bathyscaphe

[ bath-uh-skeyf, -skaf ]

noun

, Oceanography.

1. a navigable, submersible vessel for exploring the depths of the ocean, having a separate, overhead chamber filled with gasoline for buoyancy and iron or steel weights for ballast.

bathyscaphe

/ băth′ĭ-skăf′,-skāf′ /

1. A free-diving vessel used to explore the ocean at great depths. The original bathyscaphe, constructed in 1948, was made of a cylindrical metal float and a suspended steel ball that could hold two people. The float contained gasoline used to lift the vessel, and heavy iron material used for ballast. Design improvements allowed the second bathyscaphe in 1960 to descend to a record 10,912 m (35,791 ft) in the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, almost to the deepest level ever sounded on Earth.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bathyscaphe¹

1947; < French, equivalent to bathy- bathy- + Greek skáphos ship; coined by Auguste Piccard

Example Sentences

I'm talking about the bathyscaphe that ought to be in Manila any day now.

From Project Gutenberg

And maybe you should tell them about the Pelorus and the bathyscaphe.

From Project Gutenberg

The yacht seemed to tiptoe away from the scene of the bathyscaphe's destruction.

From Project Gutenberg

Why assume that whatever attacked the bathyscaphe did it of its own accord?

From Project Gutenberg

"I'm trying to picture myself going down in a bathyscaphe," said Terry hastily.

From Project Gutenberg