Fuller

Richard Buckminster Fuller

Born: 12 July 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts, USA
Died: 1 July 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA

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Known as R. Buckminster Fuller, he was an engineer, mathematician and architect. Twice expelled from Harvard University, business disasters and the death of his four year old daughter brought him close to suicide. However he decided to devote himself to proving that

technology could save the World from itself, providing it is properly used .

He examined a vectorial system of geometry, Energetic- Synergetic geometry, based on the tetrahedron which provides maximum strength with minimum structure. This led to his patent of a geodesic dome in 1947, a building the strength of which need only increase as the log of its size. Over 200 000 of such domes have been built.

Fuller was research professor at Carbondale, Southern Illinois University, from 1959 to 1968. In 1968 he became a university professor and retired in 1975.

References:

  1. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  2. A C Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation: The
  3. Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (1987).
  4. L S Seiden, Buckminster Fuller's Universe (1989).
  5. M Pawley, Buckminster Fuller (1990).
  6. R B Fuller, Buckminster Fuller : an autobiographical monologue (New York, 1980).
  7. A C Edmondson, Who was Buckminster Fuller, anyway?, American heritage of invention and technology 3 (2) (1988), 18-25.
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JOC/EFR February 1996