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.
Rebirth of an Inventor
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.

Dymaxion

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.
Geodesic Domes
After 1947, the geodesic dome dominated Buckminster Fuller’s life and career. Lightweight, cost-effective and easy to assemble, geodesic domes enclose more space without intrusive supporting columns than any other structure, efficiently distribute stress, and can withstand extremely harsh conditions. Based on Fuller’s “synergetic geometry,” his lifelong exploration of nature’s principles of design, the geodesic dome was the result of his revolutionary discoveries about balancing compression and tension forces in building. Fuller applied for a patent for the geodesic dome in 1951 and received it in 1954.
Source – About.com
Highlights of Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Dome

- Bucky’s most famous invention (invented 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
The Dymaxion Inventions – Dymaxion Air-Ocean Map

- This map was the first cartographic projection of the world to ever be granted a U.S. patent (1946).
- The map projected a spherical world as a flat surface with no visible distortion.
- The map brought Fuller to the attention of the scientific community in 1943.
The Dymaxion Inventions – Dymaxion Houses

- Dymaxion houses areheated and cooled by natural means. Dymaxion houses were self-powered.
- Dymaxion houses are earthquake and storm-proof.
- Dymaxion houses are made of permanent, engineered-materials that required no maintenance.
- Dymaxion houses are easy to clean and dust free.
- Flexible design allowed floor to change at the inhabitants’ whim.
- Today a Dymaxion house would cost $40,000 to build.
Dymaxion Car

- A fatal accident stymied the invention of the Dymaxion car. The patented 1937, Dymaxion car was intended to later fly, when suitable alloys and engines became available.
- As a car, it averaged 30 miles per gallon.
- The Dymaxion car carried eleven passengers.
- A smaller five-passenger Dymaxion car was made in 1943.
- The Dymaxion car speed along at 120 miles per hour.


World Peace Game

Fuller organized the World Peace Game as an aid to help teach a win-win attitude of distributing the world’s resources.

R. Buckminster Fuller
July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983
Source:
http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventors/a/Bucky.htm


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