What's so great about Buckminster Fuller

[daepp]

Ok - they name a molecule after him. But his houses, his cars - they were all very futuristic, but no one ever bought them. Why is he so important - have you ever seen his houses? Thrown out of Harvard, Bankrupt, left investors hanging, probably responsible for the death of his daughter, and he didn't even invent the Geodesic dome.

Sorry - rant over. Saw one of his houses this weekend in Deerborn and had a major WTF moment.

[RWebb]

it's cuz he's got tensegrity

[on2wheels52]

Perhaps he had a good PR man.
Jim

[Por_sha911]

He didn't invent "Bucky Balls" but he was the one that made them work in real applications & he was smart enough to get the patent.
Edison had an army of scientists working for him but he got the credit for the patents... http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledisonmuckers4.htm

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by DAEpperson

and he didn't even invent the Geodesic dome.

But he was awarded the patents.

Ian

[LWJ]

I have wondered the exact same thing. This year in fact. I picked up a book he wrote that makes me wonder if he was "tripping" back then. Book is titled "I seem to be a verb." More than a little weird. Not like I am giving this book away however. It is weird enough to keep.

Larry

[azasadny]

Cool name....

[GLASEM]

You've got to come to the Henry Ford museum and see his house that he tried to market after WWII

Someone who was really engineering out of the box

[fred cook]

The car that Bucky designed and built. It used a Ford flathead engine mounted as a midengine, two front wheels and one in the rear. Extremely aerodynamic, could carry 6 or 7 people and got very high fuel mileage for the 1930s. He worked in/on transportation, housing and who knows what else. One of the rare minds of his time.

[Embraer]

Originally Posted by glasem

you've got to come to the henry ford museum and see his house that he tried to market after wwii

someone who was really engineering out of the box

+1

[nostatic]

Brilliant mind who thought globally and was thinking about doing more with less and helping others long before it was fashionable.

[kach22i]

RE: What's so great about Buckminster Fuller

I guess you either get it, or you don't.

[daepp]

Ok - I toured the Henry Ford Museum last Friday (I get what an awesome place that it is!!!) and I grew up thinking the guy was brilliant, but seeing his Dymaxion House and learning of his real biograpy finally got me thinking about who he really was.

What did he do that made him brilliant?

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by DAEpperson

What did he do that made him brilliant?

Read Critical Path.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Certainly a fellow with a lot of ideas. Some way ahead of their time. Some just damned weird.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by RWebb

it's cuz he's got tensegrity

"The concept of tensegrity was first realized by the sculptor Kenneth Snelson, who began constructing structures in 1948 and showed them to Buckminster Fuller. The term "tensegrity" was coined from the phrase "tensional integrity" by Fuller, who proposed that the method could be applied to large architectural domes. However, the flexibility of the result is not suitable for most space-enclosing purposes, and has found much more interesting application in sculpture."

Fuller did construct one, meant to function as a broadcast antenna tower.

Years ago I constructed and photorealistically rendered a 3D model of a tensegrity tower using AutoCad and Accurender. It was replete with eyes at the ends of the rigid elements, cable clamps and threaded turnbuckles.

I printed out several views and it was a kick showing them around the office to the engineers, some of whom had never heard of Bucky Fuller.

Some of them would frown, studying a view and muttering, Wait a minute, that can't work, while trying to figure out how 'that can't work'.

Several of them said, That's an optical illusion. Then I'd show them the other views. Some would figure it out and say, That is really cool! Some would give it a blank look, then just walk away. You know how some engineers are.

[jcommin]

Didn't he design buildings for the US military near the north pole?

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by fred cook

The car that Bucky designed and built. It used a Ford flathead engine mounted as a midengine, two front wheels and one in the rear. Extremely aerodynamic, could carry 6 or 7 people and got very high fuel mileage for the 1930s. He worked in/on transportation, housing and who knows what else. One of the rare minds of his time.

You mean the POS that was unsafe to drive at anything near 50 mph because it handled so badly? the one that killed the driver when it inexplicibly went into a high speed wobble for no reason?
Maybe he should have gotten a patent on the caster.

Fuller was a hypester. He "invented" things that stirred the imagination, he got people thinking, he apealed to their emotional senses.
Most of his crap didn't make any sense but it made people feel good.
Some folks revere him because they value that emotional appeal.
Others ignore the "feel good" stuff and see bucky's "stuff" for what it was.

He got kicked out of harvard twice.
He failed at everything he tried until he learned how to seperate investors from their money.
IMO he missed his true calling, hawking snake oil.

If you can't do, teach.
If you can't teach, preach.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

...If you can't do, teach.
If you can't teach, preach.
And if your so stoopid you can't do any of the above, get bitter and angry and rant and rave ignorantly like I do!

'Fixed it for you' sammy.

Sadly, some people leave one with only the lowest common denominator with which to respond, or remain silent.

I chose to speak up and 'fix it for you'. Sad, really sad.

[daepp]

I think sammys got it right. Ithink Fuller was something of a shyster.