A BLURRY PORTRAIT OF A FLAWED GENIUS

摘要

If Edwin H. Land hadn't been such a doggedly private person, there might be a spirited posthumous cpmpetition for the No. 3 spot on the hit parade of American inventors. Land now holds down third place, with 535 U. S. patents to his name—including, of course, those for Polaroid instant photography. The only people with more are Thomas A. Edison, who earned 1,093 patents, and Elihu Thomson, with 700-odd. Their companies merged in 1892 to form General Electric Co.