In 1878 Eadweard Muybridge photographed a horse named “Occident” in fast motion using a series of 12 stereoscopic cameras. The first experience successfully took place on June 11 at the Palo Alto farm in California. The cameras were arranged along a track parallel to the horse’s, and each of the camera shutters was controlled by a trip wire which was triggered by the horse’s hooves.

“Eadweard Muybridge developed a fast camera shutter and used other state-of-the-art techniques of his day to make the first photographs that show sequences of movement. In 1879, the oopraxiscope was developed by Eadweard Muybridge, which projected a series of images in successive phases of movement obtained through the use of multiple cameras. In Eadweard Muybridge’s most famous motion studies, a row of cameras snapped a dozen or more photographs of a passing horse; the public was astonished to see proof that a trotting horse can simultaneously have all four hooves off the ground. For this experiment Muybridge devised a fast camera shutter and used a new, more sensitive photographic process, both of which dramatically reduced exposure time and produced crisp images of moving objects.”[1]

[1]: http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventors/a/Muybridge.htm