PROFESSOR PICCARD’S SUBMARINE EXPEDITION

Grey River Argus, 28 October 1948, Page 4

PROFESSOR PICCARD’S SUBMARINE EXPEDITION

(From Eric Kennedy, Reuter’s Correspondent). BRUSSELS, (By Airmail). As reported, by cable, Professor Piccard and Assistant Professor Max Cosyns sailed from Antwerp in the motor vessel Scaldis (4000 tons) on September 15. They will attempt a two and a half mile dive under water in Piccard’s Bathyscaphe in the Gulf of Guinea. The Scaldis was placed at Professor Piccard’s disposal by the Belgian Government. On her bridge, is a battery of radar and supersonic devices, lent by the British Admiralty, with which the surface team will be able to follow the course of the Bathyscaphe as the scientists group round on their fact-finding voyage over the unexplored bed of the ocean. A huge winch, with a 30-ton .lift, installed over the after hold on the Scaldis will be used in launching and retrieving the strange under water craft.

According to Professor Piccard, the notes of the hundreds of calculations and experiments, which were necessary for the creation of the Bathyscaphe, fill several filing cabinets in his laboratory at Brussels University. The walls of this spherical cabin, constructed from a specially selected steel alloy, are three and a half inches thick, and have been designed to withstand an underwater pressure of over 50,000 tons. The Bathyscaphe actually consists of two . separate hemispheres placed one upon the other. There is no joint between the two halves. They are held in place by several tiny hasps, but the external pressure of the water will ensure that the cabin remains perfectly watertight. For observation purposes two perspex portholes—perspex being the ony transparent plastic material sufficiently strong and pliable for the purpose—have been fitted into the sides of the cabin. Quartz electric headlamps, each producing a light of 3000 candlepower will light up the undersea world as the craft descends.

The cabin will be hooked by means of a substantial metal chassis to a buoyant chamber consisting of seven huge aluminium cylindrical containers filled with 32.000 litres (1 litre equals about 1 quart) of petrol. Concrete blocks and a quantiy of iron shot, weighing 2.3 tons in all, will be attached to the chamber by a series of electro magnets. The amount of fuel in the containers and the weight of the ballast have been so balanced that the buoyant chamber, at the time of launching, will float on the water, with the Bathyscaphe suspended just below the surface. To descend, the fuel will be blown off in small quantities to ensure a gradual descent. A huge guide rope weighted with a block of concrete, will tell the scientists their position below the surface. They will stop their descent just above the bed of the ocean and begin travelling in a horrizontal direction for their exploraton. For ths purpose, the craft has been Fitted wth two electrcallyd riven propellers. To bring the craft to the surface, the concrete and iron shot ballast will be slowly jettisoned by the touch of a switch inside the cabin.

The biggest problem of the scientists planning the expedition was the arrangement of the interior of the Bathyscaphe. With only eight hours in which to traverse the depths of the ocean, taking of copious notes will be out of the question. Scientific aids of every description have therefore been packed into the tiny cralt to enable the scientists to make a permanent record of every characteristic of life in this unexplored jungle. To avoid over expenditure ql the limited supplies of oxygen carried in the tiny vessel, movement, in any case difficult, owing to the lack of space, must be kept to a minimum. To lind the arrangement of the Bathyscaphe best suited to these circumstances, frequent conferences were held in Professor Piccard’s laboratory at Brussels University, accompanied by the staging of numerous “trial a:*nd error” 'layouts in a full scale "mockuup” of the sub-ocean balloon.

To ensure that no gap occurs in the record of the exploration, speed is essential in the operation of. the instruments and, as far as possible, each of them will be operated by remote control from a central point in the vessel. A photographic record of the descent will be taken by an automatic 6mm. Cinecamera, mounted externally and operated by one of the scientists seated at a porthole. At the same time, he will record his reactions spontaneously on a dictaphone. Many secrets of deep underwater life may be revealed to • man as a result of this descent. Already, man has glimpsed some of the secrets of the ocean and lived. Professor Beebe, of the New York Zoological Society, descended 3395 feet into the Atlantic in 1934. But it was only a third of the depth of the dive planned by Swiss-born Professor Piccard. Professor Beebe also used a metal sphere but his craft, a “Bathyphere”, was suspended at the end of a metal cable. Professor Beebe has confided to Professor Piccard that he would never attempt a descent without a cable link with the surface. But Professor Piccard scorns the cable link. It is not that he considers this a mark of courage. “It is not courage that is needed. “It is merely faith in science,” he says.