Bathyspheres

* See also Bathysphere_Details
* See also Transportation_Systems
* See also Bathysphere O rama
* See also Historic_Tech_Timeline
Bathysphere : A manned spherical chamber for deep-sea observation, lowered by cable from a ship.
Bathyscaphe : a navigable submersible for deep-sea exploration having a spherical watertight cabin attached to its underside.
The Bathysphere transit system shown in the game would need to be a bit different to actually function.
Technologically, the simpler a system is, the easier it is to make and operate in a safe routine manner. The game shows the Player a press-button control system which is not something possible for a free moving vehicle even today. Fixed route Cable runs would be far more workable/achievable mechanically. 
In the artist concepts for the BioShock Movie, the artist perhaps thought that the Bathyspheres should actually travel on a Cable system, instead of being free floating/self-propelled submarines.
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Even IF a 'Bathysphere' Was Like A Submarine, ITS STILL NOT Like A 'Car' :
It is more like an airplane. If just one of many complicated things goes significantly wrong, you die.  If you skimp on maintenance you are not left at the side of the road, but like an airplane, you die. At Rapture's watery depths, you are either crushed to death or drown, or asphyxiate via a malfunctioning air system.
It is why, as misrepresented in the BioShock game, "Personal Bathyspheres" did NOT take over from the Train System.  They would remain the toys/extravagance of Rich People who could afford their price and maintenance and the extensive facilities required to operate them.  Even the public Bathysphere system would be too expensive for everyday use by the majority of Rapture's population - People who still needed a way to get around the City.   The consolidated METRO Trolley_System, as the Train System replacement, would provide the bulk of that.  Bicycles would have their utility as well.  The AE Train system would still likely remain as the major Freight hauling system, and for passengers heading out to a few remote communities outside Rapture.
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Claustrophobic Much ?? :
How would you like to be 'sealed in' to a 'Bathysphere' with 7 other people (those benches) to transit multiple Stations/Hubs ( trips which are at most 3/4 a mile apart (moving at 10 mph) and which take about 8 minutes each segment ) to get somewhere in Rapture ( and have to do it every day to/from Work ) ???
The models shown in BaSx ( in a Fontaine's Store display ) were 'private' luxury models with much smaller (private) passenger capacities. Consider : You have Huge station facilities for just a few 'spheres' at a time, and nowhere to park the vehicles (in the game). Again, this illustrates the inability for 'Bathyspheres' to be more than secondary transport for Raptures population.
(( In the MMORPG you will probably have a game 'Olfactory Indicator' where you can *Smell* that some previous occupant has urinated in the Bathysphere you are entering. Realistic AND Creepily Interesting at the same time ... ))
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Private Bathysphere Customers :
Private Bathyspheres probably would have had only the 'richer' citizens (top 5% ? or fewer) affording them because of the facilities they required to operate.  They aren't like Autos - where you can get out/off anywhere, or on a road/curbside, or run them on a shoestring ( any serious Bathysphere fault instead leads to death of the occupants ).  The maintenance costs would far exceed what we think of as for the 'Every Man' automobile.
Look at the size of the facilities required -- the dock at the MultiPlayer Apartment  is close ( doesn't have to be quite as grand ). To get anywhere, there would have to be a Bathysphere Station AND a Parking Area (never seen - which is likewise an expensive facility).  The few Bathysphere Stations we see indicated in the game are themselves insufficient for any real 'Metro Transit'. There is a lack of capacity for a city of tens of thousands of people ( even for only a small portion who can afford the premium fares ).    
Still for those who could afford them, Burial At Sea's Deluxe Bathyspheres ( or rather : 'Submarines' ) could be a sold product ( more like expensive sports-cars/limos/airplane ) - Not something likely being sold to 'housewives'.
'Private Airplane' IS a better analogy for what they would be in Rapture ( Rapture is based on good ole 1950s technology, and not some fantasy 'Star Trek'-like Tech stolen thru quantum dimensional holes (or whatever) to justify the game situation. ) Note - It might have been a far more clever plot to have Comstock selling advanced tech he 'stole from the future' ( with Fink's help ), instead of claiming he 'Prophesied' himself into wealth from alot of rural "rube's" donations. But then, it is the least of the stupid things the game's story proposes - all the odd contrivances to explain bits of the preposterous plot which was used to string together all the 'neat' storyboarded 'Scenes' they had come up with in the Denny's Meetings.
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The Bathysphere system allegedly had been locked down with 'genetic keys/locks'  ( when nothing was really hackproof Audio Diary : "Sure, the boys in Ryan's lab can make it hack-proof. But that don't mean we ain't gonna hack it." ― Pablo Navarro), but what about all the private Subs (( Austen Streamliner Submarine ad in the Ryan Amusements Gift Shop -- "Best of Year 1952" )) or the Subs used for maintenance all around Rapture ??  Passengers didn't steer the Bathyspheres - They were shown automated, so why lock down the whole system ( THAT was before we ever knew anything about Trains or Trolleys in BS2 )?
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BTW - What exactly were all those people who wanted to leave going to do up on that Lighthouse ~300 miles across a cold stormy sea from anywhere ??
It was just another plot Whack-You-In-The-Face-With-It 'fact' to justify mentioning the genetic linkage between Jack and 'tyrant' Ryan.
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How Convenient Would Taking A Bathysphere Be ? :
* I see (dead people) at very few access holes (docks ?) at the Stations ( So they get delayed waiting in line for their chance to load/unload - The thing has to : go up, go down, wait for people to get off, get on,  along with any additional waiting in between -- All to service just a handful of people ).  A Very Poor thru-put density for an alleged city-wide 'Transit' system.
* It is NOT like door to door transport you can have with Automobiles.
* I saw schedules in-game.  How frequently could they be getting to every destination ( and for both directions ) ?   And doesn't that imply scheduled stops AT every Station along the route before getting to a passengers final one - So not exactly like a Taxi-cab in a Surface City.  DELAYS ... Does that also mean that many of them have to run empty ? ( as real Buses have to - to run to pick up passengers (if any) at the next stop -- adding delays even when not carrying anyone ).
* Separate Station locations for separate routes - Very absurd to have to walk between Stations to get across Rapture.   Even Cavemen know what a 'Transit Hub' is. (( THIS Written off as game Player Maze Control Contrivance ))
* It looked like the Bathyspheres had nice Red Plush seating for about 8 people. But wouldn't that make it like Car-Pooling/Ride-Sharing -- stopping at every one else's stops along the route ( unless you hired/chartered it only for yourself/your-party ) ?
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ALL THIS Justifies my solution of the Trolleys being the primary Metro transit system mechanism, and NOT the limited 'deluxe' Bathyspheres.  I've also redesigned the Bathysphere Stations with many additional ( simultaneously used ) loading docks to facilitate more realistic traffic.
If this system replaced the Atlantic Express, then it was NOT the Bathyspheres, but the efficiency of the Metro Trolley which caused it.
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Bathysphere System on Cables :
Early Rapture had no The Thinker Super Computer, no lesser 'computers' which could 'guide' transit Bathyspheres automatically. Neither would 'radios' even make that work. A skilled Pilot would be needed for every self-propelled 'Bathysphere' ( and Labor IS a major expense of such operations ).
SO (my solution) : Clamping onto a moving cable running DIRECTLY to the next station being much simpler (cheaper), and predictably Safer than having individually piloted vehicles (Which had to deal with ocean current variations, traffic, etc ...)   Automatic and redundant mechanical methods for Public Transit were much more reliable and safer.  It also eliminated the many problems of fueling (or worse batteries), and the issue of expensively maintaining a far more complex vehicle ( no longer effectively a self-propelled submarine ), and increased the systems carrying capacity (more passenger accommodation rather than complex gagetry).
Submarine 'Taxis' were still available for transfer to private stations/docks ( at a MUCH greater expense ).
Remember, there are no subsidized Transportation Fares in 'Pay As You Go' Rapture.  Cost effectiveness was required for anything to be plausible there.
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They have to manually dock space craft even today. So consider what a self-driving Submarine would have to be like ( to dock/enter airlocks, or navigate in currents, and handle traffic ) - So more reason THAT is NOT what the Bathyspheres are. Solution : The equivalent of 'running on a rail' (My Cableway Design) greatly simplifies 'automatic' operations for the Rapture Transit Bathyspheres.
For Bathyspheres to be remotely like 'Autos' in Rapture, they need to be 'Parked' somewhere. One thing you notice in a real city is how much Parking Areas take up space.
'Rich' People can afford to have a Chauffeur for their private submarines - and a Mechanic, and a parking garage with massive airlock, and can afford paying parking fees in similar 'public' parking facilities at destinations.
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WHEN this happened was not indicated in the game. 
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 "Its Only A Game!!!.  They Can't Show you Everything" :
Locked-down Bathyspheres, Unrealistically contrived just for Jack To Use ...
With the Bathyspheres 'locked down' - Then how did people get around Rapture unless there was another system ??   What year did that happen ??  ( Maybe figure 1952 with the 'cutting off from Surface' ??? OR maybe expanded later (1959) when Atlas turned Rapture into a warzone ? ).
Maybe Only certain Bathyspheres in the Metro system were 'locked down' - The ones going to the Surface (Lighthouse) had the most risk.   As per my logical elaborations of Rapture's transport system : Most 'Transit' "Bathyspheres" were connected-to/Ran_on Cables, and were only capable of going minimal distances under their own power ( hardly the ~200 miles to get to Iceland ).  And a bulk of Rapture's commuters would be taking the Trolley Trams, and various surviving segments of the AE still operating ( as we saw operational in BS2 ).
Allegedly, there also were all the 'Private' car-like Submarines ( alluded to "Austen Streamliner 1952" etc ... ) -- Were these then confiscated also ? ( Imagine the outcry at that ... Note- This is BEFORE Kashmir, when Ryan still had to 'pussyfoot around' such deprivation of Citizens Rights/Freedoms ).  All the Submarines used for maintenance and industrial work ... What of them ?  ... Have more costly disruptions/complications by stopping their use also ?  That is Not too Practical, all round.
How many of these 'Authorized' people were there ? Many ? - Probably then there were 'electronic' keys, only RUMORED to be "genetic" ...  Especially if it was earlier 1952 when 'genetics' technologies were still quite primitive - Thought that might also explain its being fairly imperfect - 'Genetics of any Relative', similar, etc ... 
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The Bathysphere Station Venue :
How do you avoid that Sea Water Stink/Stench which WOULD Permeate the Bathysphere and AE Stations ? :
It DOESN'T smell like a pleasant 'Sea Breeze' to the waiting (wealthy) passengers. ( Very Expensive Counter-measures ? Vents blowing fresh air at 'customers' in those huge volumes ... )
Waterfront Smells - Scrubbing takes alot of Labor, and strong chemicals would stink even more ( especially in the enclosed spaces ). Air filtering is costly, and not overly effective when the water continues to emanate the smell within such closed-in areas. A Station with all that open water just isn't too good for avoiding this problem. Organic matter continues to wash up and starts rotting, and noxious things grow in the light. The humidity and noise in the immediate vicinity produced by the Water and machinery likewise is problematic. 
Positive airflow through the doors INTO the Station might stop the spread of that Stench ( until the blowers fail from lack of maintenance once the 'civil war'/anarchist uprising started ). Bathyspheres are 'rich peoples' transportation, so you are likely to have at least this measure in most locations where such a Station is found.
Various organic growths on the Bathyspheres need to be constantly cleaned off, if not to control the smell, then to keep it from fouling the mechanisms. It is a High Maintenance situation - one of the many COSTS that would limit the Bathysphere-type transport, making it expensive beyond what is allowed for a normal public transportation system. 
AE stations would have the same issue ( but at least they can transport far more passengers, and the hoi polloi generally can have less olfactorial discernment ). Internal Tram/Trolleys don't have this type of problem, as they don't go into or near the water.
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Something at least a little closer to what the 'Bathyspheres' should have been :
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Some Concept Artists gave a better design ( A Bathysphere Cable/Track ) :
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This Real World undersea vehicle ( A Bathyscaphe - this is what BioShock's "Bathyspheres" are supposed to actually be named ) in 1960 descended down about 7 MILES deep ( Near 37,000 Feet Deep !! ) into the Marianas Trench in the Pacific ( the deepest part of the World's oceans ). BTW - for practical reasons, RAPTURE cannot be much more that a 10th of a mile deep in water ( and THAT Depth is a difficult enough environment construction technology/engineering-wise ).
NOTE - EVEN THIS THING The Trieste's dirigible envelope was full of gasoline ( liquids don't compress in volume ), which is less dense than water and thus generates buoyancy in the oceans water, and so offsetting the weight of the small very thick metal sphere the two passengers rode in. Truly more a 'Zeppelin' than those obscene artist's monstrosities they had in that third BioShock game LOOKS MORE LIKE A "ZEPPELIN" THAT THOSE RETARDED "Zeppelin" THINGS IN INFINITE BS
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This is what the Trieste's control cabin looked like inside - crammed full of equipment. The 'Trieste' descended to 35,797 ft depth in 1960.
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Concept - Hmm, properly protected propeller, control surfaces, moderate size ... Nah, it had too much thought put into required function rather than 'artistic' form. Anything logical like this seems to have been DISCARDED by the BioShock game designers ...
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A Steward in Bathyspheres ( Deluxe Luxury Transit ) :
For those who don't wish to rub elbows with the Hoi Poloi ... And prefer First-Class Service. Probably a drink service could be accommodated ( by pre-arrangement ). Plush seating is just a matter of substitution. Carefree transit door-to-door and pickup at private Bathysphere docks.
The Bathysphere system we were shown in-game really could NOT be more than a tiny part of Rapture's primary Transit system. Too low a capacity, too few/inflexible in destinations, inability to carry sufficient freight, too slow ( with significant delays for all stops going through those airlocks ), and with too much a bottleneck at the Stations ( which could only handle a few at a time ). They simply do NOT (and could NOT) operate like Automobiles/Mass Transit do in our World.
AE Trains ( which later pretty much shifted to all Freight hauling ), and a Trolley system would be a much better fit for the masses of people who needed to get around Rapture. The same paths Trolleys used could also accommodate bicycles/walking for short city-cluster to city-cluster passage ( See my 'Streets' design feature ).
So what does that leave the Bathyspheres as ? Something closer to a 'Taxi' (or Limo) between important destinations, taken by affluent people who might want more exclusivity ( particularly when the vessel is only a 12 foot sphere ), and who could afford the expense $$$ ( or by ma few ordinary folk 'splurging' ).
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The Inoperable Bathysphere Camper :
There must've been lots of "Bathyspheres" parked around Rapture ( in the various Stations ), and likewise privately-owned and work subs. Those would require 'Parking Lots', enabling sharing the expensive Dock systems, along with the fewer private 'Garages'.
The "Bathyspheres" ( they are Submarines actually ) had self-contained environment systems (heating/cooling) and power systems, which if kept working properly could make them comfy places. Also as they could be closed up/sealed ( and locked and were nice thick metal ), they could make safe hidey-holes within less pleasant areas.
Locks on the inside -- which would have made for an odd story : If Jack had simply never come out at the start of BS1 after seeing 'Johnny' (Atlas's lackey) disemboweled right outside the Bathysphere window. The WYK control conflicting with a 4-year-old's fear of dark places and scary goons, resulting in Atlas alternately threatening and then pleading with Jack to 'come out' ...
I would have one of the MMORPG Splicer 'Factions' have a Bathysphere as its HQ ( its got a radio you know ), but now has all kinds of extra stuff glombed onto it ( probably these add-ons should stop short of having legs added, and turning it into a MECH. ) Deluxe Bathysphere models probably could have a 'private' lavatory.
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Mini Subs :
Used for exterior construction maintenance and building/utility inspection duties, AND as a 'cockpit' ( control unit ) for In-Ocean construction equipment. Such undersea vehicles would have been in development quite a while BEFORE the Rapture Project construction was even started This MMORPG is NOT to be "Wave of the hand" fantasy like Infinite BS was - so a long technological development time for such a vehicle being produced is MUCH more realistic., to be used for industrial sea construction ( Ryan Industries maybe made submarine-type mechanism for the US Navy in WW2, even though Ryan thought Wars a waste, he likely had plans to expand that part of his Industrial Empire anyway. ) 
The Mini Sub has a 8 foot 'spherical' interior - a passenger/operator compartment and its 'works' (versus 12 feet for the passenger type Bathyspheres ), displacing about 8 1/2 tons ( This doesn't include all the extensions/mechanisms outside its pressure hull ). NOTE - It HAS to weigh all those tons to have neutral buoyancy ( so as to neither float-up nor sink-down constantly ) ...
Vehicles like this would have Minimal amenities, as it IS a 'work' vehicle. It would be Designed for Safety and Reliability ( as it should be with ANY such real vehicle ). This unit type should also be robust and rugged, as it would be used under long adverse conditions, starting with Rapture's early construction environments. SO it would have extra capacities for 'air' and 'scrubbers' and power, beyond what the ordinary Bathysphere's would have.
Note how thin the hull is ( yet thick enough to NOT collapse under the extreme water pressure ) - 1 inch thick steel in a spherical shape, with interior bracings to distribute the pressure force. Then batteries under the floor - lots and lots of heavy batteries. The large window is probably quite heavy. The vehicle has neutral buoyancy. It all has to weigh as much as the water it displaces. Various drive machinery and high pressure tanks and such are also heavy.
The Right and Lower parts of this Diagram are details of the airlock/docking port the Mini-Subs used ( you will find these indicated on many of my amended level maps ). It is a fairly complex task to get a tight/secure docking seal when 280 lb/sq in water pressure is involved ( the vehicle side of that 'seal' is also integral to the design ... MORE heavy metal components and working mechanisms ).
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STUPID DLC ( Sloppy is Par in DLC ) : 
BaSx just inflated ideas from the previous two games. Fontaine now has become an Industrial Tycoon, effectively owning a 'car' company ( or rather the equivalent in producing NEW Bathysphere models ).
 
* First - Fontaine couldn't BE that rich - even Al Capone with 100 X the money/power couldn't do it. Bathyspheres are far MORE complex than Automobiles. Rapture's original Bathyspheres would be manufactured on The Surface where it was far easier and cheaper.
* Second - Who is going to buy them ??? Who is rich enough ? Rapture's population ain't that big to sell enough of them for Fontaine to even get his R & D (let alone production) Expenses back before getting profit dollar #1. Very few could be sold. 
* Third - How many years to develop ? ( 1958 is just mere years after HE would have ANY sufficient money available to 'diversify' his businesses - THAT is IF Fontaine had any funds leftover after his ADAM business - and ALL the other businesses he supposedly owned. ) Consider that Auto Companies with HUGE resources take YEARS to retool for new models. 
* Fourth - No Assembly Line production is viable - These things don't have Economy of Scale to produce them cheaply ( limiting the number of potential buyers ). So that's 10 X as expensive as something that is already VERY expensive. They would be hand-built like Rolls Royces. Hand made autos have great trouble making a profit. 
(( Wave of the Hand is NOT a good basis for storytelling about a realistic society. ))
 
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8tonAbsurdities.jpg|So stylish
MoreUtterIgnorance.jpg|Now with even MORE Gianourmous window !!!
Scammodel.jpg|I guess they thot "1950s Era Fins" ... Yeah that's the ticket !!!
Boneheadz.jpg|Love the giant claw to pick it up
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Burial At Sea Bathysphere Changes :
The Interior has grown larger ( height of the seats as indicator of scale - also the control stand ).
The front window is now far larger, and the door now is far too thin ( the old door was like a vault/safe door ).
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Welcome To Rapture :
BTW, Where was the projector for that 'Welcome To Rapture' film you see when you do your Lighthouse Descent ? TVs in Bathyspheres might be interesting ( off to the side of the window - except how do you use 'Cable' transmission to overcome piss poor TV/Radio reception floating while in water ??? And video recording equipment was MASSIVE in the early days ). 
HEY !!! I was standing in the way ( in front of the screen ) but saw no shadow/blockage - if the projector was behind ... (( Oops, gets in the way of the 'storytelling', where the reveal of the view of the city was story-boarded ... and reality isn't welcome if it intrudes on those game Storyboards. So YOU, Looking to the side at the 'movie', and then having your head forced to look out the window - that 'Player control' at least would preserved the idea this wasn't some careless Fantasy-land ))
IT IS VERBOTEN to spoil the sudden awesomeness Vision of Rapture ( Note - that bathysphere window had to be blocked til the 'dramatic point'. )
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Submarine Garage ( Required to operate a Submarine in Rapture ) :
* Airlocks (large expensive machinery ) and/or docking adapters(slow)
* Safety factors ( with major hazards - pressure issues ) everyday-use systems have to be pretty much fail-safe.
* Recharging facilities air/power to resupply things needed for the next operation and to maintain a sufficient margin of safety ( running out of air is NOT the same as running out of gas in your car ).
* If your car fails you are stuck on the side of the road. IF your Bathysphere gets stuck/breaks-down, YOU are crushed flat and drowned by the Unforgiving Sea.
* These Bathysphere vehicles are much more like Private Airplanes, rather than being like Automobiles. More hazards, more potentially fatal failures possible. Such vehicles are FAR more expensive.
 
* Mechanic/Pilot - Maintenance takes time, SO most 'rich' owners would not want to devote themselves ( or their transport qualify ) to that. Servicing IS required for every trip (( IGNORANCE IS NOT A VIRTUE LEVINE ))
SO the number of Private Submarines would have been limited to various wealthy people and some companies that needed them, and some hired transport services ( 'Limo Service' ).
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NEW FROM FONTAINE :
The Burial At Sea DLC tried to reinvent 'new' Bathyspheres ( Regurgitated the idea to put in the 'Departments Store to again follow on and aggrandize Fontaine's supposed power/influence in Rapture ).
Some 'Flaws' :
* A real 'Head Banger' (ceiling bending in) above seats (a poor badly imagined design SERIOUSLY : Don't ever let an 'artist' design anything your Life depends on.)
* That stupid 'CO2' scrubber component ( Needed later 'To make a time machine' ... )
* Steering wheel ? ... To steer a Submarine ?
* Steering wheel ( Ever try to use one sitting sideways ? )
* Fancy decorative shit can't drive a sub ( a tiny chauffeur compartment might have been interesting )
* Big hole in the cabins main floor - you see a whatzits, but nuthin else down there ( Hint - Real Subs are CRAMMED with equipment/machinery )
* New huge SLOPED door, with its Huge window ( Note to fantasy writers - crushing depths are 'crushing' ) ... 'huge'r than needed
* Same old buoyancy problematic issues - this simply cannot work as shown
 
* Shouldn't it be carpeted ? Comfort. This ain't some vehicle used to deliver Fish, is it ?
* Why think seriously about such Fantasy tripe any further, when the game designers didn't bother to ? 
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Bathysphere Floating High On Water - Would be a Great Wobbly Vomit Inducing System (WVIS) :
Tilt, sway, roll, bob ... Puke ( and decide to take the Trolley Tram next time ).
Lifts and cranes used at the docks to lift free of the water ( and probably having some wheels underneath the 28 ton vehicle, to be able to trundle around/sit on the sturdy out-of-water parking surfaces ). Since there is no real need to be on the water surface floating any more, even the annoying motion of being 7/8 ths submerged would be gone.
The cable system, which I could see Bathyspheres really work with, would be far more workable and safer ( less likely to sink on malfunction, sink or implode with Insta-Death for the passengers ). No need for justifying the space and excess complication of a longer-distance propulsion system ( or recharging as often ). Now the vehicle IS largely just the cockpit capsule ( instead of the vehicle being many times as large for the same passenger count, and even heavier, requiring a bigger dock, etc ... )
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Vomit Bags are Available for a Modest Price :
Deluxe Service would also offer 'Mints' at a likewise modest price.
A Spherical Bathysphere rocks when passengers inside shift about ( the compensation system can't adjust fast enuf ). A large part of the vehicles mass has to be at the very bottom to dampen it significantly ( hard to do with the heavy spherical pressure shell ). Stabilizing fins which generate waterflow resistance in the horizontal plane would help ( good thing the Bathysphere is actually dragged round on Cables, otherwise the added drag would limit self-propulsion efficiency even further ).
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The Rapture/BioShock Movie Concept Bathysphere :
Looks more like a private 'sub' than a BS1 Metro Transit vehicle.  Still missing lift hooks and/or flat bottom to allow raising unit out of water ( its door doesn't clear the water level when its free-floating -- Big Daddies might not mind the thing is full of water, but normal people wouldn't like it. ) 
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Ryan Industries would have had a longer time to develop such technology.
This is something that appears to be better suited to a submarine operations for a future production ( Note - 'bathyspheres' were not self-moving - rather something lowered on a cable -- a "bathyscaphe" is what an independently driven vehicles of that type are called. )
This a design taking into account advancements in The Surface World, since the first Rapture 'Bathyspheres' were created in the mid-1940s, AND then lessons were learned in Rapture while operating them on a daily routine basis.
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HELL this would have been a better thing for Columbia --- Instead of those retarded bizarro-land 'Zeppelins' the gamemakers got stuck on. ( THAT'S IF COMSTOCK and FINK actually could look into the Future ... )
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Bathysphere Design Issue - Stress :
The strength of a submarine's hull is constrained not merely by yield strength, but also fatigue strength. As well as the obvious need for a hull strong enough to not be crushed at depth, the cyclical effect of all the dives over a submarine's lifetime mean that fatigue strength is also important. To provide sufficient resistance to fatigue, the submarine hull must be designed so that the steel always operates below its endurance limit -- the Stress due to pressure at depth remains less than the fatigue strength for an indefinite number of cycles.
Every time A Bathysphere enters a Station dock, it goes in or out of an airlock and a Pressure transition takes place. Thus with normal transit operations, the Bathysphere's hull is subjected to constant stress and metal fatigue, which must be handled.
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Deluxe Service :
It is possible that the 'Austen Bathysphere Co' was only an independent 'deluxe service' company that shares the same Metro facilities -- Facilities STILL too meager for any significant commuter capacity ( Think of a City Rush Hour trying to use those Bathyspheres ... ) Even with strap-hangers to boost the passenger count to 12, you still have to 'launch' and re-dock them one at a time - The station we've seen with 1 or 2 bays is a significant 'choke point' to traffic, and transfers have to walk to another (as game presented) Metro station. 
Deluxe Bathysphere Service ( offered at one time ) :
* Plush Seating
* In-'sphere Bar and Snacks
* In-transit Movies
* Slot Machines (on selected lines)
* Radio-Phone Service
* Restrooms
* Private Compartments
* Flight Attendants
* Hot Towels
* Music Selection
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In "Burial At Sea" : 
Infinitized Hugeocity infecting Rapture now ... 
The Original Bathyspheres were about 12 feet in diameter, and here its more like 18 feet ( volume about 3 1/3 times larger inside ).
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