Milk Drop Coronet
{{Short description|1957 photograph by Harold Edgerton}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Milk Drop Coronet
| image = Milk Drop Coronet, 1957.jpg
| caption = Scan of a dye-transfer print at the MIT Museum
| wikidata = Q80218184
| artist = Harold Edgerton
| completion_date = {{date|1957-01-10|MDY}}
| medium = Kodak Panatomic X and Ektacolor
| museum = MIT Museum
| city = Original negative destroyed; see {{Slink|Milk Drop Coronet|Physical copies}} for locations of copies
}}
Milk Drop Coronet is a high-speed photograph of a drop of milk falling onto the surface of a red pan, creating a splash resembling a coronet, taken by American scientist Harold "Doc" Edgerton on January 10, 1957. The picture was created using a camera connected to a beam of light, which triggered when the drop of milk obstructed the light.
Edgerton was an electrical engineer, and had personally developed a stroboscope which he used to take high-speed photographs of, among others, drops of liquid. He began capturing images of milk drops as early as 1932, and produced a similar picture to Milk Drop Coronet titled Milk Drop Coronet Splash in 1936.
Milk Drop Coronet has been called an "uncannily beautiful image" by New York Times art critic Ken Johnson, appeared in Time magazine's list of Most Influential Images of All Time, and exhibited in various art museums.
Background
Harold Eugene Edgerton was an American photographer and scientist who earned a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1931, where he served as a professor of electrical engineering.{{Citation |last=Morgan |first=Ann Lee |title=Edgerton, Harold Eugene |date=2018-05-24 |work=The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191807671.001.0001/acref-9780191807671-e-409 |access-date=2024-07-18 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |isbn=978-0-19-180767-1}} In 1932, Edgerton designed a stroboscope which could emit 60 10‐microsecond flashes of light per second and recharge in less than a microsecond, which could thus be used to take high-speed photographs.{{Citation |last=Braun |first=Marta |title=Edgerton, Harold |date=2005 |work=The Oxford Companion to the Photograph |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001/acref-9780198662716-e-472 |access-date=2024-07-18 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi= |isbn=978-0-19-866271-6}} Edgerton initially intended to use the stroboscope for the study of electrical motors;{{Cite web |last=Bedi |first=Joyce |title=Drops & Splashes |url=https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/harold-doc-edgerton/edgerton-iconic-images/iconic-images-1-4 |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=MIT Museum |language=en |archive-date=July 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718125910/https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/harold-doc-edgerton/edgerton-iconic-images/iconic-images-1-4 |url-status=live }} however, he also took pictures of bullets being shot, insects flying, and drops of liquid. Edgerton had begun making photographs of drops of milk splashing as early as 1932,{{Cite web |title=Milk Drop Coronet |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/120885/milk-drop-coronet |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328113033/https://www.artic.edu/artworks/120885/milk-drop-coronet |archive-date=2024-03-28 |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=Art Institute Chicago}} and four years later, he created a black-and-white photograph, titled Milk Drop Coronet Splash, of a splash of milk forming a coronal shape, similar to Milk Drop Coronet.{{Cite journal |last=Lopatka |first=Alex |date=2024-05-01 |title=Making an educational splash |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/pt.owvc.fjei |journal=Physics Today |volume=77 |issue=5 |pages=56 |doi=10.1063/pt.owvc.fjei |bibcode=2024PhT....77e..56L |issn=0031-9228|url-access=subscription }} In the second edition of his 1939 book Flash! Seeing the Unseen by Ultra High-Speed Photography, Edgerton explains two principles which he believes should be kept in mind when viewing his photographs of splashes and drops:{{Cite book |last1=Edgerton |first1=Harold Eugene |url=http://archive.org/details/flashseeingunsee00edge |title=Flash! Seeing the unseen by ultra high-speed photography |last2=Killian |first2=James Rhyne |author-link2=James Rhyne Killian |publisher=Charles T. Branford Company |year=1954 |edition=2nd |location=Boston |pages=107 |language=en |url-access=registration}}
{{Blockquote|text=First, the behavior of liquids is affected by surface tension. The surface layers of any liquid act like a stretched skin or membrane (a drumhead, for example) which is always trying to contract and diminish its area. Second, a spout or column of liquid, beyond a certain length in relation to its diameter, is unstable and tends to break down into a series of equidistant drops. As these drops are formed, they are joined together by narrow necks of liquid which in turn break up into smaller drops.|author=Edgerton|title=Flash! Seeing the Unseen by Ultra High-Speed Photography|source=p. 107}}
Creation
File:Edgerton_notebook_January_10,_1957.jpg
The photograph was created on January 10, 1957.{{Cite web |title=Milk Drop Coronet |url=https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/object/HEE-NC-57001 |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=MIT Museum |language=en |archive-date=May 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240525223327/https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/object/HEE-NC-57001 |url-status=live }} Milk was selected for its high contrast and its opacity.{{Cite web |last=Bryce |first=Emma |date=2015-06-03 |title=The Story Behind That Iconic Milk Drop Picture |url=https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/picture-of-the-week-milk-drop/ |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=Science Friday |language=en-US |archive-date=July 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718155018/https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/picture-of-the-week-milk-drop/ |url-status=live }} The picture's creation involved Edgerton connecting his camera to xenon flashtubes, then positioning it in front of a dripper that steadily released droplets onto a red pan. The precise moment was taken when the first drop briefly blocked a beam of light connected to a detector, initiating a flash after an adjustable delay. This first drop can be seen in the photograph as forming the splash, meanwhile a second drop can be seen above.
Physical copies
According to Gus Kayafas, the original photographic negative was destroyed. Several prints of the photograph have been made, which were distributed to and exhibited in art museums.
Reception and legacy
Art critic Ken Johnson, writing for The New York Times in 2001, called the photograph an "uncannily beautiful image" and compared Edgerton's work to Eadward Muybridge's photography.{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=Ken |author-link=Ken Johnson (art critic) |date=2001-01-05 |title=ART IN REVIEW; Dr. Harold Edgerton |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/05/arts/art-in-review-dr-harold-edgerton.html |access-date=2024-07-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} In 2016, the photograph was included in Time magazine's 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time.{{Cite web |last=Vogel |first=Karl |date=2016-11-17 |title=Alum Edgerton's work among "Most Influential Images of All Time" {{!}} College of Engineering {{!}} University of Nebraska–Lincoln |url=https://engineering.unl.edu/alum-edgertons-work-among-most-influential-images-all-time/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507134058/https://engineering.unl.edu/alum-edgertons-work-among-most-influential-images-all-time/ |archive-date=2020-05-07 |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=engineering.unl.edu}} The corresponding article read that the picture "proved that photography could advance human understanding of the physical world."{{Cite web |title=Milk Drop Coronet |url=https://100photos.time.com/photos/harold-edgerton-milk-drop |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119052704/https://100photos.time.com/photos/harold-edgerton-milk-drop |archive-date=2016-11-19 |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=100photos.time.com}}
Mathematicians Martin Golubitsky and Ian Stewart used the photograph to illustrate the phenomenon of symmetry-breaking in their 1992 book Fearful symmetry: is God a geometer?{{Cite book |last=Kastner |first=Ruth E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91tqEAAAQBAJ |title=The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: A Relativistic Treatment |date=2022-04-28 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-90849-8 |pages=76 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Ian Nicholas |author-link1=Ian Stewart (mathematician) |url=http://archive.org/details/fearfulsymmetryi0000stew |title=Fearful symmetry: is God a geometer? |last2=Golubitsky |first2=Martin Aaron |author-link2=Marty Golubitsky |date=1992 |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-14-013047-8 |pages=6 |language=en |url-access=registration}}