Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Measurements:
overall: 51 3/4 in x 2 in; 131.445 cm x 5.08 cm
overall: 52 in x 2 in; 132.08 cm x 5.08 cm
Object Name:
core sample, ocean bottom
Description:
The modern study of the ocean floor began in 1936 when Charles Snowden Piggott (1892-1973), a chemist on the staff of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, announced that he had invented a “hollow punch” which is thrust into the ocean by an explosion of powder and, when hauled back, brings up a rock core of the ocean bed. The Geophysical Laboratory donated this sectioned Piggott core sampler, with sample, to the Smithsonian in 1950.
Ref: Charles Snowden Piggott, “Core Samples of the Ocean Bottom and Their Significance,” The Scientific Monthly 46 (March 1938): 201-217.
George R. Tilton, “Charles Snowden Piggott,” Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 66 (1995): 246-264.
Location:
Currently not on view
Credit Line:
Carnegie Institute through Dr. G. W. Morey, Director
ID Number:
PH.314316
Catalog number:
314316
Accession number:
185754
See more items in:
Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
Data Source:
National Museum of American History
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b3-53bb-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmah_1763505