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<DIV>See Wikipedia for more on Bruce Beasley. Excerpt below:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=1970s class=mw-headline><FONT size=3>1970s</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>Fascinated by the esthetics of transparency, Beasley worked in cast acrylic
for the next ten years. In 1974, members of the undersea research community
approached Beasley to see if he could adapt his technique to cast transparent
bathyspheres for undersea exploration. He succeeded in creating the bathyspheres
for <A title="Johnson Sea Link"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Sea_Link">Johnson Sea Link</A>
submersibles for <A title="Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbor_Branch_Oceanographic_Institute">Harbor
Branch Oceanographic Institute</A>.<SUP id=cite_ref-6 class=reference><A
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Beasley#cite_note-6"><SPAN>[</SPAN>6<SPAN>]</SPAN></A></SUP>
It was these submersibles that were deployed to locate the crew compartment on
the bottom of the ocean after the Space Shuttle <I><A
title="Space Shuttle Challenger"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger">Challenger</A></I>
disintegrated upon liftoff in 1986.</P>
<P>Beasley continued to make transparent sculpture for the next ten years. His
transparent sculptures were exhibited widely both in the US and abroad including
solo exhibitions in 1972 at the <A title="DeYoung Museum" class=mw-redirect
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeYoung_Museum">DeYoung Museum</A> in San
Francisco, the <A title="Santa Barbara Museum of Art"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Barbara_Museum_of_Art">Santa Barbara
Museum of Art</A>, the <A title="San Diego Museum of Art"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Museum_of_Art">San Diego Museum of
Art</A>, and group shows including the <A title="Salon de Mai"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_de_Mai">Salon de Mai</A> in Paris and
at <A title="Expo 70" class=mw-redirect
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_70">Expo 70</A> in <A title=Osaka
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka">Osaka</A>, <A title=Japan
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan">Japan</A>.</P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 10/12/2013 8:00:18 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
jon.wallace@yahoo.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>Nice job
Alan. I always wondered where he was, he seemed to disappear after his
work with Stachiw ended. We should see if he's interested in being a
guest speaker for a future
conference.<BR><BR>--------------------------------------------<BR>On Sat,
10/12/13, Alan <alanlindsayjames@yahoo.com> wrote:<BR><BR>Subject:
[PSUBS-MAILIST] Bruce Beasley Acrylic Casting<BR>To: "Personal Submersibles
General Discussion" <personal_submersibles@psubs.org><BR>Date: Saturday,
October 12, 2013, 1:26 AM<BR><BR>While in San Francisco I looked up<BR>Bruce
Beasley's contact details.<BR>He is one of Americas pre- eminent sculptures
& a<BR>pioneer in casting thick sectioned acrylic.<BR>I thought I was
heading to his gallery but it ended up being<BR>his home & studio.<BR>For
those who are unfamiliar with the story, Bruce was<BR>attracted to acrylic as
a sculpting<BR>medium but no one had cast it more than two inches thick.
He<BR>managed to cast a 4" thick <BR>model of a proposed 13ft x 4ft art work
that he submitted<BR>for a competition for a State of California
public<BR>sculpture. The judges awarded him the prize & finance
to<BR>built it. Unbeknown<BR>to them the technology to make it didn't exist.
<BR>Du Pont the acrylic manufacturer told Bruce they couldn't<BR>offer him
technical assistance as he had already exceeded<BR>what their chemists could
achieve, but would supply him the<BR>raw product free.<BR>He observed the
formation of bubbles in the polymerising<BR>acrylic through windows in an
autoclave & discovered how<BR>to eliminate them & the cracking, that
were the Achilles<BR>heel of the process. 2 castings later he created The 13ft
x<BR>4ft casting. He said if he hadn't have made it he could have<BR>been
sued. <BR>It was at that point that Jerry Stachiw from the U.S.
navy<BR>approached him to make thick acrylic spheres for deep
diving<BR>submersibles. There were several failures before success<BR>&
the price tag on these failures was the equivalent of<BR>a new
VW.<BR> Anyway he ushered me in to his living room<BR>&
chatted away. I have a background in art<BR>so we related well, & he ended
up giving me a book which<BR>was a retrospective of his
sculpture,<BR>including the story of his acrylic sculpture. I think he
was<BR>quite impressed that someone from N.Z.<BR>knew his story & had
tracked him down.<BR>He still has the secrets to manufacturing large castings
if<BR>anyone wants to purchase the technology.<BR>So again I've been totally
spoilt.<BR>Alan<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Sent from my
iPad<BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Personal_Submersibles
mailing
list<BR>Personal_Submersibles@psubs.org<BR>http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles<BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Personal_Submersibles
mailing
list<BR>Personal_Submersibles@psubs.org<BR>http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>