bathysphere

[ bath-uh-sfeer ]

noun

, Oceanography.

1. a spherical diving apparatus from which to study deep-sea life, lowered into the ocean depths by a cable.

bathysphere

/ ˈbæθɪˌsfɪə /

noun

1. a strong steel deep-sea diving sphere, lowered by cable

bathysphere

/ băth′ĭ-sfîr′ /

1. A hollow, spherical steel diving chamber in which people are lowered by cable from a surface vessel to explore the ocean depths. In 1934 a bathysphere carrying William Beebe and an associate reached a record depth of over 923 m (3,028 ft). Because space in the bathysphere is cramped, dives longer than three-and-a-half hours are intolerable, and it was eventually supplanted by the bathyscaphe .

Word History and Origins

Origin of bathysphere¹

First recorded in 1925–30; bathy- + -sphere

Example Sentences

Nearly a century after the bathysphere's voyage, it's often said that we know more about deep space than about the depths of our own planet.

From Scientific American

By the 1930s, US oceanographer and zoologist William Beebe was enrapturing the world with radio commentary delivered from a research submarine, the ‘bathysphere’, hundreds of metres down in Bermuda waters.

From Nature

This glittering abyss was captured by the first person to ever travel there: William Beebe, a pioneer of the deep-sea bathysphere .

From Washington Post

But they did not descend in the bathysphere.

From New York Times

They certainly would have enjoyed inventing the top-hat-sporting gent whose torso consists of a bathysphere, which turns out to contain — no spoilers here.

From Washington Post