introducing air increase the buoyancy of the bathyscaphe on the 

 surface. It is clear that if we had had unlimited funds we should have 

 improved the float right at the beginning : it would have been a simple 

 matter to reinforce the casing and to give it a more hydrodynamic form. 

 But if we had at this moment presented the plan of a more marine 

 construction, we should have been told, 'It's very pretty, but it's too 

 dear.' However that may be, if we had not brought the FNRS 2 

 into being with the means and in the conditions that I have recorded 



Fig. 5. FNRS 2. Float and cabin 



here, the FNRS 3 would certainly not have seen the light and pro- 

 bably not the Trieste either. 



These reservoirs had to be made in aluminium sheeting of a thick- 

 ness of 0-1375 in. After the dimensions had been fixed, M. Cosyns 

 discovered in the second-hand metals market aluminium tanks which 

 were of dimensions corresponding exactly to our plan. They had 

 originally been intended to contain the fuel for V2 rockets, but the 



[49] 



