Locked inside the sphere was naturalist William Beebe and inventor Otis Barton, who designed the unit.
I have never seen such brilliant light, Beebe announced.
William Beebe inside the Bathysphere.
At that time, five hundred feet was the deepest anybody had ever dived using an armored diving suit.
A typical submarine barely descended to 400 feet.
Until then, the only understanding of deep sea life came from animals dredged from the ocean floor.
Nobody had ever watched them in their native environment.
Beebe and Bartons vessel, called the Bathysphere, was a sphere less than five feet across.
Beebe and Barton conducted their first test dive on May 27, 1930, off the coast of Bermuda.
With each deep dive, the stakes began to climb and the dangers increased.
But the rewards were worth the risks.
Cross-sectional view of the Bathysphere.
Beebe and Barton observed an astounding variety of life, many of which were never seen before.
At 1,000 feet, we took stock of our surroundings.
I tried to name the water; blackish-blue, dark gray-blue.
That has apparently already been absorbed.
The last hint of blue tapers into a nameless gray, and this finally into black, Beebe added.
Many of these previously-unseen animals would be confirmed years later using underwater photography.
Observed sea life drawn by Else Bostelmann.
As soon as the program ended, Beebe gave the order for them to be pulled back up.
Beebe and Barton were violently thrown about inside the sphere, and both were bruised and bleeding.
Barton had succumbed to seasickness and vomited.
William Beebe and Otis Barton.
They would have to wait another two years before they could reach the goal.
The remaining distance was called off.
Barton reached an unprecedented depth of 4,500 feet (1.4 km).
A replica of the Bathysphere on display at the National Geographic museum in Washington DC.
