Collections Database

Label Text:
Edgerton’s photograph made time stand still. He froze this image of a bullet ripping through an apple with a stroboscope, an instrument that uses bursts of flashing light to make moving objects appear stationary. The resulting image is aesthetically striking and scientifically significant, for making high-speed phenomena visible to the human eye in a way that shows “time itself to be chopped up into small bits and frozen so that it suits our needs and wishes.” Edgerton began experimenting with a stroboscope while teaching electrical engineering at MIT, and ushered in a new era of high-speed photography with his own stroboscopic camera design. He was also integral in the development of sonar, and photographed nuclear tests for research purposes in the 1950s and ’60s.
(Davis Brown, Class of 2019)

Tags:
speed; fruit; destruction; geometry; beauty; symmetry; movement; weapons

Subjects:
Fruit; Symmetry; Geometric patterns; Beauty

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1996.64.7

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.