A series of tripwires and twenty-four cameras first proved that galloping horses fly
In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge used a high-speed photographic array to resolve a centuries-old debate by proving that a galloping horse briefly becomes airborne with all four hooves tucked beneath its body.
Eadweard Muybridge settled a long-standing dispute among equestrian experts and artists by capturing the first high-speed sequence of a horse in motion. Using a track lined with 24 stereoscopic cameras spaced 21 inches apart, he rigged tripwires to trigger shutters at exposures of one-thousandth of a second. The resulting images of the horse Sallie Gardner revealed a truth invisible to the human eye: at a full gallop, there is a moment of 'unsupported transit' where all four hooves leave the ground simultaneously.
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