Edgerton, Harold

Harold Edgerton (1904-90), a native of Aurora, Nebraska, is best remembered as the strobe light expert who laid the foundation for modern high-speed photography. He attributed part of his fascination with light to the electrical storms he witnessed during his boyhood. He funded his education at the University of Nebraska by installing electrical wiring in Lincoln homes. He graduated from NU in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He continued his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a master's degree in 1927 and a doctorate in 1931. He was appointed to the MIT faculty the following year.

Harold Edgerton's primary interest was teaching electrical engineering and working in the laboratories at MIT. Before he died in January 1990, Edgerton was institute professor emeritus and professor emeritus of electrical measurements in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Although he officially retired in 1968, Edgerton continued to work in his MIT office five days a week. He was remembered for his creative lectures seasoned with humor and informality and spent hours with students, sharing the excitement of science.

An internationally recognized inventor, Edgerton spent a lifetime putting his ideas into action. He perfected strobe light photography that could, in effect, freeze rapid motion. One of his most famous images, a drop of milk splashing on a table, was photographed at one-third of one-millionth of a second. He had tried for more than twenty years to capture such a photograph.
This and his other photos of movement, such as a man hitting a golf ball and a bullet piercing an apple, have blurred the distinction between science and art.

Edgerton's invention enabled Allied forces during World War II to track enemy movements at night. His strobes were also used to record the first atomic bomb tests. Edgerton collaborated with Jacques Cousteau, the undersea explorer, on many expeditions. Using flash lamps and cameras designed by the MIT professor, they recorded images at the bottom of the ocean. Edgerton also designed a side-scan sonar device to reveal objects and their shapes on the ocean floor. In 1973 his invention located the remains of the Civil War-era Monitor off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Edgerton is included in the Nebraska Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded numerous other honors from academic and professional organizations.

 

( August 1999 )

 

 

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