SCIENTIFIC AND WORK 

 EQUIPMENT 



The most readily available data-gathering 

 system aboard a submersible is the human 

 being, and for this reason the diving tasks up 

 to the early 1960's relied mainly on the scien- 

 tific and technical observer. It was soon ob- 

 vious that photography was the best answer 

 to "What did you see?" and cameras became 

 standard equipment. With face pressed 

 against the plastic viewports and a camera 

 held either inside or outside the pressure 

 hull, the diving scientist recorded and de- 

 scribed details of the undersea world that 

 over-the-side instruments encountered 

 mostly by chance. According to Ballard and 

 Emery (1), almost 200 scientific articles were 

 published by submersible scientists of the 

 mid-1960's; these were based, for the most 

 part, on visual observations. 



As scientists and engineers grew accus- 

 tomed to submersible operating capabilities, 

 new and modified instruments appeared. 

 This was inevitable. Visual observations, no 

 matter how detailed or photographically doc- 

 umented, required supporting data to help 

 interpret the observed phenomena. 



The biologist, for example, not only wanted 

 to collect organisms but also wished to know 

 the physical and chemical characteristics of 

 the water in which they resided. The geolo- 

 gist, on the other hand, not only required 

 samples of the bottom, but also wished to 

 know, among other things, its slope, its cohe- 

 siveness and the strength of near-bottom 

 currents. The diving engineer or salvor, 

 while increasing his understanding of an in- 

 strument's or object's performance, wanted 



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