English

A bathyscaphe, the Trieste, being hoisted from the water, circa 1958–1959

Noun

bathyscaphe ‎(plural bathyscaphes)

1. A self-propelled deep-sea diving submersible for exploring the ocean depths, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere suspended below a float filled with a buoyant liquid such as petrol.
   • 1972, Oceanology, American Geophysical Union, volume 12, issues 4–6, page 931:

     The fact that the bathyscaphes are self-propelled makes it possible to use them to study the ocean microstructure in the horizontal, although the experiment should include temporal changes, which can be achieved either by using associated buoy stations or using a second suspended bathyscaphe.

   • 2001, Robert D. Ballard; Malcolm McConnell, Adventures in Ocean Exploration: From the Discovery of the Titanic to the Search for Noah's Flood, page 216:

     It's ironic that when Piccard built his first bathyscaphe in the 1940s people assumed the revolutionary design had evolved from his famous stratospheric balloon. In fact, the reverse was true. In fact, Piccard's prototype bathyscaphe FNRS-2 (named for the Belgian national research foundation), which underwent sea trials in the Atlantic off Senegal in 1948, did possess all the attributes of a clumsy underwater balloon.

   • 2005, Eric Gottfrid Swedin, Science in the Contemporary World: An Encyclopedia, page 297:

     After World War II, engineers built specialized submarines called bathyscaphes to survive the intense pressures of the deep ocean. A pioneer in bathyscaphes was the Swiss-born Belgian physicist Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), who had set the world altitude record in a balloon in 1932. Having turned his attention to the sea, Piccard and his son, Jacques Piccard (1922– ), built a bathyscaphe called the Trieste after World War II.

Related terms

• bathysphere
• mesoscaphe

See also

• deep submergence vehicle
• diving bell
• submarine
• submersible

Translations

French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek βαθύς ‎(bathús, “deep”) + σκάφη ‎(skáphē, “little ship”). Coined in the 1940s by Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), the inventor of the bathyscaphe.

Noun

bathyscaphe m ‎(plural bathyscaphes)

1. Bathyscaphe.

Related terms

• bathysphère
• mesoscaphe

See also

• sous-marin
• submersible