Still dazzled after all these years

Abstract

In 1948, a phantasmal killer stalked Americans: thousands of motorists were dying on roads from what The New York Times described as “death rays”. Overcome by a blinding light – a “death dazzle” – they piled into oncoming traffic and telephone poles. But these death rays were not the stuff of fiction: they were headlights. As early as 1920, federal officials had declared the blinding glare of car headlights the country's “chief road peril”. A peril, that was, to everyone except those driving a handful of cars in New York City. Owned by Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid, these cars were mysteriously impervious to the rays. Had Land solved the greatest road safety puzzle of his time?