In 1872, Edweard Muybridge was commissioned by Leland Stanford, the Governor of California, to answer the question of how a horse ran.
There were two theories. The classic view was that the front and rear hooves were stretched out ahead and behind the animal. Others thought that
the horse did have all four hooves off the ground underneath it as it ran.
The motion picture camera wasn't invented until 1895. Muybridge solved the problem by using 50 cameras arranged in a line. The horse galloped past and triggered
the shutters by trip wires as it ran past.
This set of 16 images published in 1878 is the result.
Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger version of the single frame. Click on "Auto" to see the horse run.
