Chapter 11 



A DESCENT INTO PERPETUAL NIGHT 



THE BATHYSPHERE has livcd for the past year quietly 

 beneath Piccard's gondola in the Hall of Science of 

 the Century of Progress Exposition at Chicago. 

 During this time half a million people thrust their heads 

 within the narrow doorway and shivered. Then half a 

 million people exclaimed, "Thank heaven, we don't have 

 to go under water in this!" Thus the steel globe well ful- 

 filled her static destiny, arousing such ecstasy of appre- 

 hension. 



Being only an inanimate mass of quartz and steel, she 

 would remain in her place until the Hall of Science and 

 Chicago and Mankind passed away, unless some force 

 stronger than gravitation was brought to bear, some ac- 

 tivity more potent than the slow corrosion and rust of 

 centuries. This summons came at the end of her year, 

 when her paint was still undimmed, her quartz eyes steadily 

 watching; it came to me in a letter from Dr. Gilbert 

 Grosvenor, saying that the National Geographic Society 

 would be glad to sponsor a new dive. 



Four years ago, in 1930, Mr. Otis Barton and I had 

 reached and returned from a depth of a quarter of a mile, 



and later we made a still deeper dive. Knowing that my 



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