A bathysphere is a spherical steel deep-sea submersible, lowered into the water on a cable rather than propelling itself, designed to let observers descend far below the surface while withstanding the enormous pressure of the deep ocean. American engineer Otis Barton designed and built the bathysphere, and naturalist William Beebe used it for a series of record dives off the coast of Bermuda beginning in 1930, reaching a depth of 3,028 feet in 1934, a record for human ocean descent that stood for years. The bathysphere's thick-walled spherical shape and small fused-quartz viewing windows became a model for later deep-sea observation vehicles.
Facts
Partially Attested
Patent or First-Use DateFirst-use date (first test of the sphere), not a patent date. Year1930 is the start of the dives; design was 1928 and 1929. SignificanceFirst time a marine biologist observed deep-sea animals in their native environment; set consecutive world deep-dive records. 1 FAQs
What did the bathysphere make possible that no earlier vessel had?
It let a marine biologist watch deep-sea animals in their native environment for the first time.
Its dives off Bermuda between 1930 and 1934 marked the first time a marine biologist observed deep-sea animals in their native environment. William Beebe watched from inside the steel sphere that Otis Barton designed, so living deep-sea animals could be seen where they lived rather than only studied after being brought up dead.
Connections
In Field
Source Bathysphere - Wikipedia
Invented By
Source Wikipedia: Otis Barton
Sources
1. Bathysphere - Wikipedia
Intro, sentence 1
a series of dives off the coast of Bermuda from 1930 to 1934
History of use, 1930-1931
Beebe and Barton conducted their first test of the sphere on May 27, 1930
Intro, sentence 3
marking the first time that a marine biologist observed deep-sea animals in their native environment
In Field: Marine Engineering, Introduction
The Bathysphere (from Ancient Greek βαθύς (bathús) 'deep' and σφαῖρα (sphaîra) 'sphere') was a unique spherical deep-sea submersible which was unpowered and lowered into the ocean on a cable, and was used to conduct a series of dives off the coast of Bermuda from 1930 to 1934.
View the SourceWikipedia: Otis Barton
Invented By: Otis Barton, Article bodyQuote, Invented By: Otis Barton, Article body
in New York, the independently wealthy Barton designed the first bathysphere and made a dive with William Beebe off
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