1872
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
Muybridge
uses a battery of 24 cameras to photograph a race horse owned
by California Governor Leland Stanford. The resulting 24 pictures
taken as the trotting horse raced past, was the beginning of
what would become known as stop-action series photography.
Muybridge would continue the study of motion and the theory
of locomotion using animals, and later, humans. Muybridge's
investigations into the gate of a horse at the Sacramento racetrack
were inconclusive. 1873
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904) Muybridge publishes over
2,000 photographs of the far western U.S. in his 'Catalogue of
Photographic Views'. His photos showed famous American landmarks
in their pristine state.
In April of
1873 the Daily Alta California reported that Muybridge
had photographed the horse \u2018Occident\u2019, owned by
Governor Leland Stanford.
The newspaper stated in the story that Muybridge's photographs
had in fact shown the animal "frozen" in mid stride.
Word will quickly spread around the U.S. and then the world,
of what Muybridge's work was actually proving - that horses
leave the ground, and that recorded motion was possible. One
set of stop-action-series photographs by Muybridge
shows the horse in a full gallop - "a perfect likeness". Watch for the shadow against the wall. Without identifying Muybridge
by name, the New York Times will report in May of 1873 that
"A
San Francisco photographer is declared to have obtained a perfect likeness
of the horse Occident going at full speed."
Muybridge
had taken a path that would lead directly towards an art form that would
cause landscape photography to pale in comparison. No one had ever seen
anything like this before. Stanford
and Muybridge had discussed the idea of a horse's legs being off
the ground or not, when trotting. To prove conclusively the truth,
Muybridge rigged his cameras to photograph in stop-action, a series
of pictures which showed that in fact, the four hooves did leave
the ground at one point, at the same time. The cameras had been
set along the track on the outer rim, with triggered shutters set
at appropriate intervals. The horse was 40 feet from the camera
and the exposure was 1/1000 of a second. The exposure was triggered
electro-magnetically using wires across the track. This event has
gone down in history as one of the most important moments in the
story of moving picture development. The series was published later
in 1881 under the title 'Attitudes of Animals in Motion'.
A patent was granted for this method of stop-action series
photography in 1897. Stanford's superb trotter,
'Occident' is the subject of the photos taken at the Palo Alta track and is from the 1881 published
series. At the time these photos were taken, Occident was traveling
22 1/2 mph.
1879
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
The
Zoopraxiscope, a moving picture projector, is designed
and introduced by Muybridge. He will take it on tour with him in
the upcoming years to use in his lectures, namely, Paris in 1881
and 1882. Upon his return to America the University of Pennsylvania
granted him funds in the amount of $5,000 to advance his research
in stop-action series photography [final costs
would almost reach $40,000]. Between the years 1883-1885, Muybridge
took more than 100,000 photographs, which would later be published
in 1887. The Zoopraxiscope operated by projecting
images drawn from photographs (by Faber and Eakins), rapidly
and in succession onto the screen. The photographs were painted
onto a glass disc [even though Langenheim's Hyalotype process
allowed photographs to be copied onto glass] which rotated,
thereby producing the illusion of motion. From this point forward
in time, Muybridge's work began to clearly show that the possibility
of actual moving pictures or cine-photography, was a reality and
not far from perfection.
We
highly recommend The
University Archives and Records Center - Guide to the Eadweard Muybridge
Collection at The University Of Pennsylvania.
The
Muybridge Zoopraxiscope used images
drawn from Muybridge's stop-action-series photographs.
They were initially drawn by Erwin Faber, and later by Thomas
Eakins. The disk was rotated between light and lens and thereby provided
a sense of motion. This
"wonderful California horse story" was reported in the
Palo 'Alta' ;
| "Mr.
Muybridge has laid the foundation of a new method of entertaining
the people, and we predict that his instantaneous photographic,
magic-lantern zoetrope will make the round of the civilized world."
Like
Edison, Muybridge had produced his own photographs for the purpose
of creating motion on a screen. Cine-photography had become a reality. The animation of Sallie Gardner is from a proof sheet, taken of the horse on June 19,
1878.
GO TO https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-history/muybridge To see The
University Archives and Records Center - Guide to the Eadweard Muybridge
Collection at The University Of Pennsylvania
GO TO https://www.instructables.com/id/Eadweard-Muybridge-Experiment/ To see
a 'Street Zoopraxiscope' in action in an urban landscape.
Once again, the pictures
never move. There are no glass plates and no machine. Just photos
of the Muybridge horse and you in your car. 
1881
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904) and ETIENNE-JULES MAREY (1830 -
1904) These men unite in Paris
to begin collaborating in the study of motion. Muybridge had by now, constructed
a series of pictures depicting motion by the use of a single camera. He
then alongside Marey, shows these photos using a Uchatius lantern and
could possibly have acquired picture-motion this way. The Zoopraxiscope
has been, albeit rarely, called the Zoogyroscope as well.
One such instance was a write-up from in Cassiers's Magazine
of 1881 in which we read ; "Readers
may remember that a good deal of interest was excited here and elsewhere
not very long ago, by the publication of photographs and engravings illustrating
the various motions of a trotting horse. Since these instantaneous photographs
were taken, an instrument called the ZOOGYROSCOPE has
been invented for the purpose of imparting something of a lifelike character
to the pictorial representation in question. Mr. Muybridge, the inventor,
describes it as a circular glass bearing a series of photographs of the
animal to be represented in motion. As the glass is turned, the photographs,
which ar successively illuminated by an oxy-hydrogen lantern, throw upon
the screen a single, continuous, yet ever-changing picture, which is considered
to be so admirable an imitation of the â\u20ac\u0153real-liveâ\u20ac horse, that nothing
but the clatter of the hoofs and the breath of the nostrils is wanted
to render the delusion complete. The Zoogyroscope can,
it is scarcely necessary to add, be applied to photographs of other animals
beside the horse. 1882
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
Muybridge states with
all enthusiasm regarding horse races, that "no
race of any importance will be undertaken without the assistance of photography
to determine the winner . . . . . In an important race the decision of
the camera would be preferred to that of the judges." Six
years later it came true. Ernest Marks, official photographer for the
Plainfield Racing Association in New Jersey, provided positive photographs
within minutes of the finish. 1883
THOMAS ALVA EDISON (1847 - 1931) and EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 -
1904)
The first of two known
meetings between these two men (the second is in 1888) to consider the
combining of Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope for vision, and
Edisonâ's Phonograph for audio, thereby providing the
initial steps needed to produce a complete episode of natural motion with
sound. 1884
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
One
of Muybridge's busiest years came in 1884 as he produced more than
100,000 plates of humans and animals in a countless variety of motions.
His work was conducted now at the University of Pennsylvania with
a number of different set-ups; three batteries totaling twelve cameras;
forty cameras equipped with a Dallmeyer lens and
electro-magnetic shutter. By now, Muybridge was using the newer
gelatino-bromide plates. By the end of 1885, Muybridge had spent
over $30,000 in research. The work was published as Animal
Locomotion; An Electro-Photographic Investigation Of Consecutive
Phases Of Animal Movement. It had a chrono-text by a physiologist
of the University. Muybridge's
photo-plates ranged in size from 12 x 9 inches to 6 x 18 inches.
The eleven folio volumes contained over 20,000 images of men and
women (some nudes), children and animals and sold for $600. A considerable
amount at the time which therefore constricted its market to libraries,
universities and scientists for the most part. Muybridge reduced
the cost and content of the original work in 1898 to $100 with only
the most important plates and photographs included. Two volumes,
Animals In Motion and The Human Figure
In Motion were sold.
1887
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
Muybridge
publishes his 100,000 plus photos in 'Animal Locomotion-
An Electro-photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal
Movements'. There were over seven hundred plates, all folio-sized,
in eleven volumes. This work is today a reference source in motion
study and is considered the most exhaustive analysis ever made of
the subject. When seen through the Zoopraxiscope
(as early as 1879), Muybridge's photographs are without
debate, the world's first motion pictures. Men, women, children
and animals are seen as in true motion, resembling nothing less
in quality or appearance than the earliest works of the Lumiere's
in 1895. Muybridge's final accomplishment was without Celluloid,
yet fluid, preceding the commercial films of the 1890's by at least
16 years. When considering the fact that there are 172,800 + frames
in a typical two hour film of today, Muybridge's 20,000 pictures,
if shown consecutively (impossible with the Zoopraxiscope)
would provide a film of approximately 13+ minutes in length. In
comparison, The Great Train Robbery of 1912 (Edwin
Porter) was 12 minutes, and Chaplin's Behind the Screen
of 1916, was 15 minutes. Muybridge of course, was not using Celluloid.
1888
THOMAS ALVA EDISON (1847-1931) and EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
Muybridge speaks with
Edison again, about the possibility of amalgamating his Zoopraxiscope
with Edisonâ's Phonograph in the hopes of producing sound
pictures in the future. Edison was already considering this idea in his
New Jersey laboratories however it would be another forty years before
becoming a reality. Muybridge had been lecturing at Orange, New Jersey
at the invitation of the New England Society. On the contrary, Edison
disputes this mention, or at least his notes apparently did when it was
found in them that Edison scratched out the words . . . . .No
--- Muybridge came to lab to show me picture of a horse in motion -- nothing
was said about phonograph.
1893
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
Muybridge attends the
Columbian Exposition at Chicago and provides a work entitled 'Descriptive
Zoopraxography'. The Zoopraxiscope is the star
of the show as Muybridge presents his work at his Zoopraxigraphicall
Hall.
ZOOPRAXISCOPE
WALTZING COUPLE
The
Zoopraxiscope operated by projecting images (drawn
from photographs in some cases) rapidly and in
succession onto the screen.
The
photographs were painted onto a glass disc for
the Zoopraxiscope (even though the Hallotype
photographic process allowed photographs
to be placed onto glass). When rotated and projected within the
Zoopraxiscope the spinning disk provided an illusion
of motion.
A fine
example of the early purpose of the Zoopraxiscope was
to distinguish motion by the use of individual images.
Muybridge's
Zoopraxiscope Plate Disks were hand painted by Thomas Eakins and
also Erwin Faber.
1900
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE (1830 - 1904)
Having
returned to his native England, Muybridge bequeathed to the Kingston-on-Thames
public library, his Zoopraxiscope, some lantern slides, some plates
from his University of Pennsylvania days, and some cash.
E.
J. Muybridge 1830-1904
THE HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY
An illustrated Chronological History of the Development of Motion Pictures Covering 2500 Years Leading to the Discovery of Cinematography in the 1800's
http://precinemahistory.net
-- Paul Burns
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