John Ernest Williamson

John Ernest Williamson (8 December 1881 – 15 July 1966) was an English filmmaker who invented the "photosphere" from which he filmed and photographed undersea. He is credited as being the first person to take an underwater photograph from a submarine.

Biography He was born in Liverpool, England 1881 to Charles Williamson, a sea captain from Norfolk, Virginia. Charles had invented a deep-sea tube, made of concentric iron rings, "which stretched like an accordion". The tube was used for underwater repair and for ship salvage. In 1912 Williamson, while working as a reporter, used the device to make underwater photographs in Norfolk Harbor.

Williamson created a film company, the Submarine Film Corporation. Their first feature film came out in 1914 and was entitled "Thirty Leagues Under the Sea" starring Williamson in a fight with a shark. The Uninvited Guest (1924) The Mysterious Island (1929) With Williamson Beneath the Sea (1932)