Posted
on April 9, 2014
This
fellow was a pioneer in motion picture technology.
It's
a bit shocking to realize that someone born on this date in 1830
could be involved with the movie biz, isn't it?
Muybridge
was born in England (but had some Dutch ancestors) and came to the
United States as a young man. He took up professional photography and
in 1868 became world famous for his photos of Yosemite. A decade
later he began experimenting with using multiple cameras to capture
motion—the major reason he is famous today.
Muybridge's
experiments with using stop-motion photography with multiple cameras
in order to capture motion began in 1872 at the request of former
California Governor Leland Stanford. He set up many cameras along a
racetrack to be triggered by threads as a horse passed at a gallop.
(Later, he created clockwork devices to set off camera shutters and
capture images.) With these multiple photographs of a galloping
horse, Muybridge could answer the hotly debated question of whether a
galloping horse has all four feet off the ground during certain
moments. (The answer is “yes.”) 
Muybridge then went on to devise
a zoopraxiscope to rapidly project silhouettes of the images, one after another, to
give the illusion of movement.
Of
course, this invention isn't used now, but it is considered an early
sort of movie projector.
 |
| A zoopraxiscope disc |
What's
in a name?
The
moment I read Eadweard Muybridge's name, I wondered about
it—especially that unusual spelling for the quite ordinary name
Edward. It turns out, his birth name was Edward James Muggeridge.
While living and working in the U.S., he messed around with his last
name, changing it to Muggridge and then Muygridge and finally
Muybridge. He also used the pseudonym Helios, which is how he signed
many of his photos. (Helios was what Muybridge used as the name of
his studio and as the middle name of his only son.)
While
traveling around for more than a year in Central America, Muybridge
advertised himself as Eduardo Santiago Muybridge. And after a return
to his native England, Muybridge decided to use an Old English
variation of Edward: Eadweard. (Which I think is a bit a weird. Which
makes me wonder—is “Eadweard” pronounced like “Edward,” or
is it pronounced “Ed – weird”?)
By the way, Muybridge's tombstone has an error – it reads “Eadweard Maybridge.”
By the way, Muybridge's tombstone has an error – it reads “Eadweard Maybridge.”
These days, many kids -
even little kids - have
access to cameras that
can make movies!
- Find out how modern movie projectors work here, and how all sorts of moving image machines work here.
- Things are of course completely different now that we have computers and digital cameras and such! Here is a video about how to use Photoshop to “animate” a photo.
Also
on this date:
(A.K.A.)
Finnish Language Day
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