Mailing List Archive

Mailing List: techdiver

Banner Advert

Message Display

Date: Thu, 23 Nov 1995 08:42:47 -0500
To: techdiver@terra.net
From: s_lindblom@co*.co* (Steven Lindblom)
Subject: Re: what liquid to fill things with?: an odd choice
>Of the various liquids chosen as incompressible fillers, I hereby do NOT
>recommend a choice that Cousteau and Picard made once! They dived in a
>`bathyscaphe', which is a hollow steel ball with a float. The float needed to
>be filled with something incompressible, so they chose petrol (= gasoline)!!!
>OK, it worked.

The purpose of the gasoline was not as an imcompressible fluid, but as an
easily obtainable lighter-than-water gas to float the bathyscape, which
operated exactly as a lighter-than-air ballon, only underwater. In short,
the gas was acting in water as helium/hydrogen in air.
 The designers doubtlessly felt the flammabililty would be of little
problem thousands of feet below the surface; and that the pollution aspects
(not that anyone gave a damn in those days) were justified by the
scientific value of the missions.


Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]