Dr Harold Edgerton led the sort of life that lends itself to a Hollywood biopic. During his illustrious career the MIT professor, who died in 1990 at the age of 86, made advances in night aerial photography that was used during the Second World War, photographed nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s, and used radar to help illuminate the ocean floors for Jacques Cousteau.
But it is probably the electronic stroboscope for which he is most remembered. This pioneering work allowed the Nebraskan-born engineer to photograph the previously unseen: motion that was too fast to be captured with traditional photography.
