Muybridge beats the rap

1874 California, USA: During a social event, British photography pioneer Eadweard Muybridge took out a pistol and to the horror of the assembled guests, shot and killed his wife’s lover. (One version says that Muybridge shot Major Larkyns at the latter’s door.)

Muybridge was found guilty of the crime, but a conviction was not recorded, becoming the last person in California to escape a sentence for murder, except by reason of insanity. Despite “getting away with murder”, Muybridge was disgraced in San Francisco and he soon left on a trip to Panama and Central America.

On December 11, 1877, Muybridge proved that when a horse runs, every foot is off the ground simultaneously at one point every stride. This he did by fixing up separate cameras that were set off by trip wires as the horse passed. The projector he invented to show these ‘films’ (as we now know them), he called the Zoopraxiscope.

Tagged: photography, muybridge, murder, law, legal