Bathysphere

The Bathysphere (from Ancient Greek βαθύς (bathús) 'deep' and σφαῖρα (sphaîra) 'sphere') was a unique spherical deep-sea submersible which was unpowered and lowered into the ocean on a cable, and was used to conduct a series of dives off the coast of Bermuda from 1930 to 1934.

Beebe and Barton conducted dives in the Bathysphere together, marking the first time that a marine biologist observed deep-sea animals in their native environment.

[1][2] Using this station, Beebe planned to conduct an in-depth study of the animals inhabiting an eight-square-mile (21 km2) area of ocean, from a depth of two miles (3.2 km) to the surface.

[3] The sphere had openings for three 3-inch-thick (76 mm) windows made of fused quartz, the strongest transparent material then available, as well as a 400-pound (180 kg) entrance hatch which was to be bolted down before a descent.

The cables for the telephone and to provide electricity for the lamp were sealed inside a rubber hose, which entered the body of the Bathysphere through a stuffing box.

The Arcturus winch developed a crack in it, a replacement for it did not arrive until the end of July, and by that time Bermuda was being plagued by storms which made the water too rough for dives to be conducted safely.

The onset of the Great Depression also made it more difficult to obtain funding, and in an effort to raise money for continued dives Beebe promised to eventually descend 0.5 mi (0.80 km).

He also obtained more funds for his dives by writing an article describing them for the June 1931 issue of National Geographic titled "Round Trip to Davy Jones' Locker".

[3] Beebe described the experience that followed this in his book Half Mile Down: Suddenly, without the slightest warning, the bolt was torn from our hands, and the mass of heavy metal shot across the deck like the shell from a gun.

The trajectory was almost straight, and the brass bolt hurtled into the steel winch thirty feet [9.1 m] away across the deck and sheared a half-inch [13 mm] notch gouged out by the harder metal.

With the broadcast finished, although they were only 440 feet (130 m) short of their promised goal of 0.5 miles (2,600 ft; 800 m), the Bathysphere was still rocking wildly and Beebe and Barton were both bruised and bleeding from being knocked about inside it.

Grosvenor wrote back offering to provide $10,000 (equivalent to $240,000 today) for additional dives in return for Beebe keeping his promise to descend a half mile, and writing two articles for National Geographic describing the experience.

The steel body of the Bathysphere was as strong as ever, but the quartz windows had developed minute fractures which would prevent them from withstanding the pressure of the deep sea, and one of the copper bolts for the hatch was found to be damaged due to the explosive decompression after the failed test dive in 1932.

During their first test dive, they demanded to be pulled up after descending only four feet (1.2 m) because the sphere had begun to leak; they soon discovered this was because Tee-Van had neglected to fasten all of the bolts that hold the hatch shut.

[6] For a third test dive, they sent down the Bathysphere unoccupied but with Barton's camera, which had not yet captured any footage of deep-sea animals, pointed at the center window.

Although he halted this descent only 140 feet (43 m) short of their goal of half a mile, Beebe later explained that he considered the observations he made from the Bathysphere to be more important than the depth records that he set.

The record set during this dive remained unbroken until 1949, when Barton broke it with a 4,500-foot (1,400 m) descent in a new deep-sea vessel he created called the Benthoscope.

Later on the same day as the half-mile dive, Barton and Hollister descended to 1,208 feet (368 m), setting a new world record for a woman diver that would stand for three decades.

Beebe's account of his record-setting dive was published in the December 1934 issue of National Geographic, along with sixteen of Bostelmann's paintings, under the title "A Half Mile Down: Strange Creatures Beautiful and Grotesque as Figments of Fancy, Reveal Themselves at Windows of Bathysphere".

The text of this article also became the climactic chapter of Beebe's book Half Mile Down, which appeared in bookstores in time for Christmas of that year and was an immediate best-seller.

[6] Beebe continued to conduct marine research for the rest of the 1930s, but after 1934 he felt that he had seen what he wanted to see using the Bathysphere, and that further dives were too expensive for whatever knowledge he gained from them to be worth the cost.

With the onset of World War II, Bermuda was transformed into a military base, destroying much of the natural environment and making further research there impractical.

[10] Beebe named several new species of deep-sea animals on the basis of observations he made during his Bathysphere dives, initiating a controversy which has never been completely resolved.

Although William Beebe's name appeared in the movie's credits, he emphatically denied any part in its production, stating that it was entirely Barton's work.

[6] In the Stephen Sondheim ballad "I'm Still Here" from Follies chronicling intra-war American pop culture, the aging movie star Carlotta sings that "Beebe's Bathysphere" gave her heebie-jeebies.