Étienne-Jules Marey

His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinematography and the science of laboratory photography.

He was also a pioneer in establishing a variety of graphical techniques for the display and interpretation of quantitative data from physiological measurement.

For example, in 1859, in collaboration with the physiologist Auguste Chauveau and the watch manufacturer Breguet, he developed a wearable Sphygmograph to measure the pulse.

This sphygmograph was an improvement on an earlier and more cumbersome design by the German physiologist Karl von Vierordt.

In 1890 he published a substantial volume entitled Le Vol des Oiseaux (The Flight of Birds), richly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and diagrams.

Marey produced a series of drawings showing a horse trotting and galloping, first in the flesh and then as a skeleton.

In a letter dated 1 November 1876 Marey requested the Stazione Zoologica to provide live ray fishes for his studies.

Using these pictures he studied horses, birds, dogs, sheep, donkeys, elephants, fish, microscopic creatures, molluscs, insects, reptiles, etc.

Edison visited Marey in 1889 and was able to solve the problem using a sprocketed film advance mechanism along with W.L.

This research was partially funded by Samuel Pierpont Langley under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, after the two met in Paris at the Exposition Universelle (1900).