviet Union. Land mentioned DORIAN could be ineffective as a result of astronauts on the navy house station might solely {photograph} small quantities of territory, lacking different issues that may very well be a number of miles away. In distinction, HEXAGON coated a lot territory that there was merely no place for the Soviet Union to cover any forbidden bombers or missiles.
Land’s reconnaissance panel really useful: 1) canceling the manned a part of the NRO/Air Pressure Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) and a couple of) utilizing the DORIAN optics in a robotic system (which was in the end by no means constructed) and three) urging the President to as an alternative begin “highest precedence” growth of a “easy, long-life imaging satellite tv for pc, utilizing an array of photosensitive parts to transform the picture to electrical alerts for rapid transmission.” (This could change into the KH-11 KEENAN, ending the necessity for film-based cameras in house.)
The consequence was:
Over the following two years, Land lobbied towards the GAMBIT follow-on known as FROG and after a contentious struggle successfully killed it in 1971. However most significantly Nixon gave the go-ahead to construct the CIA’s KH-11 KEENAN digital imaging satellite tv for pc – dooming film-based satellites – and all of Kodak’s satellite tv for pc enterprise.
Why Did Kodak Go to Warfare With Polaroid?
Lastly we are able to now perceive why Kodak was livid at Polaroid. The CEO of Polaroid killed Kodak’s satellite tv for pc reconnaissance enterprise.
Kodak’s 1970 annual report mentioned, “Authorities gross sales dropped precipitously from $248 million in 1969 to $160 million in 1970, a decline of practically 36 p.c.” (That’s ¾’s of a billion {dollars} in immediately’s {dollars}.)
The DORIAN digicam on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory and the very high-resolution GAMBIT FROG follow-on had been all Kodak digicam programs in-built Kodak’s Okay-Program, a extremely categorized phase of the corporate. In April 1969 when MOL/DORIAN KH-10 was canceled, Kodak laid off 1,500 folks from that division.
Kodak additionally had 1,400 folks in a particular facility that developed the movie codenamed Bridgehead. With movie gone from reconnaissance satellites, solely small quantities had been wanted for U-2 flights. One other 1,000+ folks in the end could be let go.
Louis Eilers had been Kodak president since 1967 and in 1969 turned CEO. He had been involved about Land’s advocacy of the CIA’s packages that shut out Kodak of HEXAGON. However he went ballistic when he realized of the position Edwin Land performed in killing the Manned Orbiting Lab (MOL) and the Kodak DORIAN KH-10 digicam.
Kodak’s Revenge and Final Loss
In 1963 when Polaroid launched its first shade on the spot movie — Polacolor – Kodak manufactured Polacolor’s movie detrimental. By 1969 Polaroid was paying Kodak $50 million a yr to fabricate that movie. (~$400 million in immediately’s {dollars}.) Kodak tore up that manufacturing relationship in 1969 after the MOL/DORIAN cancelation.
Kodak then went additional. In 1969 they began two tasks: create their very own on the spot cameras to compete with Polaroid and create on the spot movie for Polaroid cameras – Polaroid made their income on promoting movie.
In 1976 Kodak got here out with two on the spot cameras — the EK-4 and EK-6 –and on the spot movie that may very well be utilized in Polaroid cameras. Polaroid instantly sued, claiming Kodak had infringed on Polaroid patents. 
The lawsuit went on for 9 years. Lastly, in 1985 a courtroom dominated that Kodak infringed on Polaroid patents and Kodak was pressured to tug their cameras off retailer cabinets and cease making them. Six years later, in 1991, Polaroid was awarded $925 million in damages from Kodak.
Epilogue
1976 was a landmark yr for each Kodak and Polaroid. It was the start of their 15-year patent battle, but it surely was additionally the start of the top of movie pictures from house. That December the primary digital imaging satellite tv for pc, KH-11 KEENAN, went into orbit.
After Land’s pressured retirement in 1982, Polaroid by no means launched a totally new product once more. All the pieces was a refinement or repackaging of what it had discovered already. By the early ’90s, the alarms had been clanging away; chapter got here in 2001.
Kodak might by no means go away its roots in movie and missed being a pacesetter in digital pictures. It filed for chapter safety in 2012, exited legacy companies and bought off its patents earlier than re-emerging as a sharply smaller firm in 2013.
In the present day, descendants of the KH-11 KENNEN proceed to function in orbit.
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Filed beneath: Company/Gov’t Innovation, Secret Historical past of Silicon Valley |