The word photography was first used in 1839. However, at that time the subject (被拍对象) had to keep still while a picture of it was taken. Few people had ever tried to take photos of moving subjects. The first man to do so was Eadweard Muybridge, a world-famous photographer. He created the first moving picture.
When a horse is running, do all four hooves (蹄)ever leave the ground at the same time? That was the bet that a gentleman called Leland Stanford had with some of his friends. Most people believed that a horse always had one hoof on the ground, but Stanford didn't think: so. Because a horse's legs are moving so fast, it's impossible to tell just by looking. Stanford needed a way to record the movement of a running horse. In 1872, Leland Stanford offered Eadweard Muybridge $25,000 to find the answer. Muybridge had no idea if he could successfully set up and perform an experiment to settle (解决) the bet, but he thought he should give it a try.
In 1878, after years of experiments, Muybridge got what he wanted. He had a sequence (连续) of 12 images (图像), and one of them clearly showed all four of the horse's hooves were off the ground at the same time. In the end Muybridge collected his well-earned $25,000 from Stanford.
Though Thomas Edison is usually considered as the person who created the first cine-camera (电影摄影机) in 1889, it was the work of Eadweard Muybridge and the bet that led to Edison's invention.
