Submersibles Through Time
Trieste (1953)
An untethered, deep-diving bathyscaphe (literally "deep boat"),
Trieste was the brainchild of Swiss inventor August Piccard,
who in the 1930s reached unprecedented altitudes of almost 52,000
feet with his unique pressurized aluminum gondola. Piccard modified
his atmospheric balloon concepts to design the Trieste, using
gasoline, which is lighter than water, for buoyancy. In 1960, the
submersible dove more than 35,000 feet to the deepest point on
Earth, the Marianas Trench, withstanding a crushing pressure of
eight tons per square inch.