Why? The Science of Athletics

Eliminating Errors in Timing and Judging Races. Kirby Two– Eyed Camera ELIMINATION 0:1;? HUMAN ERROR The instrument which has eliminated the possibility of error in both timing and judging races is the "Kirby Two-eyed Camera," a camera so named by the Inter– national Amateur Athletic Federation in recognition of the services of Mr. Gustavus Town Kirby, U.S.A., and constructed by the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. Mr. Kirby had for long been aware that the then existing state of timing and judging races was not satisfactory, and about 1930 he took up the notion of photographing the finishes of races for the purpose of determining the positions of the contestants. He then conceived the idea of combining with his original intention some scheme whereby the time in which the competitors finished could also be photographed. His initial notion was that of starting a stop-watch before the race was started and recording on the moving picture film a flash of light actuated by a contact in the starter's pistol. There after, by subtracting the readings on the photograph of the stop-watch at the beginning of the race from those of the finish, the time taken in running that race could be ascertained to the nearest tenth of a second. The camera, of course, photographed both the finish of a race and the face of a stop-watch. Coincidentally with Mr. Kirby's experiments indi– viduals of Electrical Research Products, U.S.A., were con– sidering the possibilities of solving the problem by applying to it the technical knowledge of precision-timing possessed by the Bell System. Both they and Mr. Kirby, entirely ignorant of each other's activities, arrived at the conclusion that the only solution lay in the employment of a high– speed motion camera arranged to photograph both time and performance. The experimenting parties then met, when the tech– nical knowledge of the company proved an invaluable asset in the improvement of the timing apparatus and a frequency standard was built which would give readings