Back in the 1980’s, I worked for a company founded by Harold Edgerton. He invented the electronic stroboscope that allowed a photographer to capture fast objects like a bullet piercing a balloon. He also helped develop the Rapatronic camera that allowed pictured of things happening as fast as 10 nanoseconds. The article shows a nuclear bomb explosion less than 1 millisecond after detonation.
Edgerton had a National Geographic article and a PBS Nova special feature him. A truly fascinating man when looking at things in slo-motion or stopping very quickly.
eeyore….
Dr. Edgerton was once a guest of David Letterman. He so completely upstaged him that Letterman nearly had a stage breakdown. Edgerton just stole his audience — cracking jokes right on through.
His first military technological breakthrough turned C-47 Dakotas into night flying photo platforms. He mounted ultra high powered strobes synch’d to a very wide format camera.
This lash-up was then sent over France at shockingly low altitudes. The blazing light blinded the Germans to such a degree that no aimed fire was possible. (!)
The photos, classified for decades, showed Germans in motion all across the channel — in the dead of night, of course.
During the day no Germans could be seen, as the high command had forbidden exposure.
These were the photos that gave the game away. Right through the end of the Cold War, they remained classified.
Some are quite funny. The Germans are normally caught staring straight up at the camera — usually looking pretty goofy.
(Shock and awe?)
The resolution was so high that you could pull out astounding detail: lengths, heights, distances…
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It was proposed to use strobes as the main weapon of tricked out Sherman tanks. 200 Shermans were modified. They had armored shutters where the gun would’ve been mounted. The crew was reduced to driver and commander.
The scheme was to mix these ‘flashers’ in with conventional Shermans. In tests it was shown that no-one could face into them. The shock to the eye was just too much.
They were never employed. I suspect the attorneys got involved.
Strobes have changed industry. They are the essential tool for freezing high speed mechanical motion — such as a bottling line or web press.
I knew the reconnaissance events, the office had some pictures of those as well as other high speed actions. He helped determine how a bat caught its prey by using a worm gun to shoot worms into the air and flashing at the right moment to get the action. The bat caught the worm using the skin between its legs and scooped it up to its mouth. He also made a slo-motion film of the bat.
His Oscar winning film, Quicker ‘n a wink is available on YouTube. Several other videos are there about him and his work as well. His biography, many pictures and videos, are also available at the Edgerton Digital Collection. He also worked with Jacques Cousteau and on side-scan sonar.
Five minutes is too long, so I fast forwarded it. Don’t see what the fuss is about.
The slow motion for the katana cutting exercise would actually be useful if I used it to film myself. As I could see when the blade was curving due to inadequate blade control and thus compensate in the future.
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Back in the 1980’s, I worked for a company founded by Harold Edgerton. He invented the electronic stroboscope that allowed a photographer to capture fast objects like a bullet piercing a balloon. He also helped develop the Rapatronic camera that allowed pictured of things happening as fast as 10 nanoseconds. The article shows a nuclear bomb explosion less than 1 millisecond after detonation.
Edgerton had a National Geographic article and a PBS Nova special feature him. A truly fascinating man when looking at things in slo-motion or stopping very quickly.
eeyore….
Dr. Edgerton was once a guest of David Letterman. He so completely upstaged him that Letterman nearly had a stage breakdown. Edgerton just stole his audience — cracking jokes right on through.
His first military technological breakthrough turned C-47 Dakotas into night flying photo platforms. He mounted ultra high powered strobes synch’d to a very wide format camera.
This lash-up was then sent over France at shockingly low altitudes. The blazing light blinded the Germans to such a degree that no aimed fire was possible. (!)
The photos, classified for decades, showed Germans in motion all across the channel — in the dead of night, of course.
During the day no Germans could be seen, as the high command had forbidden exposure.
These were the photos that gave the game away. Right through the end of the Cold War, they remained classified.
Some are quite funny. The Germans are normally caught staring straight up at the camera — usually looking pretty goofy.
(Shock and awe?)
The resolution was so high that you could pull out astounding detail: lengths, heights, distances…
=====
It was proposed to use strobes as the main weapon of tricked out Sherman tanks. 200 Shermans were modified. They had armored shutters where the gun would’ve been mounted. The crew was reduced to driver and commander.
The scheme was to mix these ‘flashers’ in with conventional Shermans. In tests it was shown that no-one could face into them. The shock to the eye was just too much.
They were never employed. I suspect the attorneys got involved.
Strobes have changed industry. They are the essential tool for freezing high speed mechanical motion — such as a bottling line or web press.
I knew the reconnaissance events, the office had some pictures of those as well as other high speed actions. He helped determine how a bat caught its prey by using a worm gun to shoot worms into the air and flashing at the right moment to get the action. The bat caught the worm using the skin between its legs and scooped it up to its mouth. He also made a slo-motion film of the bat.
His Oscar winning film, Quicker ‘n a wink is available on YouTube. Several other videos are there about him and his work as well. His biography, many pictures and videos, are also available at the Edgerton Digital Collection. He also worked with Jacques Cousteau and on side-scan sonar.
Five minutes is too long, so I fast forwarded it. Don’t see what the fuss is about.
The slow motion for the katana cutting exercise would actually be useful if I used it to film myself. As I could see when the blade was curving due to inadequate blade control and thus compensate in the future.