Today is the 93rd anniversary of the 1st test of the Bathysphere (May 27th 1930), the first capsule to take humans down into the ocean depths. It was William Beebe’s idea & Otis Barton did the engineering. They were the first people to see deep ocean creatures in their natural habitat, setting a record dive depth of 670 metres in 1932. Beebe described it as “dangling in a hollow pea on a swaying cobweb, a quarter of a mile below the deck of a ship rolling in mid-ocean”. #Ocean#Exploration
@helenczerski When I was a child I had a picture book about the ocean - I remember been fascinated by this inner-spacecraft and the story of Beebe's dive to the great depths. I also remember being very puzzled about how to pronounce the name. Beeb? Beeb-uh? Bee-bee?
@grb090423@sellathechemist@helenczerski
My brain helpfully* informs me that the phrase 'Bye-bye, Beebe' appears in John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes - which I probably last read as a teenager in the '90s. Why I can remember that and not important things like where I left my specs, etc...
(Something that struck me about the book, seeing it with relatively modern eyes - the depiction of rising sea levels. Albeit triggered by aliens, rather than humans...)
@grb090423@sellathechemist@helenczerski
It's been forever since I last read The Kraken Wakes, but I remember it being up there with The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids.
(My mum's scruffy old paperback copy's probably around here somewhere...)
Add comment