Eadweard Muybridge: Google Doodle Celebrates British Photographer's Birth Anniversary

Google is celebrating the 182nd birth anniversary of Eadweard J Muybridge, the British photographer, by creating a new doodle based on his The Horse in Motion which he created using a series of images of galloping racehorses.

The Google doodle version of The Horse in Motion uses the 12 frames from the original 24 images created by Muybridge which captures the movement of racehorses.

When you click on the play button, a series of horse images appears galloping at a progressive speed, giving the idea of motion pictures that Muybridge demonstrated many years ago.

Eadweard J Muybridge was born on 9 April, 1830 in Kingston-upon-Thames. He emigrated to the US and worked in the publishing sector before returning to England for a few years. While he was recuperating after a stagecoach accident that took place in the US, he became deeply interested in photography, reports the Guardian.

In 1866, he returned to San Francisco and got involved in photography taking beautiful shots of landscape and architectural subjects.

He created zoopraxiscope, an early device for displaying motion pictures. Muybridge first demonstrated the zoopraxiscope in 1879. He experimented with a horse that belonged to a Californian businessman, Leland Stanford.

Muybridge created a series of 24 photographs of the galloping horse and later showed the series of photographs in his zoopraxiscope, which proved that a horse's all four hooves get off the ground at the same time while it trots. His works have been published in various books.

In 1874, Muybridge was prosecuted for murdering his wife's lover, Major Harry Larkyns. His defence lawyer argued that Muybridge was insane because of the head injuries that he sustained in the accident long ago.

The jury dismissed the defence plea, but he was still acquitted for "justifiable homicide."

He later returned to the UK and published two popular books of his work. He died of a heart attack in May 1904.