Talk:Harold Edgerton

Correct milkdrop photo?

I took a look at the "milkdrop" photos. One is the mirror image of the other. Anyone know which is the 'correct' one? Bunthorne 17:25, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Official name of "multiflash" technique?

Does anybody know what is the offical (or most often used) name of this "multiflash" technique Edgerton invented (like here: )? The most often used term I found is "stroboscopic motion photography", but I'm now kinda stumped because I didn't find a wikipedia article about the technique. Any help? Thanks! Peter S. 16:35, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Photograph

There's no point in having a photograph on this page that wasn't taken by Edgerton, regardless of how close a connection there is. Dr. Deathface 09:18, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

   Check edit hx, etc: was the photo

• exploited in our strobe article(s), and/or in a more approp bio, or
• adequately considered for any other articles that might suitably be illustrated by, and might benefit from (i.e., be more relevantly useful to) an image, which could better explain, or render more concrete, the articles via its presence within them?

   Full disclosure:

i saw some of his photos (around a time when they may perhaps have relatively recently been declassified),

studied physics under a son of his, and

meditated with that son, one of my chem profs, and their respective spouses, and other students, in a Hicksite-Quaker meeting

(which may have qualified for some definitions of house church and),

(in any case) received some small kindnesses from then college pres. John W. Nason et ux.).
--JerzyA (talk) 22:41, 7 January 2020 (UTC)

Flash?

It is great that he used stroboscopes, but what on Earth does this have to do with flash being associated with modern photography? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.11.122.193 (talk) 17:00, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Still a relevant question. It seems that most authors on the subject mix those things up. I believe the term stroboscopy/Stroboscope/Stroboscopic refers to interrupted vision, originally by looking though slits in the circumference of a rotating disc, later with electric flashes (and moments of darkness in between). This is illustrated in Edgerton's motion sequences in one plate (resembling Marey's Chronophotography rather than Muybridge's series). Only one flash is needed for his apparently more famous "time-frozen" pictures of bullets through an apple, balloons and hummingbirds. I presume Edgerton eventually contributed to the popularity of the electric flash that could be used multiple times (and maybe developed some innovative electronic equipment), when some photographers were still using single-use doses of powder or gas bulbs. The term "strobe" and stroboscope" seems to have gotten confused because the equipment he used could do sequences of flashes, but he and others still called it a stroboscope when used for single-flash pictures.

I can thus explain the difference, but the excessive promotion of Edgerton and his commercial stroboscope seems to have corrupted the use of the term in the literature (or in general, at least in the US), which makes a lot of sources very confusing.

Can anybody find a good source that explains this, preferably in relation to Edgerton? At the moment I'm too frustrated about the confusion in sources (while researching stroboscopic topics, without much interest in Edgerton). Joortje1 (talk) 17:01, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

Need photographs

We need a photo of Doc Edgerton himself, as well as a few of his most striking images, for example:

• Milk-drop "crown"
• Bird in flight
• Atomic explosion, microseconds after ignition
• Bullet cutting playing card
• Popping balloon

The challenge, of course, is finding copyright-cleared images. Reify-tech (talk) 14:24, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

Great and Great-grand children

I am parking the list of descendants here. It did not help the article simply to have a list with no further information (and no citation either). Diff of addition of the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harold_Eugene_Edgerton&diff=356487014&oldid=354233717

Grandchildren: Nina Edgerton, Eric Edgerton, Sylvia Edgerton, Janice Dixon, William Dixon, Mary Anne Dixon and Ellen Dixon. Great-Grandchildren: Rebecca Key, Bryan Dixon, Emily Key, Rosemary Hubbard, Garrett Dixon, Richard Hubbard, Allison Dixon, Melina Edgerton, Travis Law, Jendy Edgerton, Benjamin Law, Julien Gascon Edgerton, Hannah Hubbard, Quinn Edgerton, Carl Gascon Edgerton, and Kaylee Law.

Officiallyover (talk) 21:42, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

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Family birth dates

There's an inconsistency regarding the birth dates of his children. Mary Louise is written as April 21, 1931, while William Eugene and Robert Frank are listed as 8/9/1933 and 5/10/1935 respectively. As this is an American article one can assume the dates should be written August 9, 1933 and May 10, 1935. Elsewhere on the planet readers may assume the dates are 8 September 1933 and 5 October 1935.

Can someone with more family knowledge please write them so they can't be misinterpreted? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:1405:3F00:AD5C:2895:4F22:3BA5 (talk) 02:55, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Vandalism

Someone has inserted " just like Clara Oswald" in the preamble, following the "Papa Flash" nickname. 222.153.181.68 (talk) 11:06, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

I'm just trying to tell people who don't know what a teacher is help them learn about the man in the thing RealClaraOswald (talk) 11:33, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

So, vandalism. 2605:A601:A0D0:F000:4D37:D9BD:7438:D71B (talk) 12:22, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Predecessors

Since the bullet picture on the page much more resembles Ernst Mach's work of the 1880s/1890s than Edgerton's famous pictures, I believe this page could do with some explanation about what exactly Edgerton contributed to stroboscopic techology, other than a lot of self-promotion and commercialisation. His motion sequences clearly resemble those of Étienne-Jules Marey (also since the 1880s). And there are Worthington's drop pictures. And Demeny's and later also Oehmischen's pictures of the beating of insect wings, which relate to Edgerton's hummingbirds. I suppose colour was an upgrade in some pictures (but not due to any invention by Edgerton'), and his equipments presumably was more compact, practical, and perhaps faster.

Perhaps stroboscopy was somewhat "obscure" in the US and Edgerton definitely made it better known to the general public, but the basic technology seems to have been well-known in German-speaking regions at least, especially if we count Simon Stampfers 1833 stroboscopic discs (which of course didn't use photography, but did explain the basic principles of stroboscopy).

Including references to these predecssors is also a good reason to include photography that gives an impression of what Edgerton did in his famous copyrighted works, Using Mach's work of a flying bullet seems more relevant than a modern version by a student.

Perhaps I might be able to work on this myself at some stage. For the moment I'm too tired of all those sources focusing on Edgerton as the inventor of the stroboscope, while looking for more useful historiographies of the technology.

Any thoughts on this, before I'd put in the work? Am I gonna get reverted by fanatics who won't like how Edgerton's work wasn't as original as they believed? How can we describe this and include similar work instead of his own without making him look like a copycat? Joortje1 (talk) 16:10, 3 September 2025 (UTC)