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Inventors The Planet's Friendly Genius - Buckminster Fuller
By Mary Bellis

Richard Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller and His Beloved Geodesic Dome
July 12, 1895 - July 1, 1983

Inventors are among the few people on this planet who have the ability to change life for all of us. When this ability is combined with a true love of mankind's and the planet's future, it is truly a sign of a great soul. Richard Buckminster Fuller, inventor, engineer, architect, mathematician, designer, poet, and philosopher was a great soul and visionary who believed technology could save the World from itself, providing it was properly used.

In 1927, 'Bucky' Fuller had little reason to be optimistic about the future. The year found Bucky jobless and broke with a wife and newborn daughter Alegra, to support. His first daughter Alexandra had died four years previous and Buckminster Fuller was still living in mourning. He had attempted suicide and was drinking heavily. In the darkness of that year, Buckminster Fuller went through a spiritual rebirth that changed the course of his life. He decided to dedicate his life to finding out how much difference one man could make in the world.

Renouncing personal and financial gain, Buckminster Fuller entered two years of seclusion to begin in his own words:
 
  "the search for the principles governing the universe and help advance the evolution of humanity in accordance with them... finding ways of doing more with less to the end that all people everywhere can have more and more" 

From 1927 on, Buckminster Fuller considered his life a living-experiment; he even gave himself the nickname 'Guinea Pig B' to denote his new life-purpose.

Buckminster Fuller left his two-year seclusion with a new word on his lips 'Dymaxion', a contraction of the words 'dynamic', 'maximum' and 'ion' that to him represented resource-efficient and self-sustaining technologies. Under the Dymaxion ideal, Fuller developed a series of inventions from lightweight homes, streamlined cars to the geodesic dome.
 
Highlights of Buckminster Fuller's Inventions and Achievements
The Geodesic Dome
  • Bucky's most famous invention (patented in 1954) was the geodesic dome.
  • The geodesic dome combines the sphere, the most efficient container of volume per square foot, with the tetrahedron, which provides the greatest strength for the least volume of weight. 
  • The geodesic dome can withstand winds of 210 mph, while at the same time it is light and easily transportable.
  • Quick to build, a geodesic dome can be put up in hours.
  • A geodesic dome can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes far better than conventional buildings.
  • The geodesic dome is the only structure that actually gets stronger, lighter in density and cheaper per square foot with size.
  • Over 200,000 of such geodesic domes have been built.
  • People use geodesic domes as homes and shelter from pole to pole.
  • Famous Geodesic Domes: Walt Disney Epcot Center: Expo 67:
Click here for a QuickTime movie of a flying geodesic dome (2606k)
geodesic dome
The Birth of the Geodesic Dome: How Bucky Did It by Lloyd Steven Sieden (The Futurist, Vol.23, No.6, November - December 1989) article adapted from Buckminster Fuller's Universe: An Appreciation by Lloyd Steven Sieden 
Geodesic Domes
Great sites to read more about history, geometry, manufacturers, prototypes and other resources for domes.

Continue with Part Two >> Buckminster Fuller - The Planet's Friendly Genius

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