Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Measurements:
overall: 59 in x 14 1/2 in x 12 1/2 in; 149.86 cm x 36.83 cm x 31.75 cm
overall: 11 5/8 in x 40 in x 14 1/2 in; 29.5275 cm x 101.6 cm x 36.83 cm
Object Name:
core sampler, box and parts
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 boxt of parts for a Piggott core sampler 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.314320
Accession number:
185754
Catalog number:
314320
See more items in:
Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
Data Source:
National Museum of American History
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b2-5bfa-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmah_1803011