Etienne-Jules Marey

Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904), French scientist, a pioneer in developing high-speed photography and capturing motion in pictures. He also produced an instrument called the sphygmograph, which allowed medical doctors to produce graphical records of pulse rate for the first time.

Born at Beaune in the Burgundy region of France, Marey obtained his medical degree in 1857 from the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. He served as a professor at the Collège de France from 1868 until his death. He took an early interest in the mechanics of blood circulation, and in 1863 he invented the first workable sphygmograph, which recorded the human pulse on graph paper.

In 1876 Marey advanced the study of cardiac (heart) irregularities by devising a polygraph instrument that recorded pulse rate and heartbeat simultaneously. Modern polygraphs, which are modified versions of Marey’s instrument, reveal information about simultaneous mechanical and electrical impulses such as respiratory movements, blood pressure changes, heartbeats, brain waves, and galvanic skin responses.

Marey’s interest in physiologic movements made him a pioneer of scientific photography and cinematography. In 1868, by observing a fragment of gold leaf fixed to the wing tip of a fly held under a spotlight, he showed that insect wings follow a basic figure-eight movement. He also recorded this pattern by having the wing tip brush against the smoked surface of a rotating cylinder. He went on to study animal locomotion, attempting to detail how a horse moves its legs in order to walk, run, or trot, and researching how a bird flaps its wings in order to fly.

Realizing that the best results for his research would be produced by photographs, Marey devised one of the world’s first motion-picture cameras in 1881. The photographs he took with his new device were spaced so closely together that the illusion of motion was created when they were viewed in rapid succession. His camera used a ribbon of sensitized paper synchronized with a rotating shutter, which intermittently opened and closed the camera’s aperture as the paper moved forward.

After the introduction of modern film during the 1880s, Marey was able to expose 60 images per second. He developed slow-motion photography and used his chronophotographs to analyze both human and animal movements. His work had a major influence on photographers and artists, and also on inventors who contributed to further developments in cinematography.