Pigeons in Flight

Francis Blake's high school work in mathematics was so distinguished that he was given an appointment with the U.S. Coast Survey at the age of 16. After resigning from this position in 1878, he perfected a telephone transmitting device that was purchased by the fledgling Bell Telephone Company. As a very wealthy man, Blake continued his electrical experiments through the 1880s and was awarded 20 patents. His experiments with high-speed photography began in 1886, with focal-plane shutters of his own design. As demonstrated in this image, these shutters allowed Blake to freeze action with exposures as rapid as 1/2000th of a second.