34 FRONTIERS IN OCEANIC RESEARCH 



Mr. Miller. What direction are these currents ? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. This varies on different visits. The quantity 

 of animal life varies in the water masses. These dynamic changes are 

 things we are extremely interested in, and understand poorly today. 



Mr. Anftjso. Do you think, Doctor, the urgency of the program, 

 as you have described it, requires additional vehicles? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. Yes, I do, because the bathyscaph moves pri- 

 marily in the vertical sense. We need other crafts that lack perhaps 

 the great depth capability of the bathyscaph, but which entail a 

 great deal of mobility. This mobility will be utilized particularly 

 to investigate the Continental Shelves, so we only need a craft ini- 

 tially, we will say, that will go to something like 3,000 feet, but which 

 can move long distances, and cover a great deal of the sea floor dur- 

 ing one dive. 



Mr. Anfuso. Would you recommend that the Navy build a dupli- 

 cate? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. We have given this particular problem a great 

 deal of thought, and it is most likely that we will continue to improve 

 the bathyscaph that we now have at hand, as we, in addition to the 

 sphere that went to the greatest depth, we also have a more modest 

 one which will go to 20,000 feet. So we have a rather versatile 

 bathyscaph vehicle on hand at the present time, and see really no need 

 for a second one. 



Mr. Anfuso. If you did have a second one would you recommend, 

 then, improvements in the construction of the bathyscaph? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. Oh, very definitely. As we continue to make 

 dives into the great depths, we are richly rewarded by having been 

 able to test in the environment various concepts of structural design 

 and materials. The overall engineering development of any craft 

 will, of course, evolve after using the initial prototype. 



Mr. Anfuso. Would you tell us briefly what improvements you 

 would recommend ? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. We have a need for improved lighting. We have 

 need for an improved or extension of our physical senses. In that 

 regard we could use television, better sonar devices, current measur- 

 ing equipment, and devices for measuring the chemical content of 

 the water. 



Mr. Anfuso. How can measurements with the bathyscaph con- 

 tribute to the Navy's underwater information ? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. I think the easiest way to explain it would be 

 to compare it with the airplane going up into a new environment. 

 T^nt il it was being utilized by the fliers, there was no real need to give 

 it a great deal of consideration. The science of meteorology was given 

 a great impetus by the need for people who were going to use that 

 environment as a means, or a mode, of travel. We have the same 

 problems facing us in the deep sea. 



Mr. Anfuso. How import ant are these measurements to, let us say, 

 building antisubmarine defenses? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. Any additional information, particularly if it is 

 more refined than we can get it today, and i I' we can get it more com- 

 pletely, will add to any operations of equipment that will be subjected 

 to great pressures or placed in various spots in the ocean. 



