December 11: On This Day in World History … briefly
Muybridge was tried for murder and pleaded insanity due to a severe head injury suffered in a stagecoach accident in 1860. The jury dismissed the insanity plea, but acquitted the photographer on the grounds of ‘justifiable homicide’ - disregarding the judge’s instructions.
1877: The riddle of the horse
Englishman Eadweard Muybridge, photographer of the American West, used his camera to solve an ancient riddle – and won a five-year-old bet for a millionaire.
Governor of California, rail magnate Leland Stanford, bet a friend that a running horse’s feet are all off the ground simultaneously once every stride. Stanford commissioned Muybridge to settle the matter and on December 11, 1877, Muybridge impressively presented an astonishing range of frozen-frame photographs of a galloping racehorse – proving Stanford right. Muybridge made the photographs by running wires across a racetrack, each connected to a camera. The horse tripped the camera shutters as it raced past.
Muybridge’s work was interrupted while he went on trial for murdering his wife’s lover, hence it took him five years. In 1872, Muybridge married 21-year-old Flora Shallcross Stone. In 1874, Muybridge discovered that a drama critic known as Major Harry Larkyns might have fathered Flora’s seven-month-old son Florado. On October 17, Muybridge went to Calistoga to track down Larkyns.
Upon finding him, Muybridge said “Good evening, Major, my name is Muybridge and here’s the answer to the letter you sent my wife.” and shot him point-blank. Larkyns died that night and Muybridge was arrested without protest and put in the Napa jail.
Once acquitted, he used the technique to study dancers and runners in motion.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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