Objects and instruments

He was also keen to apply new approaches and new materials to oceanographic instrumentation, without neglecting proven techniques that had been in use for a long time. He invented or improved a number of devices: floats launched by the “Hirondelle”, a surface trawl, a rudder net, a curtain net, a key sounder, a probe device, and trihedral and hexagonal keepnets. Those who collaborated with him proved to be equally inventive. Jules Richard came up with a bottle for collecting samples of water, a small net for harvesting plankton while the ship was travelling, and a net with a large opening for vertical fishing of bathypelagic animals. The “dredge probe” was designed by engineer Maurice Léger, who is better known for his helicopters.