Bathythermograph

The bathythermograph, or BT, also known as the Mechanical Bathythermograph, or MBT; is a small torpedo-shaped device that holds a temperature sensor and a transducer to detect changes in water temperature versus depth down to a depth of approximately 285 meters (935 feet). Lowered by a small winch on the ship into the water, the BT records pressure and temperature changes on a coated glass slide as it is dropped nearly freely through the water. While the instrument is being dropped, the wire is paid out until it reaches a predetermined depth, then a brake is applied and the BT is drawn back to the surface. Because the pressure is a function of depth (see Pascal's law), temperature measurements can be correlated with the depth at which they are recorded.

History

The true origins of the BT began in 1935 when Carl-Gustaf Rossby started experimenting. He then forwarded the development of the BT to his graduate student Athelstan Spilhaus. Who then fully developed the BT in 1938 as a collaboration between MIT, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the U.S. Navy. The device was modified during World War II to gather information on the varying temperature of the ocean for the U.S. Navy. Originally the slides were prepared "by rubbing a bit of skunk oil on with a finger and then wiping off with the soft side of one's hand,” followed by smoking the slide over the flame of a Bunsen burner. Later on the skunk oil was replace with an evaporated metal film.