BEEBE s BATHYSPHERE 



The Beebe-Barton bathysphere is constructed of a cast-iron sphere 

 of only 4 ft. 6 in. internal diameter and with a wall thickness of 

 I -26 in. : two windows in fused quartz serve to permit observation 

 outside. It is borne by a steel cable and is lowered and raised by the 

 windlass of the surface vessel. 



By means of this first bathysphere, then, with a second of the same 

 sort, built later by O. Barton, deep diving was carried out with 

 complete success. 



Here is the record : 



1930 



1932 



1934 



1948 



This is enough to show the great utility of the bathysphere, above 

 all when it is desired to reach medium depths. Like all human works, 

 it has some drawbacks, however, and the most serious is certainly the 

 danger of the cable breaking : far beneath the surface, the observers 

 would be condemned to a slow and terrible death. 



We know, of course, that it is easy to give the cable a strength in 

 every way sufficient to bear the cabin. Buf jarring must be taken into 

 account. The surface vessel, rolling in the surge, rises and falls: it 

 also suffers horizontal oscillations. Lateral waves and even longitudinal 

 waves thus run down the cable, whence come interactions which 

 cannot be calculated and also the danger of localized excess stresses. 



Professor Beebe was several times shaken in a very unpleasant 

 manner in his bathysphere and the crew of the surface vessel heard 

 ominous noises resembling violent whip-cracks. Fortunately there 

 was no break in the cable. 



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