Bathyscaphe
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A bathyscape or bathyscaphe is a self-propelled deep-sea diving submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere suspended below a float filled with a buoyant liquid such as petrol.
Auguste Piccard, inventor of the first bathyscaphe, composed the name bathyscaphe using the Greek words "bathos" (depth) and "skaphos" (ship).
The first bathyscape was FNRS-2, built in Belgium by Piccard. Propulsion is provided by battery-driven electric motors.
Piccard's second bathyscaphe was Trieste, and was purchased by the US Navy in 1957. In 1960 Trieste set a world record by diving to a depth of 35,810 feet (10,915 meters) at the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest point in the Mariana Trench and believed to be the deepest point in the world's oceans.
See also Timeline of underwater technology.
External links
- US Navy account of the dive, with photographs (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/trste-b.htm)
- another account of the dive (http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/KrystalBrewington.shtml)de:Bathyscaph