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Doc Edgerton




Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton, Sc.D. ( April 6 , 1903January 4 , 1990 ) was a professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology . He is largely credited with transforming Stroboscope s from an obscure laboratory instrument into a pedestrian device in every camera.

He grew up in Aurora, Nebraska and attended the University Of Nebraska-Lincoln . After graduating, he married Esther Garret in 1928 . During their marriage they had three children: William, Robert, and Mary Lou.

He earned an , subsequently using the technique to capture images of balloons during their bursting, or a bullet during its impact with an apple, for example. He was awarded a bronze medal by the Royal Photographic Society in 1934 , and the National Medal of Science in 1973 . He also invented the Rapatronic Camera .

In 1937 he began a lifelong association with Photographer Gjon Mili , who used stroboscopic equipment, particularly a "multiflash" strobe light, to produce strikingly beautiful photographs, many of which appeared in Life Magazine .

He was a cofounder of the company EG&G , with Kenneth Germeshausen and Herbert Grier , in 1947 . EG&G became a prime contractor for the Atomic Energy Commission and had a major role in testing nuclear weapons for the United States through the fifties and sixties.

His work was instrumental in the development of Side-scan Sonar technology, used to scan the sea floor for wrecks. Edgerton worked with the undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau , by first providing him with underwater stroboscopes, and then by using sonar to discover the Britannic . Edgerton participated in the discovery of the American Civil War battleship USS Monitor . While working with Cousteau, he acquired the nickname he is still known by in photographic circles, "Papa Flash".

In addition to having the scientific and engineering acumen to perfect Strobe Light ing commercially, Edgerton is equally recognized for his visual aesthetic: many of the striking images he created in illuminating phenomena that occurred too fast for the naked eye adorn art museums worldwide.

He was especially loved by at MIT carries his name.


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