This issue of the Imaging Science Journal is devoted largely to papers on the various uses of high speed photography and photonics. Although high speed photography is widely used in the scientific community, it may not be familiar to some readers. There have been many definitions put forward over time. One problem was that once the research advantages evident in high speed photography became apparent, the development of faster framing rates and shorter exposure times proceeded at a very fast pace. With the mistaken assumption that advances would not progress so far, so fast, region descriptions quickly outran normally used superlatives, thus resulting in a rather odd listing. One reasonable definition is contained in the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th Edition, (2007).1 It divides the definition into four regions: ‘(1) High Speed, 50 to 500 frames per second, using intermittent film motion and mechanical shuttering. (2) Very high speed, 500 to 100,000 frames per second, using continuously moving film, image compensation, and digital video systems. (3) Ultra high speed, 100,000 to 10 million frames per second, using a stationary film with moving image systems and electronically with image converter cameras. (4) Super high speed, in excess of 10 million frames per second, where film has been largely superseded by electronic imaging and recording.’ Currently, electronic imaging is commercially available up to 100 million frames per second (one must also remember that to achieve these framing rates, the shuttering exposure times must reduce accordingly). There are also some more simple word definitions which give the basic raison d’etre of high speed photography. One of the neatest is defined by Paisley:2 ‘Recording optical or electro-optical information fast enough for an event to be evaluated with a temporal resolution which satisfies the experimenter.’ However, it is not sufficient to include only temporal resolution in framing rates or exposure duration, and we must also consider spatial resolution. These requirements must be balanced together to give the best solution to each problem. We can thus modify Paisley’s definition slightly to: ‘Recording optical or photo-optical information with adequately short exposures and fast enough framing rates for an event to be evaluated with a temporal and dimensional resolution which satisfies the experimenter.’3 Photonics is now coupled with high speed photography. It is felt that modern developments have introduced so many new forms of radiant energy to be used in the production of images of all kinds that their regular usage together should be acknowledged. Photonics is defined as ‘The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon.’ The scope of high speed photography and photonics is very wide and new applications are appearing frequently. Some of the basic applications are listed in Table 1. One of the special capabilities of high speed cine photography is its unique ability to slow down or speed up an event record by simply changing the framing rate on playback. With this extremely useful attribute in scientific investigations, it has also become widely used in modern advertising on television and also in the making of cinema films where it is used with dramatic effect in action scenes. While high speed photography is often coupled with the idea of cine photography, i.e. using film or digital 293 IMAG H3 # RPS 2009 DOI: 10.1179/136821909X12490326247524 The Imaging Science Journal Vol 57 Downloaded by [207.241.229.243] at 14:52 20 October 2017 cameras to take a series of images, which when played back can give the illusion of motion. However, it can of course also describe the production of still photographs or chronophotography where the ‘high speed’ aspect relates to the exposure times involved rather than the rate at which pictures are recorded. In this case, the images may be just individual productions to show a particular instant of time, or as in chronophotography they are taken in rapid sequence related to the rate of subject movement. They are then presented as a sheet of pictures in sequence together showing the event as one picture, requiring no need to be projected as in cine photography. Thus in the case of a simple uncomplicated subject, e.g. the analysis of a golfers swing, all the pictures may be superimposed on one another so that the path of the club can be clearly seen. An idea of the changing rate of swing can be seen by the changing distance between the sequential exposures of the club. Alternatively, if the subject is more complex and the exposures may overlap so that it is difficult to analyse the movement, a series of sequential pictures can be printed out on a common sheet as a chronophotograph, Lighting for such an experiment might be a multiple spark light source, a stroboscopic lamp or flash tube. 1.1 An abbreviated history of the development of high speed still and cine photography Only some of the highlights of progress to the present day are mentioned as the developments were spread over more than 150 years and a detailed description would require more than the limited space available. While the emphasis is on ‘high’ speed photography, both ordinary still and cine are included in a minor way. This is because without developments in basic photography, e.g. new designs, emulsions and film stock, high speed systems would not have evolved. A listing of some of the books which cover the development in more detail is included at the end of this paper. The earliest recorded use of high speed photography was in the 1850s, when Talbot used a spark source to freeze the motion of a spinning disc on which a sheet of newsprint had been fastened.4 Spark light sources had been available for some time, and until the production of the first cameras, scientists had used spark illumination in a very clever way to study short duration phenomena. This was achieved by quickly drawing the observed spark illuminated scene using the image retention ability of the eye. Strangely, Talbot’s use of sparks was not followed up until some 20 years later. In 1858, Thomas Skaife,5 an amateur photographer, took pictures of cannon balls in flight at Woolwich Arsenal, (on the Thames near London) using a ‘barndoor’ camera which he had made. The shutter was in the form of two half doors with an overlap (hence the name) which were operated by elastic bands. This shutter had an exposure time of about one-fiftieth of a second. In the picture, the cannon balls have a faint smeared photo-trail due to the exposure time being too long. Because this was still very early in the development of photography and emulsions were very slow, sitters were used to having to stay still while a portrait was taken. As a consequence, he was asked many times ‘How did you manage to stop the cannon ball while you took the picture?’. The camera used by Skaife is on show in the Science Museum in London. Spark sources were used extensively in scientific research for still photography for the rest of the 1800s and into the 1900s. They are still a viable alternative to flash tubes or laser sources. In 1883, Mallard and Le Chatelier had made photographs of flames from explosions. Le Chatelier used a photographic plate dropping under gravity onto which the flame image was projected. This showed how Table 1 List of applications for high speed photography and photonics Fluid flow and combustion research Aeroballistic Ranges Ballistics and general armament research Machining and tool design Manufacturing processes Physical and chemical processes Sporting and physiological studies Behaviour and movement of animals, birds and insects Lighting and electrical engineering research Medical research Astrophysics research Space sciences research Accident research Racing timing Transport and vehicle research Materials research Atomic energy research Educational studies Advertising and entertainment Wind tunnel research 294 P W W FULLER The Imaging Science Journal Vol 57 IMAG H3 # RPS 2009 Downloaded by [207.241.229.243] at 14:52 20 October 2017 the flames developed with time. This could be considered as a simple form of streak photography. By 1884, Ernst Mach, whose name is associated with ‘Mach Number’, was studying the flow around bullets in flight using spark photography in conjunction with a Schlieren system. In the process, he introduced many new spark circuit designs by which the bullets could trigger their own photographs. He had been led to study bullets in flight, after hearing a lecture on ballistics by the Belgium expert Meisen. Meisen had proposed that part of the damage caused by bullet impact was due to a parcel of high pressure gas which the bullet carried on its nose. By firing bullets through thin metal plates, Mach was able to show that the shock waves formed as a continuous process and they were reformed after exit from the plates. Later, Mach’s son Ludwig joined him in his studies of flow patterns and improved the spark triggering systems. By 1892, Sir Charles Boys6 in London followed the work of Mach by also taking pictures of bullets in flight. However, instead of using Schlieren systems as Mach had done, he changed to the much simpler shadowgraph system, which he found to give just as good results. He worked at one of the larger colleges in London and set up his range in a corridor. What ‘Health and Safety’ would have said about this arrangement, if it had existed at that time, is hard to guess. Over the turn of the century (from the 1800s to the 1900s), many experimenters produced camera designs which were nearly cine but not quite, as they were storing the images on sheets of film. In 1892, the Prussian Armaments Test Centre developed a multi-camera system with 12 cameras in a vertical circle, shuttered by a revolving disc with vertical slits. The system produced 1000 frames per second (fps). This had been influenced by the work of Muybridge in California in the 1870s. Muybridge had used a line of cameras separately triggered in sequence. Eadweard Muybridge,7,8 an Englishman who spent much of his adult life in the USA, had become famous for his work on multiple sequential camera studies of people and animals in motion. The framing rate of his sequential pictures was largely set by the subject’s rate of motion. By the 1870s, Muybridge had improved his system’s picture quality at all framing rates by producing shutter exposure times down to 1/1000 of a second. His results were often presented in chronographic form. Before he had been able to obtain roll film Etienne Jules, Marey9 in France made a camera which resembled a rifle. His idea was to make a camera which could be easily handled to take pictures such as a bird in flight. The input lens was contained inside a tube which resembled the gun barrel. Behind the barrel was a circular box which housed a steadily revolving disc shutter driven by clockwork. It was designed to take 12 pictures. Mounted on the same axle, behind the shutter disc was a second disc with 12 square openings behind which were mounted 12 squares of film. This disc revolved intermittently and was stationary, while the disc shutters passed a window. By the time the next shutter had come round, a new film was stationary in place ready to be exposed. Joined to the rear of the box was a butt which completed the gun illusion. By 1890, Marey was able to film at a rate of 100 fps. He made many films of birds in flight and was able to show the sequence of wing motion. Previously, he had made a box camera on the same lines, but like the ‘gun camera’ limited to chronophotography rather than cine. As soon as he was able to obtain roll film, he redesigned the box camera. He retained the revolving shutter disc, but was now able to install two spools which allowed the film to move intermittently from one spool to another behind the shutter. This set the design scene for early cine cameras. In the early 1920s, Dr G. Bull in France used a drum camera with a synchronized magneto-driven spark source to take multiple pictures of bullets in flight and the first studies of insects in flight showing their wing movements. By 1925, Karolus had succeeded in making Kerr’s electro-optical polarizing discovery into a camera shutter. These were used in the Second World War to photograph atomic bomb tests. Kerr cell shutters have been largely superseded by fully electronic cameras. In 1925, P. P. Quayle (USA) resolved the controversy as to whether projectiles continued to accelerate after leaving the muzzle. Using multi-spark systems, he found that bullets continued to accelerate for up to 6–8 in. beyond the muzzle. In 1926, Jenkins produced a cine camera using a set of lenses fixed to a vertical circular disc which rotated at high speed. At one side in line with the path of the lenses, a vertical film moved at high speed. By equating the rotary velocity of the lenses with the linear velocity of the film, the incoming images were swept in turn onto the film to produce a string of still HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTONICS 295 IMAG H3 # RPS 2009 The Imaging Science Journal Vol 57 Downloaded by [207.241.229.243] at 14:52 20 October 2017 images. The camera used 35 mm film and achieved 3200 fps. Spinning the lenses was a difficult requirement due to the weight and power required. In 1939, a commercial camera was produced by the Vinten Co. giving 3000 fps and built on a formidable scale. It was brought up to speed via an Austin Seven gearbox, the operator having to change gear in steps. Operators described using the camera as ‘a rather frightening experience’. It was fairly quickly superseded by the rotating prism camera (see high speed cameras). It will have been obvious from the above that spark sources were the only sources suitable for short duration illumination until well into the 1900s. Many scientists were preoccupied with armament developments and needed the ability to freeze fast motion. As shutters improved, reasonably short exposures could be obtained using sparks or magnesium flash or a steady light source such as the sun or arc lamps. 1.2 The arrival of roll film The development of cine film cameras was really made possible and greatly assisted by the production of film in long strips and rolls. Previous available film and various emulsion bases were in sheet form which was hard to incorporate as part of the design for a cine camera. Some ingenious attempts were made but with no significant progress. George Eastman can be considered as a primary source in the production of film for cine cameras. He was born in 1854 and in his mid-twenties, he began experimenting with gelatin emulsions. In 1881, he went into partnership to form the Eastman Dry Plate Company. He experimented, among many others, to produce ‘stripping film’, using a paper base which was coated with collodion and then with emulsion. After exposure, development and fixing, the paper was stripped away leaving a negative on the collodion base. However, it was not quickly taken up by photographers. Eastman was unhappy with the progress of his stripping film and to boost business decided to make his own camera to use it. The new camera, the No. 1 Kodak, was sold preloaded and after use was returned to the factory for processing, much like the similar system in use today. He employed a chemist to experiment with film bases and they produced a nitrocellulose film base from Celluloid, (invented in 1861 by Alexander Parkes). However, the new base was rather thick and not very flexible. In 1888, John Carbutt persuaded a manufacturer to make much thinner sheets which could support the emulsion without paper backing. This film could also be made into long rolls and a new era of cine possibilities had begun. By 1902, Eastman was producing nearly 90% of the world’s output of film. Nitrocellulose was highly inflammable and around 1930 was replaced by cellulose acetate film which was much safer. Nitrocellulose film had been independently invented and a patent was applied for in 1887 by the Rev Hannibal Goodwin. After a 12 year court battle with Eastman, Goodwin’s successors were awarded five million dollars.

In 1893, Thomas Alva Edison and W. Dickson were working together. Following discussions with Muybridge and William Friese Green, they built a new camera using film rolls cut to a width of 35 mm with four rectangular perforations (i.e. sprocket holes) per frame. The films taken using this camera were used in the Kinetoscope, also an Edison invention. The Kinetoscope was first shown in Chicago in 1893. It was a coin operated ‘peepshow’ machine which could only be viewed by one person at a time. The viewer looked down through an aperture onto the image which was magnified by a lens and shuttered by a revolving disc. A light illuminated each frame as it came into view. This was the first commercially successful motion picture machine, but was not suitable for multiple viewing. This was to come in 1896 with a projector built by Robert Paul in London. In film projection, it was found necessary to project at 16 fps to avoid flicker so this was selected as an international standard for silent films. When sound films arrived in the 1920s, adequate sound quality needed a velocity exceeding 400 mm s21 , so a new standard of 24 fps was fixed. Around 1900, a large number of arbitrary film sizes had been produced and used. In 1909, at an International Conference, Edison’s roll film width of 35 mm and perforation disposition was adopted as a general standard. Many people attempted to make cine cameras, but many designs were extremely complex and did not become accepted for general manufacture. In France, the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis developed a camera with an intermittent movement operated by a claw mechanism which moved the film using the perforations by one frame at a time; a pioneering design still used today. The 296 P W W FULLER The Imaging Science Journal Vol 57 IMAG H3 # RPS 2009 Downloaded by [207.241.229.243] at 14:52 20 October 2017 camera could be used as camera, printer and projector and was called the ‘Cinematographe’. Their camera was a success and critics praised the quality of the films produced. Their first public showings were in 1895 in Paris. From that time on, the quality of standard speed cine proceeded to improve and with the introduction of talking pictures later in the 1900s gradually evolved into the complex systems which we know today. In a similar way, high speed still and cine photography went on to increase its scope and framing rates to its often astonishing current capabilities. Before the introduction of roll film, many photographers attempted to produce sequences of images on sheet film. Muybridge and others used multiple cameras exposed in sequence each with their own shutters. This produced sequences of action but not in an easy form to show as a cine film but more suited to the making of chronophotographic records.

https://web.archive.org/web/20171020215254id_/http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/136821909X12490326247524 

Lieutenant P. McKinlay : “Method of Obtaining a Picture of a Gun in the Act of Firing”, Minutes of proceedings of the Royal Artillery Institution, Great Britain. Army. Royal Artillery Institution, v.5 (1866-1867), p. 112-115