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 3028 ft on August 15, 1934, lasted until it was broken by Barton in 1949 in a vessel called Benthoscope.

Origin and design