Symposium - Edweard Muybridge

It may be surprising to a lot of people that back in the 1880's, little was known on how objects moved. Everyone knew that objects moved, but how they moved was information they didn't really need to know at the time. This was before Edweard Muybridge got involved. Let me introduce Edweard Muybridge to you with a brief biography. Edweard Muybridge, born Edward Muggeridge in 1830 in England. He was unsatisfied with his life in England, so by 1850 he had moved to start his new life in the United States. After some time working as a book seller, he changed is name to Edweard Muybridge and took up photography. He soon gained renown for his photography with his images of Yosemite and Alaska.

His most famous piece of work began in 1872. He was hired by Leland Stanford to photograph horses. Stanford had placed a bet. He bet that when a horse moves, that there is a point when all of the hooves leave the ground. This was a difficult task to do as it was unheard of at the time. He did it by setting up a row of cameras rigged up with tripwires. When the horse hit a tripwire, the camera would take a picture. The cameras took multiple pictures, frame by frame. When the images were put together he discovered that yes, there is a point when a horse is galloping, that all hooves come off the ground as you can tell from the image below.

Horse in Motion by Edweard Muybridge

Muybridge's work was widely criticized. People stating that it was impossible and improbable that the a horse could achieve such a position. Muybridge countered this criticism by giving lectures on motion, and demonstrated his findings through his invention, a Zoopraxiscope.

Zoopraxiscope and wheel

With a zoopraxiscope, Muybridge was able to simulate the motion of a horse galloping. This was done by projecting his images in sequence, giving the illusion of movement. Images needed to be transferred to a glass disc and treated before showing. If Muybridge used the images he had, they would show up distorted. Because of this, Muybridge needed to take the pictures again. This time they were taken at an angle to make them appear wider, and then bending them to counter act the distortion of the disc. They were then laid out on in a circle. Then an artist, with great effort, would paint these images on to a glass disc. This was one of the first instances of motion picture.

References

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/windows/southeast/eadweard_muybridge.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLnxy_5Bpnc

http://www.biography.com/people/eadweard-muybridge-9419513

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/399928/Eadweard-Muybridge