Echo sounder (Echolot)
Ecosonda (Echolot)
- Date
- 1913 · confidence high
- Place
- Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
- Credited to
- Alexander Behm
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A device that measures sea depth by timing a sound echo emitted from the hull. It replaced the lead line and lets the seabed profile be traced continuously at cruising speed.
Behm patented the Echolot in 1913 after the Titanic; Fessenden (1912-1914) and others worked in parallel, so no single inventor can be named.
What it led to
- mapping of the seabed and the Atlantic ridge
- bathymetry and fish-shoal detection
- military and civil sonar