bathyscaphe

Also bath·y·scaph

[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

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

A bathyscaphe is a self-propelled submersible used in deep-sea dives.

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The US Navy had acquired a submersible called the bathyscaphe Trieste and Don, a submarine lieutenant, volunteered to join the project.

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He too will have to descend in bathyscaphe if he is to keep even the friendliest papers interested in photos of his working life.

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Yet there is still not a bathyscaphe or diving bell.

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I step out on the foredeck of my ship–bathyscaphe, precious package in my hands.

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