Born Today January 5: Lucien Bull

1876-1972

To call Lucien Bull a photographic genius would be an understatement!  The man not only helped pioneer Chronophotography, he single-handedly perfected it.  Though born in Dublin, Ireland to a British father and a French mother, he is most closely associated with his mother's country than any other (despite that he was also awarded an OBE). Bull, however, grew up in Dublin, but made frequent trips to France to stay with relatives there thoughout his childhood. In 1895 he moved to Paris permanently and secured a position with the French scientist/doctor/inventor Étienne-Jules Marey.  After Marey's death in 1904, Bull took over as head of the Marey Institute, founded and named for his inventor boss. He also perfected a number of Marey's camera inventions; this included a further development of Marey's famous "gun camera." From this invention, Bull invented his own "spark drum camera" that was a strange type of "motion" picture contraption.  

The Spark Drum Camera. One can see Bull in action with the camera in the opening photo of this post--what he is filming there is his famous bullet/soap bubble experiment.

His greatest contribution to the field of film and photography was his perfection of ultra high-speed photographic images for sequence motion. He is famous for his chronophotograph high speed ultra short motion picture Bullet Piercing A Soap Bubble (Balle traversant une bulle de savon) dating from 1904. Though Marey did contribute to the experiment before his sudden death that same year, 85% of the project was Bull's alone. His considerable contribution to the world of motion pictures is a behind-the-scenes kind of affair. If you look, for example, at his page listing on IMDb, he has just the one title linked above (he should have more credits to his name there, as he actually served a "cinematographer" on several of Marey's works dating from the 1890's).  Still, recognizing his cinema contributions is important, after all there is no way a minor figure would ever had been made president of France's Institution of Scientific Cinematography, as Bull was in 1948.  Some of his important photographic contributions include government work during the first World War that included work in high speed photography, in addition to using an innovative "sound ranging device" to locate gun batteries. His older brother was famed British illustrator René Bull, whose work was no doubt an influence on Monty Python's cartoonist (turned filmmaker) Terry Gilliam. 

Still of bullet peircing, but not bursting a soap bubble. 

Bull lived a very long life after his retirement. Though he was a life long bachelor with no companion(s) or children, he a had a large circle of friends who describe him right up to the time of his death as a man who loved to have friends for tea, always a man of lively  conversation about science and subjects dealing the telescopes that were in development. Lucien Bull died on the 25th of August in 1972--he was 95 years of age. He died in France, but I can find no burial information in any location there, the United Kingdom or Ireland for him.

Wikipedia

 

 

[Source: National Library of Medicine]

 

Born Today March 5: Étienne-Jules Marey

1830-1904

French scientist and photographer Étienne-Jules Marey was born on this day in Beaune, Côte'd'Or, France.  Marey, as a scientist and doctor of physiology, was intensely interested in the human circulatory system.  This morphed into a interest in the way that musculature operated in a living human body.  His studies in this field, lead to ground breaking changes in attitude toward anatomy.  Marey was also interesting in movement of other animals, especially birds.  Before turning to photography to capture movement of subjects, he was known to produce anatomically precise sculptures of birds in flight.  He started carrying out investigations in the field in regards to bird flight in Naples, Italy (he was probably there because he was in a relationship with a married woman who had moved there from France).  His investigations there included an intense study of aquarium fish.  Like fellow French scientist P. J. C. Janssen, his interest turned to moving photography to further study his subjects.  Considerable advancements had been made in photography by the time Marey turned his attention to it though; and this resulted in his inventing what could only be described at the world's first motion picture camera--though it hardly looks like one!

The camera was built into a gun shape at first to capture the movement of birds.

The unusual camera was constructed in 1882 and was capable of capturing 12 frames of film in one second.  The apparatus was referred to as "Marey's chronophographic gun."  His use of it drew suspicion and name calling from locals in Naples; nonetheless the camera produced strips of film that accurately captured every minute details of birds on the wing.  Intrigued with this, Marey turn his attention to all sort of critters, from elephants to microscopic organisms.  The whole was often referred to as "Marey's animated zoo."  He also used the same camera techniques to further study human locomotion; everything from nude athletic running to the analysis of a golf swing.  In all, the photographic studies advanced the study of locomotion by leaps and bounds.  Marey graduated to making full fledged films that were, for the time, a very high speed:  60 images, or frames, per second. Though, again these were used as a means of conducting scientific experiments, they also inadvertently advanced cinematography.  He also invented the means be which to project these films himself.  The first true film that Marey is credited with came in 1890 with Mosquinha, which tracked the flight of a fly.  In all, he produced 4 short films and shot 3 of them in the early 1890's. The 1894 film Falling Cat, which was a study of the belief that cats always land on their feet, is believed to be the very first film to ever feature a house cat.  Marey also invented equipment that would be some of the world's first sound recording devices.  One of the last experiments of motion that Marey was involved with involved the study of smoke trails.  He was partially funded by the Smithsonian Institution  and managed to build a smoke machine with some 58 trails.  It was at the time one of the very first aerodynamic wind tunnels.  He was also involved in the experimental film from 1904 Bullet Piercing A Soap Bubble, which was shot by Lucien Bull, who used a sophisticated camera invented by Marey, known as "the wheel camera." This would be basically the last scientific experiment he was involved with.  Marey died on the 15 of May in 1904 in Paris.  Upon his death, Bull, who had become a naturalized French citizen, assumed control of The Marey Institute--founded by and named for Marey himself.

For More:

Wikipedia

National Museum Of American History

More On The Gun Camera

Victorian Cinema

Musée d'Orsay

Google Images