The
Bathysphere (
Greek words
βαθύς (
bathus), "deep" and
σφαῖρα (
sphaira), "sphere") was a unique
spherical deep-sea
submersible which was unpowered and lowered into the ocean on a cable, and was used to conduct a series of dives off the coast of
Bermuda from 1930 to 1934. The Bathysphere was designed in 1928 and 1929 by the American engineer
Otis Barton, to be used by the
naturalist William Beebe for studying undersea wildlife. Beebe and Barton conducted dives in the Bathysphere together, marking the first time that a marine biologist observed deep-sea animals in their native environment. Their dives set several consecutive world records for the deepest dive ever performed by a human. The record set by the deepest of these, to a depth of 3,028 feet on August 15, 1934, lasted until it was broken by Barton in 1949.