Otis Barton

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Otis Barton
Portrait of Master Otis Barton and his Grandfather, by William Merritt Chase, 1903, oil on canvas - Currier Museum of Art - Manchester, NH - DSC07551.jpg
Portrait of Otis Barton and his Grandfather, by William Merritt Chase, 1903
Born
Frederick Otis Barton Jr.

(1899-06-05)June 5, 1899
New York, U.S.
DiedApril 15, 1992(1992-04-15) (aged 92)
Alma mater Harvard College [1]
OccupationDeep-sea diver, inventor, actor

Frederick Otis Barton Jr. (June 5, 1899 April 15, 1992) was an American deep-sea diver, inventor and actor.

Contents

Early life and career

Born in New York, the independently wealthy Barton designed the first bathysphere and made a dive with William Beebe off Bermuda in June 1930. They set the first record for deep-sea diving by descending 600 ft (180 m). In 1934, they set another record at 3,028 ft (923 m). Barton acted in the 1938 Hollywood movie, Titans of the Deep .

Later career

In 1949, Barton set a new world record with a 4,500 foot (1,372 m) dive in the Pacific Ocean, using his benthoscope (from the Greek benthos, meaning 'sea bottom', and scopein, 'to view'), which was designed by Barton and Maurice Nelles. [2] [3]

Barton wrote the book The World Beneath the Sea, published in 1953. Like Beebe, Barton was also interested in exploring tropical rain forests, and spent considerable time in places like Gabon. In 1978, Barton successfully tested a "jungle spaceship" (actually an airship) that was intended to film wildlife. [4]

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The following events occurred in August 1934:

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References

  1. "Bathysphere and Its Pioneers of the Deep - Clara Bush".
  2. "Deep Dip". Time . 1949-08-29. Archived from the original on September 27, 2010. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  3. "Harvard University Obituary and Death Notice Collection - 104". 2011-01-18. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-01-27. Retrieved 2006-06-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Further reading