Engineer and photographer Harold Edgerton was born #OTD in 1903.
Edgerton pioneered various forms of high-speed photography using specialized cameras, strobe lighting, and other techniques. You’ve probably seen many of the images he created!
Images: MIT; H. Edgerton
While working at EG&G, Edgerton and his colleagues developed the “Rapatronic” camera. Its shutter had no moving parts and could capture exposures as short as 2 microseconds.
This new camera allowed for high speed photos of atomic bomb tests. Notice the silhouettes of the Joshua trees in this photo.
What’s going on in these photos?
The roughly spherical blob is the shockwave from the blast, and the white splotches are bits of bomb casing catching up with it.
What about the protrusions emerging from the sides and bottom of the blast?
Images: Public Domain
In these tests, the bomb sat at the top of a support tower and was held in place by steel mooring cables. (You can see the tower if you zoom in.)
Those glowing protrusions are the cables vaporizing. This phenomenon is known as the “rope trick effect.”
Image: Public Domain
Here is a gif of the rope trick effect from a video recorded with Edgerton's Rapatronic camera.
The vaporization races down the cables, outpacing the shockwave from the blast. At the end you can also see bits of bomb casing catching up with the blast.
You can see loads more Edgerton photos (including some cool images produced with the Schlieren Method) here:
http://edgerton-digital-collections.org/galleries/iconic
Images: H. Edgerton, MIT
@mcnees Love that "nude descending a staircase" effect in the diver photo.
Amazing creativity capturing that data.
Robert McNees
M.S. Bellows, Jr.
Phillip K Name
SmudgiesMom