On January 28 1963, the French Post Office issued a 30 cents stamp depicting the bathyscaphe Archimede. It is of revolutionary bathyscaphe design and was launched at Toulon on July 28, 1961. Present at the launching was Dr. Jacques Piccard who in January 1960 reached the world record depth of 35,800 ft, in the bathyscaphe Trieste, now in the United States Navy, when he and Lieut. Don Walsh descended to the bottom of the Marianas Trench and stayed there for half-an-hour.
The Archimede, named after the famous Archimedes, who invented a screw for raising water, was built to withstand pressures of more than 180,000 tons and is claimed to be able to descend deeper into the ocean than any other craft of its kind. Its equipment includes the most modern types of instruments for underwater exploration, including ultra-sensitive sonar devices to detect the sounds made by fish. Specimens can be collected as the bathyscaphe crawls along the ocean floor and photographs can be taken with the aid of two 10,000-watt underwater searchlights. Last year the Archimede made two dives to the bottom of the Japan Trench, staying below the surface on both occasions for over nine hours. SG1595