Buckminster Fuller
Inventor of the geodesic dome and second World President of Mensa International.
He is best known for popularizing the geodesic dome, and carbon molecules called fullerenes were later named for their structural resemblance to his spheres.[1]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Richard Buckminster Fuller Jr.
- Born
- 12 July 1895
- Birthplace
- Milton, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Died
- 1 July 1983
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Occupation
- Designer
- author
- inventor
- Spouse
- Anne Hewlett (1917)
- Significant buildings
- Geodesic dome (1940s)
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Fuller was born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts, to a prosperous leather merchant and his wife.[2] After losing his job and facing financial hardship, Fuller contemplated suicide by drowning in Lake Michigan in 1927.[3] He instead chose to embark on an experiment to find what one individual could contribute to changing the world.[4] Fuller died on July 1, 1983, after suffering a heart attack while visiting his comatose wife in a Los Angeles hospital.[5][6]
Fuller's education included Milton Academy in Massachusetts and then Harvard University, from which he was expelled twice: the first time for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and the second time, after readmission, for "irresponsibility and lack of interest."[7] Anne Hewlett became Fuller's wife in 1917.[8]
What the cited sources add
Fuller invented the geodesic dome in the late 1940s to demonstrate ideas about housing and energetic-synergetic geometry developed during WWII.[9] Although Fuller predicted a million domes would be built by the mid-1980s, the actual number is closer to 50,000.[9] The Fuller Dome is referenced in the 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar," where a geodesic dome covers Manhattan and floats due to hot-air balloon effect.[10][9] On Fuller's gravestone at Mount Auburn Cemetery, the words "Trim tab" are inscribed.[6][11]
References
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Serebriakoff, "Mensa: The Society for the Highly Intelligent", Stein and Day, 1986, p. 299, 304; Staff, "The History of Mensa: Chapter 1: The Early Years (1945-1953)", Mensa Switzerland, 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sieden, "Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work", Basic Books, 2000 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sieden, "Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work", Basic Books, 1989, p. 87 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Design – A Three-Wheel Dream That Died at Takeoff – Buckminster Fuller and the Dymaxion Car", The New York Times, June 15, 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Krebs, "R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER, FUTURIST INVENTOR, DIES AT 87", The New York Times, 1983-07-03 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) Mount Auburn Cemetery", www.mountauburn.org; Kowalski, "Call me Trim Tab: Buckminster Fuller on Individuals Impacting Society", Sloww, 2020-03-06 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pawley, "Buckminster Fuller", Taplinger, 1991 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pawley, "Buckminster Fuller", Taplinger, 1991; Sieden, "Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work", Perseus Books Group, 2000, p. 84–85 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ: Geodesic Domes", Cjfearnley.com. facts only, no text reused. cjfearnley.com
- Wikipedia, "Buckminster Fuller" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ: Geodesic Domes", Cjfearnley.com (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Kowalski, "Call me Trim Tab: Buckminster Fuller on Individuals Impacting Society", Sloww, 2020-03-06. facts only, no text reused. sloww.co
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Buckminster Fuller (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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