In 1956, after several years of bathyscaph operations by the Swiss and French, Jacques Piccard, son of the bathyscaph designer August Piccard, spent 100 days in America, traveling to all the major centers of oceanographic research trying to sell them on the virtues of the bathyscaph. The first phase of deep submergence started in the late 1950s when the bathyscaphs Trieste and Archimede began taking scientists into the abyssal depths of the world's oceans. Most recently, the manned submersible at Woods Hole has been merged with its newly developed remotely operated vehicle program. What led to the final acceptance of manned submersibles were the discoveries in 19 of hydrothermal vents and high-temperature ''black smokers." Since that time, the Alvin program at Woods Hole has matured into a highly reliable and productive diving program fully integrated into a series of long-term research programs. The turning point in the acceptance of manned submersibles came on the heels of the theory of plate tectonics and the first manned exploration of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge during Project FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) in 1974. Its initial design and introduction into the oceanographic community was driven, like all new paradigms, by a small core of scientists and engineers who saw the unique contribution that a manned presence on the ocean floor could make to marine research. Over its 35-year history, the deep submergence program at Woods Hole has experienced four distinct phases. Since its arrival at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in June 1964, the manned submersible Alvin has gone from a scientific oddity to an accepted research tool.
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