Eadward Muybridge  was a photographic genius who long before the Kinema Age he was the first man to find a means of showing moving pictures to the world. Both his discoveries and inventions were made in America, where, still a young man his ability as a photographer made him the director of the photographic surveys of the United States, and in this position he was able to settle a dispute between two American millionaires on the position of the four feet of a horse at the gallop.

He accomplished this by taking a series of photographs of a horse as it galloped past a row of cameras. In those days there was no such thing as film and he had to use wet plates, and he obtained his instantaneous photographs from his cameras placed in a line by using electric circuits and a clock for making and breaking the current.

This was the foundation which is still used for instantaneous photographs but Mubridge's experiments let on to two other important discoveries. The revolutionised the artistic concept of animals in motion and this let on to a much more natural reproduction of all paintings and sculptures of animals.

Through this Muybridge gained fame and this let to other invitations to exhibit his photographs throughout the British Isles and Europe. At one time his photographs were displayed before and audience at the Royal Institution where the Prince of Wales of that day was in attendance.

The second outcome of his photography rose from the invention he devised to give the appearance of movement. This was based upon an optical toy which he called the Zoopraxiscope, a Wheel of Life, which basically was like a tambourine with a  series of instantaneous photographs pasted along the inner edge, and when the wheel was revolved people viewed through a hole that only permitted one picture at at time to be seen thus giving the impression that the figures were moving. He then affixed a magic lantern which projected the images on to a screen, and the illusion of movement was obtained, which was to form the basis for later cartoons, such as Disney's Mickey Mouse.

Muybridge eventually returned to his native Kingston where he died in 1904 and all his scientific apparatus, including the zoopraxiscope (which he particularly requested) were bequeathed to the town's museum