Kelvin's sounding machine (piano-wire line)
Máquina de sondeo de Kelvin (cable de acero de piano)
- Date
- 1872 · confidence medium
- Place
- University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
- Field
- Movement
What it is
An apparatus lowering a weight on thin steel wire instead of rope, with a glass tube that stains with pressure to give depth. The low-drag wire allowed sounding at ship speed.
What it led to
- fast deep-sea soundings without stopping the ship
- bathymetry for laying telegraph cables
- seabed maps until the echo sounder