which probably are not prejudicial to its strength to any serious extent. 

 (This depends upon the disposition of these air-holes in the wall of 

 the hull.) We know that a small part of these defects were removed by 

 boring and replacement by a plug of sound material. The cabin would 

 perhaps resist pressures of 9 miles. But a possibility is not a certainty. 

 That is why I gave the alarm when I learned through the newspapers 

 that the observers were going to go down to 2^ miles without a 

 previous empty test down to 3 J miles.l We know that the FNRS j, 

 before going down with Houot and Willm to 2 miles 2790 ft., made an 

 empty dive to a depth of 2 miles 2880 ft., that is, with an insignificant 

 overload of only 1-25%. Fortunately no accident occurred. But if the 

 cabin had given way, is it not I who would have been blamed, being 

 the designer responsible for the cabin .'^ This does not prevent 

 Engineer Willm from criticizing my attitude and saying (page 164): 

 * ... it was hardly necessary for him to conclude his statement to the 

 Press by advising the authorities responsible for the FNRS 3 to carry 

 out an unmanned dive to 6000 metres before sending two men down to 

 4000. Thus to sow doubt as to the qualities of a sphere that he had him- 

 self designed to withstand the pressure at this depth might have had 

 the gravest consequences for us. It was, in fact, casting doubt on the 

 professional capacity of the engineers of the French Navy. Pessimism 

 was in the air, but fortunately neither the responsible officers nor the 

 Ministry were deflected from their decision : the bathyscaphe's trials 

 would take place as scheduled.' This statement astonished me. Any 

 civil engineer who put into operation a railway bridge designed by 

 himself without making the prescribed overload trials would be at 

 fault from the point of view of the law and, if he made the trial pre- 

 scribed by the regulations, would he be calling into question the 

 professional capacity of civil engineers } 



This must be set beside Commander Houot's question (page 116) : 

 * If this precaution is always to be taken, how would the passengers of 

 the future bathyscaphe ever visit the deepest trough on the globe .^' 

 Therefore, because in ten years, perhaps, a brave explorer, yet un- 

 known, will desire, on the other side of the globe, to make a dangerous 

 experiment, must we today neglect the rules of safety which are per- 

 fectly applicable and were laid down from the beginning by the 

 builders of the cabin of the FNRS j^l cannot understand their argu- 

 ment. For the rest, before going down to 6 miles, because it would be 



1 I sent a registered letter on this subject to the authorities in Paris. 



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