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ImageShack.usAnatomy of The Bathyscaph Trieste DEEP-SEA Submersible
The Bathescaph Trieste was a work of engineering art and science. In the late 1930's, Jacques Piccard's father, Auguste Piccard came up with an amazing idea to build an "underwater free balloon" that would allow mankind to explore the deep seas.
Auguste Piccard was a mad-genius who had already built the first balloon that allowed a man to reach the earth's stratosphere, and next he applied this same principle toward the ocean. The Bathyscaph Trieste (as diagramed below) was essentially a balloon which Piccard referred to as a float. The float consisted of a thin metal shell that was filled with gasoline. Gasoline is lighter than water, which would allow the float to ascend or climb in the water, once ballast was released.
The float had ballast tanks (as seen in the diagram above) which allowed for positive buoyancy while the float was floating on the ocean surface. The ballast tanks could be vented which would result in filling them up with sea-water, which would, in-turn, allow the Bathyscaph to dive. The dive or descent rate could be controlled or stopped by the release of solid weights which consisted of metal pellets that were in the shot tubs, that could be easily released.
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