Man Jumping Over a Bar

1880

A laboratory at the Parc des Princes

The Paris municipality builds a physiological and photographic laboratory at the Parc des Princes and places it at Marey’s disposal.

1880s

Develops chronophotography

He develops animated photography into a separate field, chronophotography; his revolutionary idea is to record several phases of a movement on a single photographic surface.

1882

Makes the chronophotographic gun

Marey’s first chronophotographic gun takes 12 consecutive frames a second, all recorded on one picture; with it he studies horses, birds, dogs, elephants, fish, insects, reptiles and other animals — Marey’s “animated zoo”. The people of Naples, seeing him aim the gun at birds without shooting, nicknamed him the “silly from Posillipo”.

1889

Creates the chronophotographe film camera

He develops the chronophotographe camera, which takes images on film at even spacing; he cannot play the images back, however, because he cannot advance the film evenly between frames.

1889

Edison visits Marey

Edison visits Marey and solves the problem of advancing the frames evenly with a sprocketed film-advance mechanism, working together with W. L. Dickson.

1890

Publishes “Le Vol des oiseaux”

He publishes a substantial volume, “Le Vol des oiseaux” (“The Flight of Birds”), illustrated with photographs, drawings and diagrams. He also made precise sculptures of flying birds.