03 June 2005 10:18
Jules Verne meets Dumb and Dumberi culled this from a site i came across while speculating with roland over how much pressure it would take to compress a cubic foot of water to a half cubic foot. i'm sure there was a point to that speculation somewhere...
meanwhile, from the NeMO Project:
==================
The pressure increases about one atmosphere for every 10 meters of water depth. At a depth of 5,000 meters the pressure will be approximately 500 atmospheres or 500 times greater than the pressure at sea level. That's a lot of pressure.
Research equipment must be designed to deal with the enormous pressures encountered in the depths. Submarines must have reinforced walls to with stand pressures. Instruments that work well at the surface may be collapsed or rendered useless by the pressure...
(One atmosphere of pressure on one square inch of surface is subjected to a force of 14.6 inches. Pressures increase about one atmosphere for every 10 meters of water depth)...
Dr. William Beebe was a pioneer in deep-sea exploration. With support from the National Geographic Society and the New York Zoological Society, Beebe constructed the Bathysphere (bathy = deep). In this steel sphere he would be lowered to depths of over 2,500 feet. The thick walled sphere was designed to withstand the great pressures of the ocean deep. The sphere had two thick quartz windows for viewing. To test the windows the bathysphere, unoccupied was lowered to 3,000 feet. When the great steel ball was hauled up, Beebe wrote.
"It was apparent that something was very wrong, and as the bathysphere swung clear I saw a needle of water shooting across the face of the port window. Weighing much more than she should have, she came over the side and was lowered to the deck. Looking through one of the good windows I could see that she was almost full of water. There were curious ripples on the top of the water, and I knew that the space above was filled with air, but such air as no human being could tolerate for a moment. Unceasingly the thin stream of water and air drove obliquely across the outer face of the quartz. I began to unscrew the giant wingbolt in the center of the door and after the first few turns, a strange high singing came forth, then a fine mist, steam -like in consistency, shot out, a needle of steam, then another and another. This warned me that I should have sensed when I looked through the window that the contents of the bathysphere were under terrific pressure. I cleared the deck in front of the door of everyone, staff and crew. One motion picture camera was placed on the upper deck and a second one close to, but well to one side of the bathysphere. Carefully, little by little, two of us turned the brass handles, soaked with the spray, and I listened as the high, musical tone of impatient confined elements gradually descended the scale, a quarter tone or less at each slight turn. Realizing what might happen; we leaned back as far as possible from the line of fire. Suddenly without the slightest warning, the bolt was torn from our hands and the mass of heavy metal shot across the deck like a shell from a gun. The trajectory was almost straight and the brass bolt hurtled into the steel winch thirty feet across the deck and sheared a half-inch notch gouged out by the harder metal. This was followed by a solid cylinder of water, which slackened after a while to a cataract, pouring out of the hole in the door, some air mingled with the water looking like hot steam. Instead of compressed air shooting through ice-cold water. If I had been in the way, I would have been decapitated."
From: Half Mile Down by William Beebe, Published by Duell Sloan Pearch (New York) 1951.
10:18 email me permalink / commentary (0)
