Language Log

« previous post | next post »

It wasn't until the 1870s that there was conclusive evidence that all four hooves of a horse are off the ground in the course of its gallop.  That feat was accomplished by the subject of this post.

Running (Galloping)
negative 1878–1879; print 1881
Eadweard J. Muybridge (American, born England, 1830 – 1904)

Getty Museum Collection 85.XO.362.44

As the story goes, in 1872 railroad magnate and ex-governor of California Leland Stanford made a bet with a fellow horseman regarding a horse's gallop. Contending that all four of a horse's feet are off the ground simultaneously at some point while galloping, Stanford hired Muybridge to prove it photographically.

Muybridge's first photographs of the horse were poorly exposed and thus inconclusive. After constructing a more efficient shutter and improving the speed of his film, he resumed his experiments with motion studies in 1877, but he was still producing only single images. Undaunted, he developed a system of first twelve and eventually twenty-four cameras, whose electro-magnetic shutter blades were opened by the stride of the animal tripping wires strung across the track. This series of twenty-four consecutive frames, which took less than one second to expose, was made after Muybridge had perfected his technique. Ultimately, Muybridge did prove that all four feet of a galloping horse were off the ground simultaneously.

Here's the famous galloping horse sequence, animated using photos by Muybridge (1887):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge#/media/File:Muybridge_race_horse_animated.gif  (I provide the complete URL because the embedded gif wouldn't work for some readers).

Of course, I have always thought that Muybridge's motion studies photographs, created nearly a century and a half ago, were works of genius.  A lot of his most important work on the movements of humans was done at the University of Pennsylvania in a dedicated studio at the northeast corner of 36th and Pine streets, very close to my office.  On the linguistic side, however, I am captivated by the vagaries of his name:

Edward James Muggeridge was born and raised in England. Muggeridge changed his name several times, starting with "Muggridge". From 1855 to 1865, he mainly used the surname "Muygridge".

From 1865 onward, he used the surname "Muybridge".

In addition, he used the pseudonym Helios (Titan of the sun) for his early photography. He also used this as the name of his studio and gave it to his only son, as a middle name: Florado Helios Muybridge, born in 1874.

While travelling in 1875 on a photography expedition in the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, the photographer advertised his works under the name "Eduardo Santiago Muybridge" in Guatemala.

After an 1882 trip to England, he changed the spelling of his first name to "Eadweard", the Old English form of his name. The spelling was probably derived from the spelling of King Edward's Christian name as shown on the plinth of the Kingston coronation stone, which had been re-erected in 1850 in Muybridge's hometown, 100 yards from his childhood family home. He used "Eadweard Muybridge" for the rest of his career.

Others frequently misspelled his surname as "Maybridge", "Moybridge", or "Mybridge". His gravestone carries his name as "Eadweard Maybridge".

Eadweard Muybridge lived for a total of 74 years, but packed enough creativity, travel, drama, suffering, and name variants into them for five ordinary men.  Only a man of unusual intelligence, determination, and stamina could have accomplished what he did in a single lifetime.

Selected readings

• "Horse culture comes east" (11/15/20) — with extensive bibliography
• "Mare, mǎ ('horse'), etc." (11/17/19)
• "Once more on Sinitic *mraɣ and Celtic and Germanic *marko for 'horse'" (4/28/20)
• "Some Mongolian words for 'horse'" (11/7/19)
• "'Horse Master' in IE and in Sinitic" (11/9/19)
• "Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China" (11/11/19)
• "'Horse' and 'language' in Korean" (10/30/19)
• "Turco-Sogdian horses and languages" (10/28/24)
• Heavenly horse 'reins' again
  Ancient bronze artwork discovered in 1978 symbolizes vigor of culture, Zhao Xu and Ma Jingna report.
  By Zhao Xu and Ma Jingna, China Daily (2025-03-27)

[Thanks to Alan Kennedy]

March 31, 2025 @ 6:54 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and art, Names

Permalink