Weight-detaching mechanical sounder for gauging the depth of the sea floor and collecting sediment samples, designed by F. Skead and used on HMS Tartarus, 1857, during telegraph survey operations between Malta and Crete. The original had a 68 lb cannon ball as sinker weight; this object has a fibreglass replica. Skead's detaching-weight sounder used for telegraph survey operations 1857
Detaching-weight sounder, possibly early form, designed by Ensign Brooke of the US Navy, USA, 1855-1860. Detaching-weight sounder, or ‘Brooke’s Rod’, designed by Ensign Brooke 1855-1860
Hydra weight-detaching sounder for collecting small samples from the sea bottom, of the type designed by Mr Gibbs, Artificer aboard the sounding ship HMS Hydra, 1868, and used in sounding operations in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Hydra sounders were also employed by naturalists Charles Wyville Thomson, William Benjamin Carpenter and J Gwyn Jeffreys on HMS Porcupine in investigations of deep sea life in 1869. Hydra weight-detaching sounder for collecting small samples from the sea bottom 1868
Triple Depth Gauge, one of two, with tinplate cover, by Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and James White of Glasgow, 1880 Air-Compression type Depth Gauges, 1880 1880