Bathyscaphe
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Image:Bathyscaphe Trieste.jpg A bathyscape, bathyscaphe, or bathyscaph is a self-propelled deep-sea diving submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere suspended below a float filled with a buoyant liquid such as gasoline. It floods tanks to descend but unlike a submarine they cannot be refilled underwater. To ascend solid ballast, e.g. containers of lead shot are released and allowed to sink to the ocean floor.
Auguste Piccard, inventor of the first bathyscaphe, composed the name bathyscaphe using the Greek words "bathos" (depth) and "skaphos" (ship).
The first bathyscape was dubbed FNRS-2, and built in Belgium between 1945-48 by Piccard. Propulsion is provided by battery-driven electric motors.
Piccard's second bathyscaphe was Trieste, and was purchased by the US Navy in 1957. It had two water tanks and 11 petrol tanks.[1] In 1960 Trieste set a world record by diving to a depth of 35,810 feet (10,915 meters) at the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest point in the Mariana Trench and believed to be the deepest point in the world's oceans.
See also a Timeline of underwater technology.
See also
External links
- US Navy account of the dive, with photographs
- another account of the dive
- HISTORY OF THE BATHYSCAPH TRIESTE
- FNRS-2de:Bathyscaph
es:Batiscafo fr:Bathyscaphe it:Batiscafo he:בתיסקף no:Batyskaf pl:Batyskaf pt:Batiscafo ru:Батискаф