A Conversation for The Quite Interesting Society
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QI - First Past the Post.....
~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum Posted Apr 17, 2010
British I believe. 
~jwf~
QI - First Past the Post.....
Rod Posted Apr 17, 2010
Well, a bit risky here (I haven't joined in 'cos the names wouldn't come).
In my mind, the horsey senator paid up, the photographer got the money (a rather tall stack of it) but it wasn't a bet as such.
It was more a challenge ... "I'll wager ye cannot do this, but if ye do ye'll get this much" but without the return half of the wager.
IF there was a bet, it would have been between the horsey senator and someone else - in which case the senator won.
QI - First Past the Post.....
gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA Posted Apr 17, 2010
Not a Senator Rod, but Governor of California....
And he LOST the bet...
GT
QI - First Past the Post.....
gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA Posted Apr 17, 2010
Sorry, ~jwf~
He was also an American. The photographer was the Brit!
GT
QI - First Past the Post.....
gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA Posted Apr 30, 2010
This QI is closing...
Will write up and score over the weekend.
GT
QI - First Past the Post.....
gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA Posted May 3, 2010
Right!
This is the story behind the QI....
It was in 1872. Leland Standford, Governor of California, and a Horse Racing fanatic, had an arguementwith a friend, Frederic MacCrellish. The arguement was over whether a horse at the gallop keeps one foot on the ground at all times: Stanford said it did, MacCrellish said it did not.
Now, Stanford knew an immegrant British photographer called Eadweard Muybridge (who had changed his name from Edward Muggeridge), and Stanford asked him for his assistance. A test was set up at Stanford's stables at Palo Alto.
Stanford's horse was reckoned to gallop at 40 feet per second, so 12 cameras were set up at 40 foot intervals, and set to trigger when the horse broke the threads that were attatched to the shutters. Opposite the cameras was a fifteen foot fence, marked so that the pictures could be assembled in the correct order once developed.
These photographs were patented by Muybridge, and were later made an integral part of an invention of his, a 'zoopraxiscope', in which a central light source shone on transparent glass disks, on which were printed his horse photographs. These were viewed through a slit in a suurounding screen. Look through the slit, spin the glass disk, and the horse appears to gallop in front of your eyes!
The bet??
Stanford lost. in two of the photographs, all of the horses feet were off the ground at the same time....
End of story!
Scores to follow.
GT
QI - First Past the Post.....
gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA Posted Jun 4, 2010
Scores on the doors for this one.
(Frederic McCrellish was the winner of the bet!!)
Jack Winterbourne
Tripwires +3, Feet off ground +3, Zoopraxiscope +3.
Total +9
Pebbledrook
Muybridge +3
Total +3
Pedro
Governor of California +3
Total +3
hygenicdispenser
Eadweard +3
Total +3
Clive
QI +6
Elf
GT +2
GT
Key: Complain about this post
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QI - First Past the Post.....
- 21: ~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum (Apr 17, 2010)
- 22: Rod (Apr 17, 2010)
- 23: gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA (Apr 17, 2010)
- 24: gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA (Apr 17, 2010)
- 25: gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA (Apr 30, 2010)
- 26: gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA (May 3, 2010)
- 27: gandalfstwin OGGMSTKMBGSUIKWIATA (Jun 4, 2010)
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