Depth gauge

A depth gauge is an instrument for measuring depth below a reference surface. They include depth gauges for underwater diving and similar applications, and engineering instruments used to measure the depth of holes and indentations from a reference surface. A diving depth gauge is a pressure gauge that displays the equivalent depth below the free surface in water. The relationship between depth and pressure is linear and accurate enough for most practical purposes, and for many purposes, such as diving, it is actually the pressure that is important. It is a piece of diving equipment used by underwater divers, submarines and submersibles. Most modern diving depth gauges have an electronic mechanism and digital display. Earlier types used a mechanical mechanism and analogue display. Digital depth gauges used by divers commonly also include a timer showing the interval of time that the diver has been submerged. Some show the diver's rate of ascent and descent, which can be is useful for avoiding barotrauma. This combination instrument is also known as a bottom timer. An electronic depth gauge is an essential component of a dive computer As the gauge only measures water pressure, there is an inherent inaccuracy in the depth displayed by gauges that are used in both fresh water and seawater due to the difference in the densities of fresh water and seawater due to salinity and temperature variations. A depth gauge that measures the pressure of air bubbling out of an open ended hose to the diver is called a pneumofathometer. They are usually calibrated in metres of seawater or feet of seawater. Experiments in 1659 by Robert Boyle of the Royal Society were made using a barometer underwater, and led to Boyle's Law. The French physicist, mathematician and inventor Denis Papin published Recuiel de diverses Pieces touchant quelques novelles Machines in 1695, where he proposed a depth gauge for a submarine. A "sea-gage" for measuring ocean depth was described in Philosophia Britannica in 1747.