The Bathysphere was a spherical submersible device designed to take humans to the depths of the ocean for the purpose of exploration and scientific research. After the initial version of the sphere had been cast in June 1929, it was discovered that it was too heavy to be lifted by the winch which would be used to lower it into the ocean, requiring Barton to have the sphere melted and recast. Barton, who was resentful that newspaper articles about his and Beebe’s Bathysphere dives often failed to mention him, added to ichthyologists’ skepticism by writing letters to newspapers that contained wildly inaccurate accounts of their observations