In 1878 further efforts were made at Stanford’s private track at Palo Alto, where the battery system of cameras was introduced and good results obtained. Each camera in the battery was equipped with a fast-acting shutter and was set off successively by a mechanical-electrical device. (Illustration on [opposite page].)
The most successful results, which were little better than silhouettes, were obtained when twenty-four cameras, set about one foot apart, were used. The photographs actually were not made at equal intervals of time but of space. The cameras and background were lined up for a measurement of distance and not of time.
Although Isaacs contributed engineering skill to the development of the apparatus, because he was chiefly interested in railroad engineering and this assignment in his photographic hobby was a favor for the “big boss,” Muybridge alone obtained the patents on the method. On June 27 and July 11, 1878 he applied for a patent on, “A method and apparatus for photographing objects in motion” (the battery system), and for the double action shutter controls. The patents were issued in March, 1879. Wet collodion plates were used in each camera and a speed of up to 1/5000th of a second was claimed by Muybridge in his applications. Isaacs later became chief engineer of the Southern Pacific Railroad System while Muybridge made “scientific” photography a profession.
The Horse in Motion, 1882
CAMERA SYSTEM developed by John D. Isaacs, engineer, and Eadweard Muybridge, photographer, which made pictures at equal intervals of space rather than of time. It settled a wager on the nature of the movements of a horse.
During later life Muybridge sought to establish himself as a scientist and in this effort he drew heavily on physiological data which originated with Marey in France. Muybridge was a photographer, who, through the resources of Stanford, a rich and determined backer, came into possession of a method of taking successive pictures of action. Even though the method was cumbersome and inexact, Muybridge never changed it but continued to exploit it for the rest of his life.
La Nature. 1882
PHYSIOLOGICAL PARK. Paris, above, the first motion picture studio. Marey installed the camera in a box on rails. Below, Marey’s photo gun, first portable camera for photographing motion.