| Sources |
- [S19] 1900 US Federal Census, (www.ancestry.com).
- [S30] 1910 US Federal Census, (www.ancestry.com).
- [S24] 1920 US Federal Census, (www.ancestry.com).
- [S25] 1930 US Federal Census, (www.ancestry.com).
- [S891] World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917 - 1918, (www.ancestry.com).
Name: John Frank Kuprion City: Louisville County: Jefferson State: Kentucky Birthplace: Kentucky Birth Date: 22 Sep 1888 Race: Caucasian (White) Roll: 1653510 DraftBoard: 5
- [S53] Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1965, (www.ancestry.com).
Name: John F Kuprion Death Date: 22 Apr 1951 Death Location: Jefferson Residence Location: Jefferson Age: 63 Gender: Male Ethnicity: White Birth Date: 22 Sep 1887 Birth Location: Louisville, Kentucky Father's name: Charlie Kuprion Mother's name: Anna Marie Rodgering
- [S926] Find-A-Grave, (www.findagrave.com).
John Frank Kuprion
Birth: Sep. 22, 1887
Louisville
Jefferson County
Kentucky, USA
Death: Apr. 22, 1951
Louisville
Jefferson County
Kentucky, USA
Inventor of the Photo Finish Camera and Technology
KY Death Certificate #016-7730; on his WWI Registration card his birth year is listed as 1888
Veteran of WWI
married - occupation - photographer
Courier-Journal - Thursday, December 28, 1939
Pioneer In Photo Finish Idea Arranges Perspective 'Curer'
John Kuprion
Seeking Patent
photograph of a photo-finish horse race with catpion:
A photo finish by John F. Kuprion
Every time you've had the outside horse in a "photo finish" dead heat -- unless he was very close alongside the inside horse -- you've been gyped photographically and financially, although despite the best of intentions, according to a patent claim now being made offically by John F. Kuprion, Louisville photographer and pioneer in the photo finish idea.
The camera, as now arranged on the finish wire, "lies" by a much as a nose across a track such as Churchill Downs, and stress the photographic impressions that the inside horse is closer to the finish wire than is the outside horse, explains Mr. Kuprion.
Perspective Explained.
Theoratically, this reasoning works in spite of how close together the two horses are, but in actual photographic practice, without Mr. Kuprion's device in operation, when the two horses are very close together the difference is infinitesimal.
The new photo finish gadget is simply an application of the principal of perspective. Rather it "cures" perspective. If you look down a railroad track, the rails seem to converge as they get further from you. If you placed a man three feet to the side of one of the rails, say, at the point just ahead of where you were standing, and placed another man nine feet to the same side down the track some distance, both would appear to be the same distance from the rail, says Mr. Kuprion.
The way to keep rails for example, from converging on a photographic plate would be to put the camera directly over them with the lens parallel to the tracks. (This probably would give some convergence at both ends of the rails pictured, depending on what kind of lens you used.)
Nearest Horse Has Edge.
But if the lens is not parallel to the plane of what is being photographed, you get a convergence, Mr. Kuprion points out. Therefore, when you shoot down on the wire at the track, whick is parallel to the plane of the horses, you get a converging image, with the horse nearest the rail seeming closest to the wire.
If you ran the wire on out to the other side of the track, you could get a 'photo finish' dead heat on the negative with the horse furtherst from the camera a good distance away from the "finish line," although the horse on your side of the track might actuall be right at the line, according to Mr. Kuprion's theory.
So the way he "cures" the departure is by raising the photographic finish wire say to a thirty-degree angle, and bringing it parallel with the camera lines.
Visible On Negatives.
You can actually see the "convergence" priinciple working even on Present day photo finish negatives, Mr. Kuprion says, because the bottom part of the picutre shows the wire as heavy while the top part part shows it thimming out to a hair's breadth.
If the camera is shooting at perfect right angles to the track and to the wire, there won't be any convergence and no matter where the horse is on the track he will be in the same relation to the wire, says Mr. Kuprion.
Mr. Kuprion has been interested in accurate photographic recordings of race finishes since the famous Zev-In Memoriam race in 1924. The judges decided Zev had won the race. Mr. Kuprion, who had taken a picture from what in his best judement was a point on the track at right angles to the finish stripe on the inside rail, came up with a picture showing In Memoriam's nose in the lead.
Early Pleas Rejected.
There was considerable controversy at the time about whick horse was beginning a stride and which horse was finishing a stride, and since the noses of the horses weren't exactly on the finish line the picture still left some doubt.
He tried to sell track authorities the idea of a photo finish, crude as it would havebeen compared to today's modern gadgets, but the response he got was unfavorable. Nobody was convienced such a thing would work out, and some thought it was a reflection on the eagle-eye of the judges.
Now, he says, the idea of the camera at parallel planes with the finish wire will eliminate all doubt which horse wins the race.
Obituary - The Courier-Journal Monday 23 April 1951
Kuprion, John F., age 63 years, Sunday, April 22, 1951 at 9:30 a.m. at Nichols General Hospital. Residence - 206 S. Campbell Street. Beloved husband of Mrs. Mary Jo Landers Kuprion; devoted father of Mrs. Rita McAuliffe, Miss Anna Marie Kuprion and John C. Kuprion; brother of Mrs. Katie Wyatt, Albert and Arthur Kuprion.
Also survived by grandchild, Joyce Marie Straub and John H. Kuprion and step-daughter, Mrs. Wilemma C. Baldwin.
Services from Neurath Funeral Home, 735 East Market Street. Time will be announced later.
Obituary - The Courier-Journal Tuesday 24 April 1951
Kuprion, John F.
Services from Neurath Funeral Home, 735 East Market Street, Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. and from St. John's Church at 9:00 a.m. Interment in St. Louis Cemetery.
Courier-Journal - Monday, April 23, 1951 - Section2, Page 1 - Obituary Tribute Feature
John F. Kuprion, Inventor Of Speed Camera, Is Dead
Ex-Photographer Built Model Used At Track Here
John F. Kuprion, inventore of the photo-finish camera used at Churchill Downs, died at 9:30 a.m. yesterday at Nichols Hospital. He was 63.
Kuprion had been a newspaper photographer and experimenter in photographic techniques here for nearly 40 years. He discovered a speed formula that developed into the photo-finish camera while working in the X-ray laboratory at Camp Taylor in World War I.
Gets Patent On Camera
He photographed the hotly disputed Zev-Memoriam race of 1923, and his picture seemed to sustain the claims of In Memoriam's adherents that In Memoriam had won, although judges gave the race to Zev.
In 1942 Kuprion was granted a patent of a finish camera and a speed-developing process which produces a picture a few minutes after the exposure. He filed suit against Churchill Downs the same year, asking damages and royalites for use of the process. But charges were dropped in Federal Court in 1944.
The Kuprion Kamera, as it is called, first was used at Churchill Downs in 1936. An improved model was patented about two years ago and now is used at several tracks.
The camera takes continuous exposures which show each horse as it crosses the finish line. It also records the time of each horse during a race.
Kuprion, a native of Louisville, lived at 206 S. Campbell. His brother, Arthur Kuprion, 2326 Grande worked with him in recent years and operates the camera now used at Churchill Downs.
Headed Photo Firm
Kuprion had been retired since he operated a studio at Bowman Field during World War II. He formerly was a photographer for the old Herald-Post and for The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times.
He also was president of John F. Kuprion Photo-Finish Device, Inc., which had offices in the Kentucky Home Life Building.
Also surviving are his wife, Mre. Mary Jo Landers Kuprion; two daughters, Mrs. Rita McAuliffe and Miss Anna Marie Kuprion; a son, John C. Kuprion; a step-daughter, Mrs. Wilenna C. Baldwin; another brother, Albert Kuprion; a sister, Mrs. Katie Wyatt, and two grandchildren.
The body is at Neurath Funeral Home.
Address in 1930 US Census of Louisville, Jefferson County, KY
1520 Winter Avenue - occupation photographer - newspaper
Family links:
Parents:
Charles Karl Kuprion (1849 - 1911)
Anna Marie Rogginger Kuprion (1883 - ____)
Spouses:
Margaret Gross Kuprion (1891 - ____)*
Nellie Evelyn Armstrong Kuprion (1887 - 1931)*
Children:
Anna Marie Kuprion Crain (1914 - 2008)*
John Charles Kuprion (1916 - 1998)*
Rita Kuprion Straub (1917 - 1995)*
*Point here for explanation
Burial:
Saint Louis Cemetery
Louisville
Jefferson County
Kentucky, USA
Created by: Gaye Hill
Record added: Apr 29, 2009
Find A Grave Memorial# 36528928
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1887 - 1951 (63 years)
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