Imaging
Electrophotography
Physicist Chester F. Carlson, the father of xerographic printing, was born in Seattle, Washington. Plagued by needs for copies of patent drawings and specifications, Carlson investigated ways of automatic text and illustration reproduction, working out of his apartment. While others sought chemical or photographic solutions to 'instant copying' problems, Carlson turned to electrostatics and in 1938 succeeded in obtaining his first 'dry-copy' and the first of many patents two years later. It took presentations to more than 20 companies before Carlson was able to interest the Battelle Development Corporation in his invention in 1944. In 1947 the Haloid Company-renamed Xerox Corporation-negotiated commercial rights to his xerographic development. Eleven years later, and just 10 years before his death in 1968, Xerox introduced its first office copier.
High Resolution Radar and Sonar
Robert H. Rines' contributions to the technology of high-resolution image-scanning radar and sonar began in the era of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Radiation Laboratory with modulation techniques for the Microwave Early Warning System developed secretly during World War II. In peace time, his inventions were basic to high-definition sonar scanning systems used in locating the Titanic and the Bismarck. They are also used in new medical instrumentation allowing noninvasive ultrasound imaging of internal organs.
His patents underlie nearly all the high-definition image-scanning radar used to provide early-warning, weapons fire-control, and some artillery and missile detection radars during the war in the Persian Gulf.
Multiplane Camera
Seldom has an individual become so intrinsically linked to a concept as Walt Disney has with the concept of imagination. His was the catalyst for his incredible body of work, which in turn fed the imagination of millions who have been inspired by it. Disney’s invention of the multiplane camera brought better looking, richer animation and in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length animated film to use the camera.
The movies that Disney created are amazingly diverse and illustrate the range of his inventiveness.
Photo Composing Machine
Louis Marius Moyroud and Rene Alphonse Higonnet developed the first practical phototypesetting machine. Born in Moirans, Isere, France, Moyroud attended engineering school from 1929 to 1936 and graduated as an engineer from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts et Metiers of Cluny, France. He served in the military as a second lieutenant from 1936 to 1938 and as a first lieutenant in 1939 and 1940. He joined the LMT Laboratories, a subsidiary in Paris of ITT, in 1941 and left in 1946 to spend all of his time on photocomposition. Moyroud and Higonnet first demonstrated their first phototypesetting machine, the Lumitype-later known as the Photon-in September 1946 and introduced it to America in 1948. The Photon was further refined under the direction of the Graphic Arts Research Foundations. The first book to be composed by the Photon was printed in 1953, titled The Wonderful World of Insects. Composed without the use of metal type, it might someday rank in the historical importance of printing with the first book printed from moveable type, the Gutenberg Bible. In recent years, Moyroud has been instrumental in the development of the Euorcat Series of phototypesetting machines marketed in Europe by Bobst Graphics. Fellow communications engineer Higonnet was born in Valence, Drome, France. The son of a teacher, he was educated at the Lycée de Tournon and the Electrical Engineering School of Grenoble University. He was granted a scholarship by the International Institute of Education in New York in 1922, went to Carleton College in Minnesota for one year, and subsequently spent one term at the Harvard Engineering School. He was an engineer with the Materiel Telephonique, a French subsidiary of ITT, from 1924 to 1948. He then became a transmission engineer and worked on long distance cables in Paris-Strasbourg, London-Brussels, and Vienna-Budapest. He was also associated with the Patent and Information Department of ITT.
Photography
Method and Apparatus for Coating Plates for use in Photography
Eastman began his search for a transparent and flexible film in 1884. The first commercial film, put into production a year later, was cut in narrow strips and wound on a roller device patented by Eastman and Walker. Film rolls sufficient for 100 exposures were mounted in a small box camera-the Kodak, which was introduced in 1888 priced at $25. The steady improvement of Edison's motion-picture camera also spurred Eastman to perfect a stronger film designed to fill that promising market.
George Eastman's inventions of dry, rolled film and the hand-held cameras that could utilize it revolutionized photography.
Stroboscope Photography
Pioneering research in stroboscopic photography by Harold E. Edgerton was the foundation for the development of the modern electronic speed flash. Edgerton earned international recognition for his achievements in the related fields of stroboscopy and ultra-high speed photography.
The electronic speed flash his research spurred is important to science and industry as well as routine photography. He originally perfected the use of stroboscopic lights in both ultra-high-speed motion and still (stop-motion) photography capable of revealing operations which move at speeds beyond the perceptive capacity of the human eye (i.e., bullets in flight, light bulbs shattering, etc.).
Photographic Product Comprising a Rupturable Container Carrying a Photographic Processing Liquid
Physicist, manufacturing executive, and inventor Edwin Herbert Land developed the first modern polarizers for light, a sequence of subsequent polarizers, and theories and practices for applications of polarized light.
Video Tape Recording
Broad Band Magnetic Tape Systems and Method
Charles Ginsburg led the research team at Ampex Corporation in developing the first practical videotape recorder (VTR). The system used a rapidly rotating recording head to apply high-frequency signals onto a reel of magnetic tape.
The VTR revolutionized television broadcasting. Ginsburg led the Ampex research team that developed a new machine that could run the tape at a much slower rate because the recording heads rotated at high speed, allowing the necessary high-frequency response. Recorded programs that could be edited replaced most live broadcasts. In 1956, CBS became the first network to employ VTR technology.