bathyscaphe
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Bathyscaphe Trieste
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A submersible deep-sea research vessel, invented by Auguste Piccard
and first used in 1948, comprising a small, spherical, pressurized passenger
cabin suspended beneath a cigar-shaped flotation hull. On the surface, most
of the flotation tanks in the hull are filled with gasoline, the rest, sufficient
to float the vessel, with air. To dive the air is vented and seawater takes
its place. During descent, sea water is allowed to enter the gasoline-filled
tanks from the bottom, compressing the gasoline and thus increasing the
density of the vessel. The rate of descent is checked by releasing iron
ballast. To begin ascent, the remaining ballast is jettisoned. As the vessel
rises, the gasoline expands, expelling water from the flotation tanks, thus
lightening the vessel further and accelerating the ascent. Battery-powered
motors provide the vessel with a degree of submarine mobility.
In January 1960, Piccard and Don Walsh of the US Navy, made a descent in
the bathyscaphe Trieste to a depth of 10,916 m (35,810 ft) (more
or less equivalent to the altitude of commercial jets) in the Pacific Ocean's
Marianas Trench off the coast of Guam.
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• TECHNOLOGY
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