Marey, Étienne-Jules

(1830-1904)

   Film pioneer. Étienne-Jules Marey was a French physiologist, member of the Academy of Medecine, and a professor at the Collège de France. Marey developed several important devices for the study of human physiology, including a device to register pulse and blood pressure. His primary interest, however, was in developing the means to use photography to capture and represent movement. He developed several techniques and inventions that would pave the way for the invention of the film camera. One of Marey's contributions was his "tambour," a kind of pressure sensor that could be used to register movement. Marey attached the device to the hoofs of a horse to register the movement of the hooves. In so doing, he discovered that all representations of a horse in motion made up to that time were incorrect. This discovery led William Muybridge to develop his zoopraxiscope in order to be able to accurately photograph and represent a horse's movement. Marey applied his technology to a motion-sensing suit that he used to capture human motion.

   Marey was, in turn, inspired by Muybridge to develop a way to capture movement in a single frame. He developed a technique for exposing multiple images on the same rotating plate through the use of a slotted shutter. This allowed for the photographic image to represent the photographed movement. He called these images chronophotographes. He developed a photographic gun in 1882 with a rotating photographic plate. The gun enabled the user to rapidly photograph a moving object with a quick succession of images. This allowed for the photography of the movement of birds, something that had not previously been possible. In 1887, he developed a rudimentary film camera using George Eastman's recently developed silver bromide film. This camera was a direct predecessor to Auguste and Louis Lumière's cinématographe. A significant difference between Marey's invention and that of the Lumières is that Marey's device did not use transparent film and the film was not notched. He was not, therefore, able to accurately capture continuous motion because of an unresolved issue with continuous feed of the film and with the continuity of the time of exposure and the distance between images. In 1894, Marey also invented a slow-motion camera.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins