The History of Film Part 1: Sallie Gardner at a Gallop

Movies and cinema are relatively new invention in contrast to the length of human existence on Earth. It is so new in fact, that there are some people still living that are older than motion pictures, or at the very least the wide distribution of it. Movies didn't begin to gain popularity until the early 1900s due to limited technology. So the chances that one of the oldest people living remembers a time when displaying 23.97 sequential pictures a second seemed like magic are pretty high.

With every invention, there is a beginning. Of course the very beginning of cinema is the photograph, there is another event in history that paved the way for all the films, directors and actors we all know and love today. And we have a horse to thank for it. A horse named Sallie Gardner.

"Aw, shucks!"

It all started with a question. While at a gallop, is there ever a moment where a horse as all four hooves off of the ground? While this may seem like a stupid question now, you have to remember the time period.

In 1878, Leland Stanford, and American tycoon and eventual Senator for California own a farm where he bred and trained race horses. While trying to improve the performance of his horses he became interested in his horses gait action. When the horses galloped, their movements were to quick to determine if there was ever a moment where the momentum kept the horse airborne. Even if just for a fraction of a second.

He financed a science project to determine the answer and he commissioned photographer Eadweard Muybridge (Because his birth name Edward Muggeridge just wasn't complicated enough). Together, they set up a series of 24 cameras, each with their own trip wire that would be triggered by the horses legs. The result of which were a series of pictures that gave them their answer.

Sallie Gardner at a Gallop

 The First Motion Picture,  June 15, 1878

After some time and examination, Muybridge first projected the images in quick succession during a presentation at the California School of Fine Arts in 1880, becoming the first ever exhibition of a motion picture ever. Could you just imagine how mind blowing that must have been to experience?

Let's just hope no one in the lecture was on 'shrooms, for their sake.

Muybridge eventually met with Thomas Edison (presumably in between schemes to screw people over) ,who later went on to develop the kinetoscope. The precursor to the modern movie camera. And thus, motion pictures were born.

Just think, this was a time when people barely knew what a photograph was. And the one who did know were still in awe of the new invention. The excitement one must have felt when seeing a moving picture for the first time, as an adult who could understand the scale of it's significance must have been overpowering. 

I only wish we still lived in a world where new inventions had more of an emotional impact. An impact past the "oh, that's pretty cool" feeling that is all I can seem to muster with each new invention. How amazing that would have been,