An aquascope (also called bathyscope) is an
underwater viewing device. It is used to view the underwater world often from dry land or a boat. It eliminates the water surface glare and allows viewing as far as water clarity and light permit. The underwater viewer can be used for observing
reefs, checking
boat moorings,
secchi disks and other survey work. It is also used as educational tool to watch plants, creatures and habitats underneath the surface of
rivers,
lakes and
sea
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
s.
A more advanced version, an underwater telescope was patented by
Sarah Mather
Sarah Mather (1796, in Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populat ...
in 1845 - U.S. Patent No. 3,995; it permitted sea-going vessels to survey the depths of the ocean. It used a
camphine lamp in a glass globe that was sunk into the water. The device allowed the examination of a ship's hull and other details from the deck of a boat. In 1864, Mather added an improvement - U.S. Patent No. 43,465
to her previous invention to detect
Southern underwater warships.
[Jacquelyn A. Greenblatt (1999) ''Women Scientists and Inventors']
Page 80
Good Year Books Retrieved 2015
Construction

The instrument which has been popularly named the Water, or Marine Telescope, from the power given by its use to see into the water, consists of a tube of metal or wood, of a convenient length, to enable a person looking over the gunnel of a boat to rest the head on the one end, while the other is below the surface of the water ; the upper end is so formed, that the head may rest on it, both eyes seeing freely into the tube. Into the lower end is fixed (water-tight) a plate of glass, which, when used, is to be kept under the surface of the water.
A very convenient size for the instrument represented in the above figure, is to make the length AC, 3 feet, and the mouth A, where the face is applied, of an irregular oval form, that both eyes may see freely into the tube, with an indentation on one side, that the nose may breathe freely, not throwing the moisture of the breath into the tube. B is a round plate of glass, 8 inches diameter, over which is the rim or edge C ; this rim is best formed of lead, J of an inch thick, and 3 inches deep; the weight of the lead serves to sink the tube a little into the water. Holes must be provided at the junction of B to C, for the purpose of allowing the air to escape, and bring the water into contact with the glass; on each side there is a handle for holding the instrument.
Media
File:Aquascope (36186033336).jpg, Portable acquascope
File:Aquascope (36186019536).jpg, Acquascope in use
File:Porto de Puerto del Carmen-3.jpg, Aquascope submarine tour boats, Lanzarote
Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...
, Spain
File:National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka - Underwater viewer - Matsue, Shimane - Collected in 1976.jpg, Underwater viewer, Museum of Ethnology, Osaka - 1976
References
Bibliography
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External links
Exploring-the-ocean-with-a-bathyscope
Optical devices
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