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Introduction

Lucien Bull (January 5, 1876 – August 25, 1972), was a forerunner in the field of cinematography. He first worked under Étienne-Jules Marey using chronophotography, . Interested in using chronophotography to study the movement of animals, Marey used his gun camera to capture the movement of objects on film and then superimposed the images on top of each other. Bull used this initial design and created cameras capable of doing the opposite; high speed motion . He also designed a prototype 3D camera, capable of taking two images simultaneously which were overlapped and intended to be viewed with a stereoscope. After the death of his predecessor, Bull took over as the Director of l'Institut Marey and helped during World War I by creating sound ranging equipment. Naturalised as a French citizen in 1931, he was later afforded a head research position at what is now the French Nation Centre for Scientific Research, for which he was also awarded a Gold Medal. He died in Paris in 1971, having received numerous honours and accolades during his lifetime.

Early Life

Lucien Bull was born in 1876 in Dublin. His mother, Gabrielle Joune, was French and his father Cornelius, was an English carpenter. He was educated in Dublin. His brother was cartoonist and photographer René Bull. In 1984, at the age of 18, Bull moved abroad to France to live with his aunts after making the decision to become a photographer. In 1896, when Bull was 19, he was employed by Étienne-Jules Marey, a physiological scientist with an interest in cinematography, as his assistant. His duties to Marey, whom he later referred to as ‘Mon Maitre May’, going into the streets of Paris to photograph scenes with the early Chronophotographe and even being the subject of study himself, jumping a hurdle and being photographed by Marey. Despite being content to study the negatives, these had little scientific value, Bull was able to create some projections when his employer was not present. In 1902 he took on a permanent position at the Marey Institute. Marey had developed a camera capable of capturing human movement, which he felt would shed light on scientific understanding in the field of physiology. The camera that Marey used, which was known as the cinematographic, looked similar to a hunting rifle and had a rotating plate mounted on the top. Users then pointed the barrel at the intended target and pulled the trigger to capture the object on camera.At first Bull worked on stop-motion, however he soon turned his focus in the opposite direction and between the years 1903 and 1905, expanded on the idea of Marey’s camera by creating a cinematographic version. This combined two lenses and electrical sparks which could record 800 images per second and later 2,000 images per second. Initially the camera was used to capture and detail the movement of various insects in flight and could only capture the silhouette of the insect. Bull overcame this obstacle by mounting two lenses next to each other in order to give two images of the object on the film, such as in Vol d'une mouche ordinaire (Flight of a Common Fly). Following the death of Marey in 1904, Bull was appointed as the Director of l’Institut Marey in Paris. Due to Marey’s death he was unable to witness the advancements made by his assistant. In 1904 Bull captured a bullet piercing a bubble in slow-motion.* By 1914 he had reached a rate of of 15,000 images per second and in his later years he managed to increase this again to one million images per second.

Career

Assistant to Etienne Jules Marey in 1895,Bull went on to pioneer the field of high-speed film capture. His duties under Etienne's supervision included developing and printing the chronophotographic negatives. The first successful film was taken in 1904 when bull filmed the flight of a fly at 1,200 frames per second.  Bull created a “spark drum Camera” that replicated the continuous motion of 35-mm film. Using an electromagnetic shutter, two side-by-side films were exposed and wound around drums inside the camera built from wooden frames   Through his works and experience gain from working with Etienne Jules Marey Bull was able to become head of the Marey institute which was a subset of the College de France.

Similarly, to his mentor, Bull began to write prolifically and published numerous academic papers on a wide variety of subjects ranging from the aforementioned high-speed photography and cinematography, spark illuminations, studies of insect and bird flight, muscle and heart functions and electrocardiography. During the first world war he developed sound ranging equipment, later adopted by the British military, for the location of enemy gun batteries. Bull also assisted in the construction of a device which produced high speed photographic analysis of ballistics. Bull was able to publish a multitude of papers in a variety of subjects throughout his years as a researcher. His work was listed in a research film in December 1953.

Roles

Bull began his career as an assistant to Etienne Jules Marey in 1895. His roles would include developing and printing the chronophographic negatives. After Marey's death in 1904, Bull became the Director of l'Institut in Paris. In 1933, he was put in charge of research at the national office of research and invention. When the First World War broke out, Lucian joined the war effort developing systems for the high-speed photographic analyses of ballistics and for locating enemy gun batteries via a sound ranging device. These were highly effective and enhanced his already significant reputation, and governmental appointments followed. Honours included the CBE (1920), and the legion of honour (1954). He was awarded gold medals for his roles in developing the firld of chronophography by the national office of research and invention (1933).

Family Life

Lucien Bull was a native of Dublin, born in January in 1876. His father, Cornelius Bull, was British and his mother Gabrielle Joune was French. His father Cornelius worked as a carpenter/merchant. Bull lived his younger years in Dublin attending school and living at home with his parents.

Bull decided to uproot and move to France in 1894 at the age of 18 to visit his mother’s sisters, which in turn ended up with him permanently living there. This is where he became an assistant to the great Etienne-Jules Marey in 1895. Marey was a very well known France scientist, physiologist and chronophotographer. He became like a second father to Bull. At the time Marey was working on a specific type of camera called the ‘gun camera’. Bull assisted him with the creation of this and was ultimately able to take the first successful film on it, which was the flight of a fly. After Marey’s death in 1904, Lucien Bull became the head of the Marey Institute. Marey was known for inventing the sphygmograph, an instrument used now to take blood pressure. He was known as well for his contribution to motion picture and especially his study of the flight of birds.

Lucien Bull, an only child, never married or had any children and in turn his family name Bull died with him.

Later Life and Death

In 1914 after the World War I broke out when Lucien joined the war effort developing systems for the high-speed photographic analyses of ballistics and for locating enemy gun batteries via a sound ranging device, he was appointed to the National Office of Research and Invention in France. After this in 1948 Bull became the president of the Institution of Scientific Cinematography in Paris. His work was eventually listed by Dr. W. Hinsch in Research Film for December 1953. He continued his research well in to the 1950s, still publishing papers on high-speed cinematography and had a profound influence on many branches of engineering and science. Although Bull was from Ireland, he settled in France which is where he spent the majority of his later life. However, he did visit Ireland several times throughout this period. As Bull never married, he had many friends who admired him and was still receiving visitors to tea in his Paris flat in 1971. Described by a close friend Bull was this ‘tiny, bird-like, lovable figure, with an irrepressible sense of humour, and an ability to bring pleasure to those around him’. Bull received several deserved honours for his significant work. Among the honours he received were the Legion of honours, the Order of Merit, an Academy of Sciences Laureate, several gold medals for scientific research from French institutions and an OBE from the British Government.

Lucien Bull died in his Paris flat at the age of ninety-five on the 25th of August, in the year 1972.

Bull's stereoscopic spark drum camera

Legacy

Bull died in Paris in 1972 as a bachelor, leaving behind no children. He outlived his brother, British cartoonist René Bull, by almost 30 years. Bull's work spanned fields beyond high speed photography, with his bibliography of published papers ranging from military applications of sound in the form of sound ranging and medical papers to recording of video. Much of this was continued research from his work with Étienne-Jules Marey. Bull's work as an assistant with Marey, particularly in regards to developing Marey's camera gun into the higher speed spark-drum camera, was instrumental in the development of the technique of chronophotography, and was key to his appointment as head of the Marey Institute. Chronophotography itself acted as a stepping stone to the development of cinematography and silent film. The lasting effects of the technique are observable to this day, as it provided a foundation for modern cinema. Some of Bull's work has been preserved to this day. A copy of his stereoscopic spark drum camera is held in the National Science and Media Museum of Bradford, England.

His research on the heart was later used in the development of the electro-cardiograph. Bull was memorialized in an article for the Irish Engineer's Journal, written by Kenneth Mitchell and published on the 17th of April 2018.This article gave an overview of Bull's life and accomplishments.