50 yrs of the Undersea world, 60 of the Silent world by Jacques Cousteau

Dear Readers,

In 1966 about 50 years ago was the debut of a TV series that marked History into popularize scientific research. It was the first episode broadcasted of the series of documentaries of the Undersea world by Jacques Ives Cousteau. In 1956, 60 years ago, The Silent World, a film he directed won a Palme d'or , becoming also Historic on the subject.

Jacques Cousteau arrived to this project relatively mature in experience not only as a diver but also as a producer of movies. He started to film short documentaries that were exhibited in movie theaters since 1940s, like this one Epave of 1943.

Cousteau was born on 11 June 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, France to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau. He had one brother, Pierre-Antoine.

Cousteau completed his preparatory studies at the Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930, he entered the École Navale and graduated as a gunnery officer. After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau indulged his interest in the sea. The accident caused him to break both his arms and could have even killed him. This caused Cousteau to have to change his plans in becoming a naval pilot, but it eventually worked out because of his passion for the ocean

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In Toulon, where he was serving on the Condorcet, Cousteau carried out his first underwater experiments, thanks to his friend Philippe Tailliez who in 1936 lent him some Fernez underwater goggles, predecessors of modern swimming goggles. Cousteau also belonged to the information service of the French Navy, and was sent on missions to Shanghai and Japan (1935–1938) and in the USSR (1939).

In 1943 he became co inventor of the aqualung (among the first autonomous underwater breathing apparatus).

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Diving today is what it is for pioneers like him, that developed the different technologies needed to achieve it reducing a lot the risks that it involves.

Now, Although many know that Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space and Neil Amstrong the first to walk over the moon, Cousteau was in many occasions along his expeditions the first human to reach extremely deep and inaccessible areas of the oceans of our planet during the years on which his programs were aired world wide.

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His way to explore undersea regions from a scientific perspective developed methods and systems that can be extrapolated to other potential scenarios at future, like the ones of search for life in other planets. What Jacques Cousteau achieved was not very different, in his time , since he opened for humanity an entire new world full of life, recording exhaustively almost unexplored areas of the planet, a task developed for first time with rigor.

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Perhaps it was in scientific ethics where Cousteau made his greatest contribution to posterity, where it is his great legacy, since he developed along years important protocols of how to explore new worlds and how to approach new forms of life without destroying them, respecting the delicate balances that have given form to ecosystems never before explored by men.

Space travelers of the future might have no doubt a lot to learn from what this man did here in this planet to improve the ethical standards of scientific exploration of new Horizons where humanity can expand its activity.

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Cousteau described his underwater world research in a series of books, perhaps the most successful being his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure, published in 1953.

Cousteau also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme d'or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained the only person to win a Palme d'Or for a documentary film, until Michael Moore won the award in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.

The thread is opened for discussion to all divers and sea lovers but also for scientists in general that are compelled to reflect in the life of Jacques I. Cousteau , his great job to popularize science, to make it more accessible to millions through the massive communication media.


Thanks for your attention,

The Angel of Lightness

The peace of God to all that belong to the Light,

Dear Readers,

Other three French researchers, Auguste, Jules and Jacques PIcard, using the experienced gained in set altitude records with balloons, applied the buoyancy same technique for developing a submersible vehicle, the bathyscaphe.

Pls check:

en.wikipedia.org...

The bathyscaphe was developed in between 1948 and 1955 while Jacques was teaching economics in University of Geneve, Switzerland. In search for funding they showed their invention to the U.S. Navy, which at that time was exploring various ways of designing submarines for underwater research.

The FNRS-2 was the first bathyscaphe. It was created by Auguste Piccard. Work started in 1937 but was interrupted by World War II. The deep-diving submarine was finished in 1948.

The bathyscaphe was named after the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), the funding organization for the venture. FNRS also funded the FNRS-1 which was a balloon that set a world altitude record, also built by Piccard. The FNRS-2 set world diving records, besting those of the bathyspheres, as no unwieldy cable was required for diving. It was in turn bested by a more refined version of itself, the bathyscaphe Trieste.

FNRS-2 was built during 1946-1948. She was damaged during sea trials in 1948, off the Cape Verde Islands. The year after in 1949 another serious failure occurred during an expedition to Dakar.

Jacques Cousteau and the Élie Monnier then took part in the rescue of Professor Jacques Piccard's bathyscaphe. Thanks to this rescue, the French Navy was able to reuse the sphere of the bathyscaphe to construct the FNRS-3.

Pls check:

en.wikipedia.org...

The French rebuilt it and rebaptised her FNRS-3. She was eventually replaced by the FNRS-4. In February 1954 the FNRS-3 reached a depth of 4,050 metres (13,290 ft) in the Atlantic, 160 miles off Dakar, beating Piccard's 1953 record by 900 meters

By the end of the 1950s the U.S Navy impressed by his designs, bought the vessel and hired Piccard as a consultant. Recognizing the strategic value of a workable submersible for submarine salvage and rescue, the Navy began testing it for greater depths.

At the point the vessel reached depths of 24,000 feet, Piccard and his colleagues considered on an even greater challenge—a voyage to the bottom of the sea.

On 23 January 1960, Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench located in the western North Pacific Ocean. The depth of the descent was 10,911 m (35,797 ft).

Thanks,

The Angel of Lightness

cheers of or this. I need to come back and. revisit this after class.

but I'm more fascinated by what's at the deepest troughs of the ocean than some glimmer of a planet 80 light years away. we should point our instruments down and see what we find first.

a reply to: The angel of light

Perhaps it was in scientific ethics where Cousteau made his greatest contribution

Pity his social ethics weren’t so polished. Cousteau was an anti-Semite. He also made out that he was in the Resistance, but it is more likely that he was a Vichy collaborator.

He shares the credit for the invention of SCUBA with Émile Gagnan.

a reply to: Astyanax

Yeah , didnt know about his politics til a few years ago and was bothered by them , however watching his shows as a kid is what gave me the dream to jump in the salt and where ever else I could. I have even dove with Robin in a rubber pool from walmart just to use my compressor and to be under water. There is something magical and awe inspiring for me to breathe under water. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

i always like to pick theme songs for threads. here's yours.


when i was a kid when there was only three channels on tv, every show of his that came on we watched it.

a reply to: Astyanax

Dear Astyanax, with all respect,

I am going to give you exactly the same advise I use to offer to the people that still live in this time as in the cold war, we have by now about 71 years that WWII has ended, don't you think it is finally time to move on?

If Cousteau really would be a collaborationist he never should have had any opportunity to develop his career, since he began it in the French Navy, so that is enough proof that all those are malicious rumors than don't pay off to even consider seriously.

Thanks,

The Angel of Lightness

a reply to: The angel of light

Take your advice and shove it at the ignoramuses who believe history teaches us nothing.

I presented some facts which people have a right to know. Sorry if you would rather people pretended they didn’t exist.

a reply to: The angel of light

I used to enjoy his stuff, too.

However . . .

Please temper your adoration with this globalist assertion of his:
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“In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 per day.”

a reply to: BO XIAN

He didn’t mean that such a thing was desirable. He was merely pointing out that 350,000 people are (actually, were) added to the human race every day.

He might have been an anti-Semite but he wasn’t a madman.

a reply to: Astyanax

You are wrong.

Read the quote in context.

It's worse in context.

He was talking about the FORCED depopulation of the planet

in BEHALF OF Nature with a capital "N."

He wasn't that far removed from those calling for mankind to exterminate himself in behalf of Nature.

a reply to: BO XIAN

Our society is turning toward more and more needless consumption. It is a vicious circle that I compare to cancer . . . . Should we eliminate suffering, diseases? The idea is beautiful, but perhaps not a benefit for the long term. We should not allow our dread of diseases to endanger the future of our species.

This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it. – Interview with Jacques Cousteau in a 1991 UNESCO Courier

From:

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a reply to: BO XIAN

By limiting births, not killing people.

a reply to: Astyanax

I think you are making an inference that is not supported by the evidence.

. . . . It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it.

1. Read more about his sentiments and globalist associations.

2. He would NOT have said "horrible thing to say," if your perspective were remotely accurate. Your logic is, at best, flawed.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: BO XIAN

He didn’t mean that such a thing was desirable. He was merely pointing out that 350,000 people are (actually, were) added to the human race every day.

As I've noted, your assertion on such scores is wrong.

. . . but he wasn’t a madman.

Perhaps it depends on your definition of "madman." His globalist associations and values indicate otherwise. You can put all the lipstick on this pig you want but the facts are still the facts.

There REALLY ARE globalists who REALLY DO seek to force the world population down to 200-500 million by deliberately engineered wars, plagues and other massive deaths. Their carefully laid plans are marching inexorably toward such major efforts.

And Cousteau was one of them--lock, stock and barrel.