Some Aspects of the Development of Sheet Polarizers*

This paper reviews the 25 years of activity, by the author and his co-workers, in the development of synthetic sheet polarizers. The early work during the nineteenth century is described briefly, and then the various stages of the modern development in the author’s laboratory are chronicled. A description is given of the nature and the optical properties of the currently-available sheet polarizers of the Polaroid J, H, K, and L types, and of the quantitative methods used in characterizing them. The reasons are given for developing special polarizers for each of a variety of applications such as optical instruments, vectographs, and headlights.