Science Art: Beebe’s Bathysphäre, 1934

Scientific illustration of a bathysphere by Leo Wehrli, showing deep-sea creatures as known in the 1930s.
Scientific illustration of a bathysphere by Leo Wehrli, showing deep-sea creatures as known in the 1930s.

This is an image of William Beebe’s bathysphere, as placed on Wikimedia Commons by ETH Bibliothek. It was created by Swiss explorer/geologist/teacher/photographer Leo Wehrli… maybe.

On Wikimedia Commons, this is calling itself a colorized photograph, but at the time, I don’t really see how Wehrli could have taken it from outside the bathysphere at this depth, except maybe in a second bathysphere. (Far likelier he took a picture of the deep-sea vessel on dry land and then painted the ocean and sea creatures around it.)

On Wikipedia, it’s captioned thusly: Else Bostelmann’s illustration of the Bathysphere’s descent, painted for the National Geographic article which Beebe wrote in return for the National Geographic Society sponsoring his dives. This seems likelier but I don’t know.

Things get murky at great depths where the sun does not penetrate.

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