Bathyscaphe
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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. The float is filled with petrol because this is readily available, buoyant and incompressible. Bouyancy can be trimmed easily by replacing petrol with water and the incompressiblity of the petrol means the tanks can be lightly constructed as they are not required to withstand significant pressure. To descend it floods air tanks but unlike a submarine the water in the flooded tanks cannot be displaced with compressed air to ascend. Instead, ballast in the form of iron shot is released to ascend, the shot being lost to the ocean floor. The iron shot containers are in the form of a hopper and open at the bottom throughout the dive, the iron shot being held in place by an electromagnet at the neck. This is a failsafe device as it requires no power to ascend, in fact in the event of a power failure ascent is automatic.
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 held 120,000 litres of petrol in eleven tanks for bouyancy [link]. In 1960 Trieste set a world record by diving to a depth of 35,810 feet (10 915 metres) 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.
In popular culture
- Bathyscaphes are a central plot element in the "De Ijzeren Schelvis" (1955) episode of Willy Vandersteens Spike and Suzy comic series.
See also
External links
- [The US Navy account of the dive, with photographs]
- [Another account of the dive]
- [History of the Bathyscape Trieste]
- [FNRS-2]
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