On this day, 78 years ago, on February 21, 1947 (February 1, 1947 in the lunar calendar), the "Polaroid" camera was born. The Polaroid camera was first displayed to the public by Edwin Land on February 21, 1947. This camera is not as famous as Rand's company, Polaroid, which is the world's first fast-imaging camera. The camera uses film and photographic paper in a layered bag, as well as a small capsule containing developer and fixer. With these equipment, the first Polaroid camera can take a black and white photo in 60 seconds. After exposure, the pouch is taken out of the camera, the chemicals inside are squeezed out of the pouch, and the color development process begins. Rand invented Polaroid one-time imaging color film in 1963, allowing cameras to take color photos. Edwin Herbert Rand, who studied at Harvard but never earned a degree, may be remembered for an imaging camera, but he was actually a prolific inventor, second only to Thomas Edison in the number of patents awarded. After leaving Harvard University, Rand began to study polarized light and invented the plastic polarizer when he was in his 20s. In 1932, he co-founded the Rand Wheelwright Laboratory, which was renamed Polaroid Company five years later. The company produces a wide variety of polarizers that are used in many scientific and commercial uses. Rand's eccentric and tireless work habits have also made him legendary, dating back to his days at Harvard. Like the well-known crazy scientist, when Rand was immersed in a project, he would lock himself in the laboratory for days, only stopping for a while during meals. He would not even bother to change his clothes. As he immersed himself in these projects, Rand's assistants would take turns to keep up with him because he would study them without sleep or food, and he explained it this way: "My life has been spent telling people that constant concentration can give them resources they never realized they had." Polaroid cameras remained in production until 1983. Polaroid also collapsed in difficult years after Rand's death and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001. In early February 2008, the company announced that it would shut down production equipment for producing instant film and focus instead on the production of digital cameras and portable printers. But Polaroid did not die long. In 2010, the Impossible Project was launched, allowing the world to once again have instant display film.