International photographer (Feb-Dec 1929)

June, 192» The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Nineteen the shutter as of double focalplane type. One opening was above the lens and the other below. Each shutter was pulled by stout rubber bands and when the latch was sprung the shutters moved in opposite directions so that the openings passed each other at the level of the lens. The duration of the exposure according to the strength of the rubber band used was anywhere from 1-1000 to 1-5000 second. The first latches used in the Palo Alto camera battery were somewhat like door latches and each had its latch string out. The two parts of the shutter were set. The latch held them; pulling the string sprung them; they uncovered the lens and then closed again, but all in all, they were not very certain in their action. They were uneven in tension or pull required to set them off. At this stage in the work, Governor Stanford secured the young mechanical engineer, John D. Isaacs, to assist in refining the apapratus so that it might be more certain in its action. He applied the principle of the electromagnet and arranged a form of electric trip. Now, in order to make an exposure, it was only necessary to close an electric circuit. There were three chief means employed for doing this. First, the threads. Fine threads had been stretched across the track, one for each camera, and the horse running against these had pulled them in turn and thus had shot himself with each camera at the moment when he was dh-ectly in front of it. Threads continued to be used with the electric shutters, but now the pull on the thread required to close the circuit was not so uneven as previously and did not have to be as great. Of course the threads were always broken and had to be strung up again for each new exposure. Second, the vehicle switch. When the horse drew a vehicle it was possible to make use of the steel tire on one wheel, by having this wheel run in a grove so that the tire could make contact in turn with wires representing the successive camera circuits. A large number of very successful pictures were taken by this means. Third, the clock circuit breaker. A weight operated clock with a fan form spread control rotated a roller somewhat like the old fashioned music box. The pins in this roller made contacts successively with the different camera circuits. If one accurately judged the rate at which the horse would pass the cameras and adjusted the clock to that rate, he could record the animasl consecutive positions without having the animals in any way operate the mechanism. Quite a number of the Palo Alto records were made by this form of technique. "On the site of the track, opposite the building where the cameras were placed, and in such position as to receive the best exposure to light, a wooden frame was erected, about fifty feet long and fifteen high, at a suitable angle, and covered with white cotton sheeting divided by vertical lines into spaces of twentyone inches, each space being consecutively numbered. Eighteen inches in front of this background was placed a base-board twelve inches high, and on which were drawn longitudinal lines four inches apart." One important possibility opened up by the electric shutters was that of setting off several cameras at the same instant. For this work Muybridge usually employed five cameras. The central one of his battery from which a thread came to the opposite side of the track and four others set in a deep semi-circle so that each would get a wholly different view of the animal that set off this quinquepartite photographic trap. Such groups of photographs were a very important means for what we might call an all-round study of a moment of motion. The reel is not ended; much as we have seen by way of development since the days when the Stanford horses Occident, Sunol, Wildflower and Electioneer sped past the cameras of Muybridge, we now waken to the thrilling fact that the show has just begun. Every time-frame that flashes on the screen of consciousness brings us new wonders in ways and means of portraying life, motion and personality. Let us remember the story from its beginning! The name of Leland Stanford as the first to conceive and to bring to pass in an important way the recording of action through photography and the name of Eadweard Muybridge as his technical associate as significantly and permanently engraved in the historical record of motion picture progress. Don Gledhill, of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, supplies the following notes in connection with the Stanford-Muybridge article: The correct spelling is Eadweard J. Muvbridge. The Palo Alto studios were conceived by Stanford to verify some of his own opinions about the motion of horses. He was a noted race horse breeder in addition to being Senator, Governor, Southern Pacific builder and university founder. The studios were built by Muybridge and used in 1878 and 1879. After Stanford had taken his first album of 2000 pictures to Europe his reception there was enthusiastic that he sent Muybridge over in 1882. When Muybridge returned J. B. Lippincot the publisher financed a 120 foot studio at the University of Pennsylvania for him. Here Muybridge made 781 plates. For many he used cameras at three angles, to show the object from three sides simultaneously The plates used in the Muybridge experiments were very small, three by four inches. The great value of Muybridge's experiments was that he was first to produce in continuity images of objects in motion which were capable of analysis and syntheses. o JOHN DOVE ISAACS By Ira Hoke In an obscure corner of a Los Angeles daily newspaper there appeared on April 27th last, a terse news item, unnoticed and un-remarked. Yet, to the people who live by make-believe in moviedom today, this bit of news might well have deserved double headlines on the front page. San Francisco, Apr. 27. — John Dove Isaacs, 80 last to survive of the four men who took the first motion pictures, is dead at his home here. Last of the four pioneer producers of the first motion picture. Last of the four pioneers of the fourth largest industry of the United States. Yes, John Dove Isaacs deserved a headline in the daily papers of Los Angeles. It was in the year 1872, in that season when the thoughts of sporting men turn to the turf and the thunder of plopping hoofs, that a hot dispute arose among several wealthy horse owners on the race track at Sacramento. None of the owners concerned were really certain that a running horse's hoofs were ever all four off the ground at any one time. Eadweard Muybridge, an English photographer in the employ of the United States Geodetic Survey, was called in at the suggestion of Governor Leland Stanford, to settle the controversy by photography if possible. Muybridge, together with J. D. B. Stillman, and John Dove Isaacs, arranged 24 collodion plate cameras side by side along the race track. From the shutter of each camera a thread was stretched across the track. Each thread was just strong enough to trip the shutter before breaking. At a given signal a horse was golloped down the race track in front of the cameras. As it dashed along it broke the cords in rapid succession and thus took a series of photographs of itself and rider in various positions of action. After many experiments success crowned the undertaking. Twentyfour pictures showing the successive steps taken by the horse constituted the world's first movie. Governor Leland Stanford, Muybridge, Stillman, and Isaacs, formed the first motion picture production company. Edward Muybridge became the first cameraman. Then came the dream that dominated the remainder of the life of Eadweard Muybridge; to re-construct a picture of a scene in motion. Today the projection of a picture is a comparatively commonplace event, but Muybridge, hampered by the limited photographic apparatus of the period, had no means of viewing his pictures with sufficient rapidity to simulate the original action. But the dream was there, the dream of motion reconstructed. Through the years engineers all over the world have contributed ideas toward the perfection of this dream until, today, it stands as a monument to the memory of Eadweard Muybridge, father of all movie cameramen, and the man whose dreams have made possible an instrument that carries the light and fame of Hollywood across the seven seas.