Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1886 — Light Two Miles Under Water. [ARTICLE]

Light Two Miles Under Water.

In the Lake of Geneva Messrs. Fol and Sarasin found sufficient light to affect very sensitive photographic plates at about five hundred and fifty feet, the light at that depth being about equal at mid-day to that at the surface on a clear moonless night. In the Mediterranean during bright sunlight the last trace of light was lost at a depth of 1,300 feet. But an examination of the eyes of certain crustaceans lately dredged from the abyssmal regions of the Atlantic convinces Prof. IS. 1. Smith that despite the objections of physicists, some light probably reaches even beyond 12,000 feet. He thinks that, on account of the purity of the water in mid-ocean, light might reach this depth as readily as 3,000 feet or even 1 ; 200 feet near the shore.