Bobby Fishbl, age 11, of New Providence, Tennessee, for his question:
What is a bathysphere?
On August 15, 1934 the bathysphere was a headline item in the world press. The sturdy metal globe had taken human passengers 3,028 feet down into the sea. This was a new world record for deep sea diving and this bathysphere plunge kept the official deep sea diving record for 15 years.
The first part of the word bathysphere means "deep," in this case the deep underwater levels of the ocean. A sphere, of course, is a round ball. The bathysphere was a hollow metal sphere designed to take man deep into the ocean. One of the problems was pressure. As we descend deeper, the weight of the water presses down from above and on every side. Fragile objects and even ships that sink into deep water are crushed. The wall of the hollow bathysphere was 1 1/2 inches thick and made of sturdy metal. The bathysphere itself was about 4 1/2 feet wide and designed as a sphere to equalize the pressure on all sides.
Another problem was light. As we descend, the sunlight filters out and the deep ocean is blacker than blackest midnight.. Electric wires sheathed in rubber ran from a ship down inside the metal ball. They carried light and a telephone. The metal walls had thick windows of fused quartz and strong beams shone out to pierce the gloomy depths. The scientists cramped inside needed air and tanks of oxygen were sealed in with them.
The first bathysphere was ready in 1930 and taken in a ship to deep water off southeastern Bermuda. It was the dream of Dr. Charles William Beebe who was already famous as a scientist of the bird world. In 1899, he became curator of bird study of the New York Zoological Society. He had written several books about his research and expeditions into tropical jungles. Now Dr. Beebe was ready to explore the deep ocean.
On June 6, 1930, the bathysphere was lowered over the side of a ship by a crane and a long, strong steel cable. Sealed inside were Dr. Beebe and Otis Barton. They descended 800 feet and set a deep sea diving record. The two men broke that record four more times, each time going deeper into the sea off Bermuda. They made their last bathysphere record in 1934 with a plunge to 3,028 feet. A German diver claimed a plunge of 7,850 feet in 1947. But there were no witnesses to make this an official record.
The deep, dark ocean is mysterious and we want to satisfy our natural curiosity about it. Deep :sea diving also is very important to science. Experts need to know all they can about the ocean and every other part of our planet. Dr. Beebe was an accurate scientist and his observations shed a lot of new light on the dark mysteries of the sea. They also helped marine experts to design better diving chambers for the future.
The next diving chamber of note was the bathyscope. On August 16, 1949, this newly designed chamber descended 4,500 feet into the ocean off California. Sealed inside was Dr. Beebe's partner, Otis Barton. In a few years, the still newer bathyscaphe was ready for the plunge. This huge cylinder took scientists down 10,000 feet, then 18,000 and then 24,000 feet. On January 23, 1960, the bathyscaphe took men down 35,802 feet. It descended 6.78 miles into the Marianas Trench, that abyssal pit in the floor of the Pacific Ocean.