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Harold E. Edgerton
(6 Apr 1903 - 4 Jan 1990)
American engineer and ultra-high-speed photographer known for freezing time by developing ultra-high-speed photography using a strobe light, to make visible that which happened too fast for the eye to see.
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Science Quotes by Harold E. Edgerton (7 quotes)
Don't make me out to be an artist. I am an engineer. I am after the facts, only the facts.
— Harold E. Edgerton
As quoted, without source, in Gus Kayafas and Estelle Jussim, Stopping Time: The Photographs of Harold Edgerton (1987), 18.
If you don’t wake up at three in the morning and want to do something, you’re wasting your time.
— Harold E. Edgerton
As quoted in J. Kim Vandiver and Pagan Kennedy, 'Harold Eugene Edgerton', Biographical Memoirs (National Academy of Sciences, 2005), Vol. 86, 111.
In many ways, unexpected results are what have most inspired my photography.
— Harold E. Edgerton
As quoted, without source, in Gus Kayafas and Estelle Jussim, Stopping Time: The Photographs of Harold Edgerton (1987), 9.
That’s the nature of research—you don’t know what in hell you’re doing.
— Harold E. Edgerton
…...
We worked and worked, didn’t get anywhere. That’s how you know you’re doing research.
— Harold E. Edgerton
As found on a MIT website, without citation. Webmaster has not yet been able to determine a primary source. Can you help?
When I was a boy, I read with great interest but skepticism about a magic lamp which was used with success by a certain Aladdin. Today I have no skepticism whatsoever about the magic of the xenon flash lamp which we use so effectively for many purposes.
— Harold E. Edgerton
In Electronic Flash, Strobe (1970), v.
Work like hell, tell everyone everything you know, close a deal with a handshake, and have fun.
— Harold E. Edgerton
His credo, given to a group gathered to honor his life achievements at an Archaeological Society of America. Quoted in Associated Press article, published for example, as 'Developer of Stobe Photo Process Dies', Ocala Star-Banner (6 Jan 1990), 4B. The meeting was described in the article as “recent” to the publication date.
See also:
- 6 Apr - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Edgerton's birth.
- How Harold Edgerton made visible what was too fast to see - Video (2016, 5 min).
- Harold E. Edgerton - context of quote “Don't make me out to be an artist. I am an engineer.” - Medium image (500 x 250 px)
- Harold E. Edgerton - context of quote “Don't make me out to be an artist. I am an engineer.” - Large image (800 x 400 px)
- Stopping Time: The Photographs of Harold Edgerton, by Gus Kayafas, Estelle Jussim. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
