#252wordbiography

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Cinematography’s forgotten inventor

Louis Le Prince was a French artist who worked in the USA and in Leeds, England. His father was good friends with Louis Deguerra, the inventor of the daguerreotype. Daguerre would teach Louis chemistry and photography. After graduating from University, Louis moved to Leeds, where his friend John Whiteley offered him a job. He later married John’s sister, Elizabeth, and started The Leeds Technical School of Art with her.

Later he met with Eadweard Muybridge, who had used 24 separate cameras to capture a horse in motion. Louise spent years experimenting with ways to achieve that effect with a single lens camera.

In 1888, Louis invented the single lens motion camera nicknamed “mark one”. He applied for a patent but was denied. Making some changes, he developed the “mark two”, and was successful at getting a patent. He tested the camera on October the 4th 1888 in the garden of Elizabeth’s parents, making the film Roundhay Garden.

Le Prince then shot Leeds Bridge.

He was meant to showcase his work at the Morris- Jumel mansion in NYC in September 1890. Louis visited his brother in Dijon, France first.

On 13th September his brother went to the train with him as he departed on his way home go to Leeds before setting off to New York. This was the last time Louis Le Prince was ever seen. His disappearance remains a mystery today.

A few months after Louis’s disappearance Thomas Edison successfully patented an almost exact copy of Le Prince’s mark two camera.

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Valentina Tereshkova: first woman in space

Valentina Tereshkova was born in a village near Volga River on March 6th, 1937. Following he father’s death in WWII, she left school at 16 and worked in a textile factory, but underwent correspondence courses, according to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

Inspired by Yuri Gagarin’s accomplishment of being the first man in space, Valentina joined the Soviet space program. She lacked the experience as a pilot, but her 126 parachute jumps got her accepted- at the time cosmonauts had to parachute from their capsules before they hit the ground when returning to Earth.

Tereshkova received 18 months of training, including tests to see how she reacts to being alone for a long time, to extreme gravity conditions, to zero- gravity. Of the five women that received this training, only Tereshkova went into space.

She logged over 70 hours in space, making up to 48 orbits of Earth. An error in the spacecraft’s automatic navigation software caused the ship to move away from earth, but after Valentina spotted it, the Soviet scientists developed anew landing algorithm. Valentina landed safely.

Tereshkova was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and received the Order of Lenin, as well as the Gold Star Medal. While being a spokesperson for the Soviet Union, she also received a United Nations Gold Medal of Peace.

Although Valentina never went back to space, despite being keen to, she remains active in the space community, being a test pilot and instructor and earned a doctorate in technical sciences.

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Annie Edson Taylor: the first person to pass over the Niagara Falls and survive

A school teacher from Michigan, Ms. Taylor decided to attempt to pass over Niagara Falls in a barrel, accompanied by her cat.

Annie Edson Taylor thought she would attract a crowd as the Pan American Exposition was taking place in Buffalo, New York.

The barrel containing Annie Taylor and her cat was towed by a small boat on the afternoon of October 24th, 1901.  Once the barrel was in the main stream of the Niagara River, it was cut loose.

At approximately 4:30pm the barrel was edging over the brink, and it then reappeared at the base of the falls less than a minute later. In fifteen minutes, the barrel reappeared near the shore and was dragged to a rock where the lid was removed.

People were surprised to see Annie Edson come out of the container with no injuries, although dazed, apart from a cut on her forehead which she got while coming out of the barrel.

On 24th October 1901, Edson’s 63rd birthday, she became the first person to pass over Niagara Falls and survive. Afterwards she said: “I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall.”

Annie died in 1921, and even though it got her the fame, she died broke, as she had feared.

Since then, 15 people have attempted the stunt, resulting in 5 deaths. Today, it is illegal, and the consequence of an attempt is a $25,000 fine.