Chiiz Volume 11 : Macro Photography

Old is Gold
Rapatronic Camera
by Harold Eugene Edgerton
It’s often said that time doesn’t stop for anyone, but Harold Eugene
Edgerton took the phrase as a challenge and made time stop for him.
In the modern era, flash on smartphones and cameras have become
so common that nobody questions how it came to be. It was in 1952,
an era in which vacuum tubes and radios were the sizes of your
couches, when Harold invented the Rapatronic Camera. The name
‘rapatronic’ comes from rapid action electronic (camera). The flashes
on our smartphones and cameras are a tribute to and the legacy of
Edgerton. After the completion of his master’s degree from MIT in
electrical engineering, Edgerton began his experiments with flash
tubes. He developed the xenon flash which emitted light at regular
intervals, thus proving itself to be the perfect stroboscope. It helped in
capturing milk drops falling on a plate, a bullet passing an apple, etc.
The xenon flash or Edgerton’s flash was capable of firing a burst of light
at every 10th millisecond. Before this invention, photographic flash
meant flash powder which was helpful only to produce a controlled
blazing explosion. There was nothing to shoot high-speed phenomena
as the speed of the shutter was very slow and worked well only when
the subject was stock still.
The invention of the rapatronic camera was the combination of the
xenon flash and the traditional camera. It had two polarizing filters.
The shutters were placed adjacent to each other at a 90 degree angle, so
that no light can enter it. In the middle of the filters, a Kerr cell is placed
as a replacement of a shutter. The reason behind the replacement was
that the shutter was too slow to do the job of capturing movements.
The Kerr cell was chosen to replace it as its polarization changes
according to the applied voltage. It acted as a high speed shutter. The
creation of the camera and the flash suddenly captured awe-worthy
complex geometries which were previously incomprehensible to the
human eye.
At a time when even still photography was not overly popular, where
did Edgerton get the inspiration to think of such complex designs? It
was in MIT’s computer laboratory that Edgerton was performing an
experiment using a computer. He saw the warning lights indicating
overheating (which blinked 60 times in a second). The blinking
light gave Edgerton the idea that the high-speed world can only be
illuminated and captured by bursts of light by nanoseconds. Once the
invention and tests were done, the struggle of selling his device began.
Kodak was hesitant about this device and it believed that it would be
hard to even sell 50 samples. But, the belief was proved wrong once
Edgerton took a photograph of a night boxing match, which presented
the fighters clearly and in clear light. From then on, the electronic flash
hit emerged into the market and made millions.
The rapatronic camera has helped engineers to solve various technical
problems in the movements of machines and has also allowed them
to examine the operation of machines. Harold Edgerton, through his
photographic innovation, has made photography a diagnostic tool.
Furthermore, during World War II, Edgerton successfully developed
a bigger version of the stroboscope which was used to illuminate and
take photos of drop zones in Normandy. It helped in the identification
of areas free from Germans. After the WWII, Harold captured the
initial phases of an atomic explosion. This was possible as Harold and
his technical team were able to cut the shutter’s time to 1/4000000th
of a second.
Harold Edgerton died at the age of 86 in 1990. He is still applauded
for his inventions which are a huge feat of technical excellence. His
legacy continues in the usage of his inventions in various photography
related fields. US President Harding himself has appreciated Harold’s
photographs for their detail, color, composition and “unusual subject
matter”. He comments how Harold’s inventions and photography
helps in the recognition of the power of photography and its ability
to “create a sense of wonder from ordinary, everyday events such as a
falling drop of milk.”
Harshika Kapoor
harshika@chiiz.com
Harshika is a 19 year old book nerd who, when not in pursuit of food, studies
journalism. She's adept in the language of art, politics and all things in between.
She's in possession of a selectively Type A personality and confidently takes it
in her stride.