Objects and instruments

Objects and instruments

Prince Albert I was fascinated by inventions such as photography, cinematography and means of transport such as bicycles, motorcycles and aeronautics.

 

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.