Chronophotographic view made with Chronophotographic gun "Bird in flight"

As part of his work on human and animal locomotion, physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey used photography instead of graphic methods to illustrate stages of movement. Graphic methods based on chronography had proved of considerable interest despite sometimes inaccurate results. Inspired by the work of Eadwaerd Muybridge and Jules Janssen, Marey invented the photographic gun to study the flight of birds and bats, reducing exposure times by using silver-bromide gelatine. The gun, equipped with a shutter and a circular magazine containing the photosensitive surfaces, took photographs at the rate of 12 frames a second, recording all the consecutive images on a single plate. Marey then used the pictures to study the locomotion of horses, donkeys, dogs, other animals and humans.