To solve this problem, the chronophotograph was invented it had the same characteristics as the chronophotographic gun but had rails which allowed it to make a lateral displacement. One of the main problems of this invention was that the different photos could not be made from the same point of view, since the user remained still while what he wanted to photograph moved very quickly. He called this method of making photographs chronophotography.

In this way, he had a sequence of images in which the movement he wanted to study was portrayed, showing the details never seen before of the movement of the persons and animals. Then, when the images were revealed, they were printed on a previously prepared glass with a gelatinous dissolution of silver bromide and they ended up all together on the same photograph.

This speed was caused by the discovery of new chemical substances, which were increasingly sensible to light. The machine, thanks to the circular movement of the drum animated by clockwork mechanisms, could reach a shutter speed of 1/700 seconds. With the chronophotographic gun, he pointed to the action he was interested to investigate and he only shot once and got 12 images per second. Marey was a doctor and he was interested in the body movement, which was not much well studied at the time. Illustration of the chronophotographic gun from La Nature by Louis Poyet, 1882. The chronophotographic gun invented by Étienne-Jules Marey. Photography in its early days was the ultimate accomplice of reality but with Étienne Jules Marey (and Edward Muybridge), photography suddenly also captured the invisible. He also invented the chonophotography that would be the precursor of cinema. Étienne Jules Marey thus decomposed the gestures of men practicing sports, animals in motion, everyday tasks precisely observed and even the migration of air. He thus imagined, in 1882, a camera entitled photographic gun that enabled him to capture a moving subject in twelve poses. From 1878, he focused on movement within human beings and, inspired by Edward Muybridge he had met in 1881, used photography to document his research. First interested in flight, he studied birds and imagined mechanical devices capable of flying.

A polymorphic scientific, Étienne-Jules Marey (5 March 1830 – ) explored numerous techniques and disciplines, obsessed by one unique concept: movement.

Marey photo gun