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It was a weird, early design. 90% of that "submarine" is a giant bladder that held gasoline, with a tube through the middle, and then a sphere at the bottom. Th
by hadlock 3y ago
It was a weird, early design. 90% of that "submarine" is a giant bladder that held gasoline, with a tube through the middle, and then a sphere at the bottom. There's a window at the top of the tube, and then a steel hatch separating the sphere from the tube. It's a weird design, that's just how they decided to do it back then.
- implements 3y agoIt’s not really “weird” - the design allowed the crew to leave the submersible unassisted when it was on the surface, which would be optimal for safety. The tunnel provided a route from the crew sphere to the top of the float. During the dive it was used as a ballast tank and filled with water. Compressed air was carried to blow the water out at the end of the dive. The original design had an open conning tower, but it was found that waves could break over it and potentially flood the diving bell if its hatch was open - hence a door was fitted. The tower was supposed to be pressure equalised, so why the door’s plexiglass cracked is a puzzle - perhaps a thin sheet will crack when exposed to a very large static pressure?
- isolli 3y agoI don't know if it's that weird. The design of the Deepsea Challenger (in 2012) looks similar to me: a tiny habitable sphere surmounted by a much larger vehicle on top. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepsea_Challenger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepsea_Challenger