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History: Precursors

The document discusses the history and precursors of film technology. It describes several early inventions in the 1830s that helped develop moving images, including the phenakistoscope, zoetrope, and stroboscope. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a galloping horse using multiple cameras triggered by trip wires. Four years later, Étienne-Jules Marey invented a gun capable of taking 12 frames per second. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, film was increasingly used for scientific exploration and documentation, allowing scientists to view objects and processes in real time.

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35 views2 pages

History: Precursors

The document discusses the history and precursors of film technology. It describes several early inventions in the 1830s that helped develop moving images, including the phenakistoscope, zoetrope, and stroboscope. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a galloping horse using multiple cameras triggered by trip wires. Four years later, Étienne-Jules Marey invented a gun capable of taking 12 frames per second. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, film was increasingly used for scientific exploration and documentation, allowing scientists to view objects and processes in real time.

Uploaded by

Kishor Rai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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History[edit]

Main article: History of film technology

See also: History of the camera

Precursors[edit]

Muybridge sequence of a horse galloping

In the 1830s, three different solutions for moving images were invented on the concept of revolving
drums and disks, the stroboscope by Simon von Stampfer in Austria, the phenakistoscope by
Joseph Plateau in Belgium, and the zoetrope by William Horner in Britain.
In 1845, Francis Ronalds invented the first successful camera able to make continuous recordings of
the varying indications of meteorological and geomagnetic instruments over time. The cameras were
supplied to numerous observatories around the world and some remained in use until well into the
20th century.[2][3][4]
William Lincoln patented a device, in 1867, that showed animated pictures called the "wheel of life"
or "zoopraxiscope". In it, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit.
On 19 June 1878, Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a horse named "Sallie Gardner"
in fast motion using a series of 24 stereoscopic cameras. The cameras were arranged along a track
parallel to the horse's, and each camera shutter was controlled by a trip wire triggered by the horse's
hooves. They were 21 inches apart to cover the 20 feet taken by the horse stride, taking pictures at
one-thousandth of a second.[5] At the end of the decade, Muybridge had adapted sequences of his
photographs to a zoopraxiscope for short, primitive projected "movies," which were sensations on
his lecture tours by 1879 or 1880.
Four years later, in 1882, French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey invented a chronophotographic gun,
which was capable of taking 12 consecutive frames a second, recording all the frames of the same
picture.
The late nineteenth to the early twentieth century brought rise to the use of film not only for
entertainment purposes but for scientific exploration as well. French biologist and filmmaker Jean
Painleve lobbied heavily for the use of film in the scientific field, as the new medium was more
efficient in capturing and documenting the behavior, movement, and environment of
microorganisms, cells, and bacteria, than the naked eye.[6] The introduction of film into scientific fields
allowed for not only the viewing "new images and objects, such as cells and natural objects, but also
the viewing of them in real time",[6] whereas prior to the invention of moving pictures, scientists and
doctors alike had to rely on hand-drawn sketches of human anatomy and its microorganisms. This
posed a great inconvenience in the science and medical worlds. The development of film and
increased usage of cameras allowed doctors and scientists to grasp a better understanding and
knowledge of their projects.[citation needed]

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