Year: 1869




The Morse family have put their in
ventive genius to work again, and the
result this time Is a bathometer, an in
strument for obtaining deep sea sound
ings. The inventors are Sidney f..
Morse brother Of the inventor of the
electrical telegraph, and his son Mr..
Livingstone Morse, and the apparatus
is thus described: ..
4 1t consists, in brief, of tube of cylin-
der Of wood Or tin, about six inches in
diameter and several inches in length,
varying according to the locality in
which it is designed to used. Within
this outer can are inclosed a number of
hollow spheres of glass, filled with air
at the ordinary atmospheric pressure
These globes of glass serve as floats or
buoys, and one of the most valuable
points in the invention is the discovery
10y the Messrs. Morse that these glass
spheres, only about one tenth of an
inch in thickness, will endure Il pres
sure equal to that of the sea at several
miles depth, without breaking or injury.
Some Of the spheres exhibited last ev-
ening had endured IA pressure Of four and
a hall tons to the square inch, under a
hydraulic press, without failing. The
latter with its enclosed spheres, is bal
lasted so as to float upright in the wa
ter, and to its lower end is attached Il
weight utficient to carry it rapidly to
the bottom. This weight is so connect
ed to the tube that the instant it touch
es the bottom it becomes detached
from it, and the tube, by the buoyancy
of its enclosed spheres, rises again to the
surface. AS the time of decent and as
cent are always equal, and the rate of
the instruments motion through the
water is ascertained by previous expert
ments, the length of time during which
it is beneath the surface affords pret-
ty accurate measure of the depth to
which it reached. But the inventors do
not depend upon this means alone for
estimating the distance to the bottom.
The apparatus so far is merely the car
riage for conveying to the bottom Of the
sea aud returning to the surface anoth-
er piece of mechanism, which shall act
urately report the distance traveled-or
rather, the depth attained. This regis
ter consists of a glass vessel filed with
distilled water aud closed with a stop
per of India rubber or gutta percha.-
Attached to this vessel is an India rub
Der bag. filled with murcury, which
communicates with the water vessels
by means of small tube. The pressure
of the ocean at great depth congresses
the water into the vessel, and certain
amount of murcury flows in to fill the
vacancy thus caused. The quantity of
mercury found in the vessel after its re
turn tothe surface shows the extent of
the compression of the water in the ves-
sci, and as the compression Of the water
is always uniform, this gives an exact
and Trustworthy measure of the pres.
suresf the water at the point when the
weightbecomes detached from the tube.
In addition to this, Maury's or any 9TH
er self-registering bathometer may be
attached 40 the apparatus, thus giving
at II single descent these corroborating
registrations Of the depth. The instru-
ment also in its return brings up a spec.
linen Of the bottom of the sea at the
point where it struck. tits well known
that the old method Of sounding by a
line and sinker has proved totally un.
trustworthy for great depths, as the dis
turbances of the line by currents and
the motions of the vessel rendered the
results obtained wholly uncertain, and
even Professor Maury who has proba-
bly, had more experience in this business
than any other man, makes all his
soundings Of over mile in depth as
doubtful. The Morse machine being
entirely automatic in it's action and be.
ing entirely disconnected from the YES.
sci, is not liable to these objections, and
its action being very rapid, it is not LA
BILE to be much affected by submarine
currents. By the old method from six
to seven hours are required to make q
sounding Of 1900 falhoms, while the