#otis barton

[the-briny-bulletin]

Cryptid fish that has only been seen once and never again that may or may not exist but well never know my beloved

[beentobeetle]

I had to do an art piece for a school project

For context the vid is depicting William Beebe and Otis Barton, the inventors of the bathysphere. The two of them didn’t go down together a whole lot but when they did I have theories they were beefing the whole time … after the bathysphere project they lowkey HATED each other because Beebe, already being a scientist, was more interested in the research from the bathysphere, while Barton, an engineer, was focused on the novelty and credit of the whole thing. The bathysphere was also really small, so they two were actually very squished together when they went down. I did this animatic in the span of 5 hours. I started at 7 and it was due at 11:59. I’m so tired.

That’s my history lesson for today or whatevuh

[lindahall]

Frederick Otis Barton, Jr. – Scientist of the Day

Otis Barton, an American engineer and inventor, was born June 5, 1899.

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[the-briny-bulletin]

(warning: long rambling about the bathysphere and cryptid fish ahead)

Map of Bermuda showing the areas of the Bathysphere dives as shown in William Beebe's 1934 book "Half a Mile Down". you can find the PDF of the book for free here. I've only read a few pages (20 i think) as of yet but what I've read so far is really interesting!

William Beebe was one of the two men aboard the Bathysphere, an unpowered deep sea submersible used between 1930-34 (we will get to that later). He was a naturalist mainly known for ornithology but was also an early pioneer of deep sea exploration. During the late 20s he started formulating a way to explore the deep sea, something that was unimaginable as even military submarines with no windows could only go about 117 Metres (383 ft) deep at the time. He was also pretty progressive as he often hired women to do scientific work (pretty scandalous for the 1930s).

The other man, Otis Barton, was an engineer who actually designed the Bathysphere itself! William Beebe was originally planning on using a cylindrical shape for the submersible, which he then published to the New York Times. Otis saw this and sent William a few letters explaining that this was a shit ass design and how a spherical shape would be better. (William ignored this because he was getting a lot of letters from folks asking to join his efforts. but eventually a mutual friend introduced them). He then went on to design the Benthoscope, another deep sea submersible, and write his own book "The World Beneath the Sea" which I have also yet to read (mainly bc i cant find a free PDF).

Now, the Bathysphere itself:

I would try to describe how it functions but unfortunately i am not smart enough to do so, and i feel too weirdly guilty to copy and pasting from Wikipedia. If you are an engineer nerd, please feel free to nerd about the design in the reblogs! But what I do understand is that this fucking thing was STUPIDLY DANGEROUS.

It is a literal ball of steel that they lowered into the ocean using a cable connected to a boat. a hollow one, sure. But when they first cast this thing it was too heavy to be lifted so they had to recast it. even in its lighter form, it was clunky and difficult. When it was submerged it would violently swing like a pendulum which would cause Barton and Beebe to hit their heads on the steel walls. they would often leave the Bathysphere bruised and bleeding. Once, Otis Barton threw up due to sea sickness while in it and they just shrugged and kept descending anyway.

Also, due to the high amount of pressure exerted on the sphere (deepest dive being 923 metres/3,028 ft which would be around 90 ish atmospheres which is 90 times more than on the surface(i think idk maths someone fact check me)) they probably most very likely would have experienced some form of nitrogen narcosis, which is basically when some people who reach below a certain depth in the sea start to experience temporary mental impairments kinda like if you were on anesthesia. That, as well as the fact that - despite their best efforts - the air circulation in the sphere was bad, meaning there was probably a high amount of Co2 in the air.

This ^ may be an explanation for the 5 cryptids described by Barton and Beebe during the "Untouchable Bathysphere" Incident and I'm vaguely aware these things probably have been spoken about before on this site (probably with better dictation and analysis) but i wish to speak about them again because they HAUNT ME I think about them OFTEN and I wanna TALK ABOUT IT!!

Fish themselves as Illustrated by Else Bostalmann:

The Five-Lined Constellation Fish

(Bathysidus pentagrammus)

The Pallid Sailfin

(Bathyembryx istiophasma)

The Giant Dragonfish

(Bathysphaera intacta)

The Abyssal Rainbow Gar

(No scientific name given lmao)

The Three-Starred Anglerfish

(Bathyceratias trilynchus)

I really suggest reading up about the untouchable bathysphere incident because there's something so haunting about how they describe these fish that have never been seen since. Imagine being the first person in the world to see such sights, only to be the last. An elusive ghost story.

There's a bunch of theories about what these fish are, if they are real and if so are still alive. The general consensus I've seen is that "they definitely saw something but their perception of reality was fucked up" and I whole heartedly agree.

For example: this "Five-lined constellation fish" has very similar patterns to a comb jelly

And the pallid sailfin's large dorsal and anal fins look an awful lot like cephalopod fins (?)

And when I was rambling about this with someone, they point out that the lures of the three-starred angler fish could potentially be caused by double vision and like

Yeah

Another post on tumblr I saw a while ago (which i cannot find please lmk if you know what I'm talking about) talked about how its very difficult to tell the size of things underwater if you don't have another object for a frame of reference, and also that objects tends to seem bigger underwater (23% i think?). Considering the pitch blackness of the deep sea, its very likely that they could've miscalculated the size of the giant dragon fish.

I dont know how to end this. this has been in my drafts for months. if you wanna add something please feel free to do so!!

[roesolo]

Unhinged History, where the oddest of couples change the world: The Bathysphere Boys

#UnhingedHistory, where the oddest of couples change the world: The Bathysphere Boys @Schifferbooks

The Bathysphere Boys: Beebe & Barton (Unhinged History), by Ted Enik/Illustrated by G.F. Newland, (Sept. 2019, Schiffer Books). $16.99, ISBN: 9780764357930

Ages 7-10

This second book in Schiffer’s Unhinged History series brings together William Beebe and Otis Barton, who came together to create the bathysphere, an invention that sent the two underwater explorers more than half a mile underwater…

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[eye-you]