4 Years of Deterioration
2®Upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy, newly commissioned Ensign R. Buckminster Fuller was assigned to the transport Finland and given a week’s leave. He very much wanted both to spend more time with his bride and to vacation on his beloved Bear Island during that period. Since they had been married less than one year and had spent little time together, Bucky felt a true honeymoon was in order. He did not, however, take his wife’s preferences into account. Thus, they spent the week on rugged Bear Island, where the refined Anne felt quite out of place.1
3 Certainly, Bucky’s self-assured, cocky aplomb helped him overcome obstacles and lack of support for his work and ideas over the years; however, that same characteristic had a negative side which invariably cropped up over the years. His self-confidence often resulted in his letting the feelings of others---especially women---go unnoticed. Although he was not intentionally unloving or inconsiderate, Bucky often believed that his view of reality was best and that everyone would naturally want what he wanted.
4 That attitude was especially true when he was a young man, but even in his later years, Bucky, like so many talented eccentrics, was frequently so consumed with his ideas that he did not seriously consider the thoughts or feelings of others. Even though on an altruistic level he felt that every-one’s opinions were equally valid and that each person had something to offer, the practical side of Fuller often prevailed and brushed aside the feelings of some individuals in his attempt to be as supportive of as many people as possible.
5 An arrogant, chauvinistic attitude was not uncommon among Ameri-can men at the turn of the century, and Bucky was no exception. The problem was most noticeable in the low regard many men of that era held for women’s feelings, and again, Fuller conformed to the conventional pattern. Although he worked on eliminating attitudes of prejudice within himself throughout his life, Bucky never truly broke free from the tradi-tional chauvinistic posture engendered by his tum-of-the-century upbring-ing. Even in his later years, Fuller’s universally insightful lectures were tarnished by references to ‘‘girls’’ or ‘‘gals’’ when he spoke of women.
6 Despite that characteristic, Anne remained faithful to him, fulfilling the qualities and attitudes of her own upbringing. She had been raised as a lady in the genteel refinement of Long Island and followed her husband to their Bear Island ‘‘honeymoon’’ even though she found the idea op-pressive. Unlike Bucky, Anne did not enjoy the rugged outdoors, bathing in icy water, using outhouses, and cooking on an old wood stove. Yet, despite her aversion to the wilds, she faithfully followed her husband and accepted his bidding without question, as she would continue doing for the next sixty-five years.2
7 Upon returning to New York, Bucky learned that the Finland had been torpedoed and was being repaired in drydock. Then fortune shone upon him, as that chance incident resulted in his being reassigned as a communications officer on the staff of Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves in Hoboken, New Jersey. Admiral Gleaves commanded all naval cruiser and transport operations, and after only a few weeks, the Admiral took a liking to Bucky, appointing him ‘‘personal aide for secret information.’’ In that position, Bucky intimately participated in the most extensive and suc-cessful transport effort until that time.3
8 Admiral Gleaves and his staff were responsible for the safe passage of two million troops, and the supplies required for their support, from the United States to Europe despite a legion of German submarines and ships patrolling the Atlantic Ocean. Even though that mission was extremely hazardous, the convoys were so well planned that not a single soldier traveling to Europe was lost to enemy action at sea. A few ships were sunk on return trips because those voyages were not escorted by destroyers and cruisers but, on the whole, that operation was considered an enormous success.4
9 Sailing schedules were planned in great detail and secrecy. As the individual responsible for maintaining secret information, Fuller was ex-pected to know the location of every American ship at sea and to send a report to the chief of naval operations each day. He was also the person who communicated with those ships on a daily basis, using a crude radio system which had just become practical. Because of the major conse-quences of his work, Fuller quickly began to observe a regimen of always transmitting precise messages.5 He realized that a misunderstood message could result in fatal actions, death, and destruction. A completely unin-telligible message, on the other hand, would result in a request for resend-ing rather than disaster. Accordingly, Bucky resolved that it was much better if his communications were completely incomprehensible rather than misunderstood.6
10 Because of that decision, he began disciplining himself to send ex-tremely precise communication which included as much information as possible using a minimum of words, and from that time on, Fuller’s language was very exacting. He perpetually worked on employing only the most accurate words and paying particular attention to not being misunderstood.7
11 As a result of the vast amount of planning involved in that operation, Bucky began to consider seriously the details of large-scale patterns and global strategies for the first time.8 That assignment also spawned an idea which would transform his perception of reality and support his initiative to contribute as much as possible to the well-being of all humanity.9
12 Fuller’s wartime idea was to concentrate the same intensity of plan-ning and thought on supporting life as was being focused on the destruc-tive power of war. Years later he externalized the idea and named his creation the ‘‘World Game.’’ World Game is an educational exploratory experience in which participants consider problems from a comprehensive perspective.10
13 Although Fuller chose to use the word game in its title, World Game is actually a serious undertaking. The title first came to mind during his naval tour of duty when he encountered officers who discussed the man-agement of global resources for destruction and domination, calling their planning war games. Bucky felt that if the same energy and commitment of resources were devoted to constructive purposes, great advances in human development would ensue. Thus, he coined the term World Game as an alternative to military war games.11
14 During his naval career, Bucky also became aware of the navy’s precise system of filing communications chronologically and the benefits that system afforded in preserving information for future use. He found that, like most people, he was usually able to remember the approximate time frame of an event, and from such recollections, specific documents filed chronologically could usually be located without much effort.12
15 Like many young children, Bucky had been a collector. However, his collection was somewhat unusual. At the age of five, he had begun accumulating articles from newspapers, magazines, letters, and other mis-cellaneous sources which focused on his primary interests, the wonders of ‘‘modem’’ technology. At first, the collection was simply a scrapbook of fascinating inventions; however, as he grew older, Bucky began to in-clude his reactions as well as his observations of others’ reactions to the technology that so interested him.13
16 In the navy, Bucky began to understand just how valuable such a record could be if it was maintained in a fashion which was easily accessi-ble. The method used for filing naval communications provided a perfect model for that system, and Fuller adapted it to his work. Thus, he began preserving all his personal written material plus a great deal of information gleaned from other sources.14
17 Over the years, that collection would be expanded to include copies of his lectures and pieces done about him in all media, including audio and video recordings. He labeled the archive his ‘‘Chronofile,’’ and today it remains an enormous resource for humanity. Fuller’s Chronofile helped him determine and understand large-scale patterns operating throughout Universe and to recall his feelings about the rapid changes occurring around him.15 The Chronofile could also provide a personal and encom-passing view of human development to future generations who might someday discover and explore it. In it they would be able to examine the experiences of one individual living through and being deeply involved in the technological and cultural innovations of most of the twentieth century.
18 In the fall of 1918, Ensign Fuller was reassigned to sea duty with the transport fleet he had been monitoring for Admiral Gleaves, and on No-vember 11 of that same year, the Armistice was signed and World War I ended. His naval career was, however, far from complete. He loved both the navy and the new technology which he experienced in the navy.16 That exposure continued when he was transferred to the post of commu-nications officer on the George Washington, a ship being reconditioned and refurbished to carry President and Mrs. Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference. As communications officer, Fuller worked closely with a group of technicians installing a state-of-the-art, long-distance wireless telephone.17
19 The bulky equipment he had worked with only months earlier on the Inca had a maximum range of seventy miles, but this new equipment was said to facilitate the transmission of transoceanic voice messages. Al-though few people believed that such a development was possible within only months, Fuller remained both curious and open-minded. Naturally, when the George Washington sailed to Paris, the inquisitive communica-tions officer was assisting with the new technology as well as observing every nuance of its operation. He was even present on the momentous day President Wilson made the first true long-distance telephone call, speak-ing from the ship anchored in the French harbor at Brest to the government wireless installation at Arlington, Virginia.18
20 When the George Washington was decommissioned in early 1919, Admiral Gleaves asked Fuller, who had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant junior grade, to rejoin his staff aboard the flagship USS Seattle. The Admiral had just been given command of the entire Asiatic Squadron and wanted Bucky to accompany him on an extensive tour of the South Pacific.19
21 That offer loomed as an exciting possibility for the adventurous Fuller, but a more important factor took precedence. On December 12, 1918, shortly after he had returned from an Atlantic crossing, Anne had given birth to their first child, a daughter they named Alexandra.20
22 Alexandra was frail from birth, and her health was complicated by the fact that serious epidemics were claiming thousands of lives in a matter of days or weeks. Although Bucky loved the sea, when the choice arose between staying with his daughter and wife or following the adven-ture of the navy, Bucky chose his family.21 Anne may not have relished the possibility of a vagabond life following Bucky from port to port, but she probably would have done so for him. What persuaded Bucky to resign his commission and stay with his family was the realization that the fragile Alexandra could not possibly survive so much traveling, and that if he sailed off with the fleet, he would most likely never see her alive again.
23 Bucky’s intuition was correct. Even as he was processing out of the navy, Alexandra contracted and nearly died from the influenza epidemic which swept the country.22
24 Although that was a difficult period for the small family, Bucky was able to obtain a new position with his former employer, Armour and Company. Because of his experience, the company made him assistant export manager at the handsome salary of $50 a week. Yet, even with his excellent salary, the family faced financial difficulties because of Alex-andra’s ongoing illnesses. Following her bout with influenza, she came down with spinal meningitis and then polio, and even though cures for those diseases were not then available, Alexandra demonstrated the Fuller tenacity by surviving them all.23
25 She did, however, require a great deal of constant care, which Bucky and Anne personally provided along with the assistance of a series of home nurses. It was during those long sessions sitting with their sickly daughter that Bucky began to notice an unusual phenomenon which would greatly influence the rest of his life. He and Anne frequently passed the time watching over Alexandra by discussing topics which were far too complicated for a young child to understand, and during one such conver-sation, Bucky was startled to hear Alexandra suddenly utter words which had just entered his thoughts.24
26 That phenomenon continued and escalated in intensity to the point where Alexandra sometimes offered sophisticated answers to questions Bucky had scarcely formulated in his mind. After weeks of observing and considering her actions, Bucky and Anne began to believe that Alex-andra’s physical restrictions were, in fact, contributing to the amazing events they were witnessing.25
27 Bucky theorized that because of her severe physical limitations, Al-exandra had begun to develop in ways which were different from most children. He observed that her primary mode of expression and learning was metaphysical rather than physical, and he felt that one of the most conspicuous indications of her growth in that area was her rapid develop-ment of telepathic communication.
28 Fuller would continue his examination of that phenomenon for the balance of his life and came to believe that everyone is capable of tele-pathic communication.26 He hypothesized that Alexandra had mastered telepathy quickly because she was young and had not yet been conditioned to disregard or disbelieve metaphysical possibilities. He also came to feel that every human being is born with the innate capacity to operate within the realms of the metaphysical, but that most people rapidly unlearn those abilities as they grow older and become more socialized.27
29 Following his experiences with Alexandra, Fuller was convinced that telepathic communication is not a mysterious power possessed by a few gifted individuals. He also reasoned that if telepathic communication did occur, it had to be governed by the generalized principles which are operational throughout all Universe, and that by discovering and studying those principles, he could better understand telepathy.28 Since so few people embraced or accepted telepathy or the metaphysical, Fuller specu-lated that those generalized principles were largely unknown or misin-terpreted. After all, once an individual grasped the principles responsible for a phenomenon, he or she would naturally accept and utilize that phenomenon.
30 Fuller initiated his quest to learn about the principles governing the metaphysical following his telepathic encounters with Alexandra. He first examined telepathy and its relationship to known wave-pattern phe-nomena. At the time, human knowledge of invisible wave patterns was primarily limited to radio waves which were at least one mile long. Short-wave radio was not discovered until the 1930s, and the even shorter waves, such as those used in television and satellite transmission, were not discovered until very recently.29
31 Fuller’s explorations in the 1920s and 1930s led him to theorize that such short waves existed, and he further concluded that even shorter ultra-ultra-high-frequency waves were also a possibility.30 Those very short waves became the foundation for his ideas concerning telepathy and the generalized principles which govern it.31
32 In the years following his initial consideration of telepathy, Fuller addressed thousands of audiences and often recounted that during every talk, he experienced meaningful nonverbal communication between his eyes and the eyes of audience members. Although he did not claim to understand all the implications and details surrounding that communica-tion, he did feel that it was related to telepathy and could be explained by the generalized principles governing waves.32
33 In the last years of his life Fuller was not surprised to learn that scientists had determined that very-short-wave energy could, in fact, be transmitted from one location to another. Years earlier, he had speculated that the human brain functions in a similar manner, transmitting and receiving short wave messages through people’s eyes. According to Full-er’s hypothesis, those invisible messages are received through one per-son’s eyes and transferred to his or her brain, where they are deciphered. Once inside the brain, wave pattern signals are translated into tangible images which the brain can understand. Because human brains deal ex-clusively in sensory information (as delineated by the Fuller distinction between brain and mind) and those wave-pattern transmissions cannot be consciously experienced by the human sensory system, most people as-some that the data received through unseen short waves emanate from some magical source, usually referred to as the paranormal.33
34 By examining that phenomenon within the context of humanity’s most advanced scientific data, Fuller came to believe that telepathy is actually the result of information transmission via invisible short waves. Accordingly, he felt it could be explained by the generalized principles which govern all wave patterns.34 He hypothesized that individuals who are more sensitive to and accepting of such transmissions convert them into what humans regard as conscious awareness. Because such people perceive wave energy transmissions in almost the same manner they per-ceive information transmitted over more conventional channels, such as speech and sight, they react to both forms in a similar manner.35
35 Since Alexandra was not trained to distinguish between conven-tionally accepted means of transmission and metaphysical telepathic trans-missions, she naturally accepted both as authentic. Consequently, Fuller believed that she responded as quickly to his thoughts as she did to his words.36
36 Although Alexandra’s illness placed a constant strain on the Fullers, both the Fuller and Hewlett families helped the struggling couple by contributing funds toward nurses and medicine as well as assistance when-ever possible. With that support, Alexandra’s condition gradually began to improve. Unfortunately, the Fullers found that their daughter’s im-provement tended to be a cyclical phenomenon. One week she might be able to move about the house under her own power, but only a few days later she might be bedridden again. During the periods of relative healthiness, Bucky and Anne would allow themselves some diversion and particularly enjoyed going out with old friends.
37 Anne’s father would take them out on what they called the ‘‘Bohe-mian circuit,’’ socializing with some of New York’s ‘‘struggling artists.’’ On one such foray, Mr. Hewlett took them to a tiny restaurant which had just opened south of Washington Square. In the cafe, they encountered only two other people: the owner and proprietor, a woman named Romany Marie, and a pale young man introduced as Eugene O’Neill. The entire evening was devoted to conversation with those two unique individuals. Although O’Neill soon became well known as a major American play-wright, it was Romany Marie who would significantly influence Bucky, becoming his close friend and confidante during the most difficult years of his life.37
38 Other diversions from the hardships of Alexandra’s illness included
39 the regular evenings spent at the Hewlett family home. The family was always putting on shows to celebrate birthdays or other occasions, and Bucky loved being at the center of the action. He had always enjoyed parties and would dress up in ridiculous costumes and recite comic verses he had written especially for an event.38 That gift for writing witty verse which enlivened a gathering remained throughout his life. For decades, his presence generally lifted the mood of parties, and those who were privileged to share Bucky’s lighter side remembered it dearly.
40 Despite the family’s best efforts to maintain Alexandra’s health, New York winters took their toll on the baby’s well-being. Apartments and houses of that era tended to be drafty and cold. To alleviate Alexandra’s having to suffer through those conditions, Bucky and Anne decided to send her to a warmer climate during the winter of 1921-1922. As export manager at Armour, Bucky had many foreign connections, and he was able to rent an inexpensive house in Bermuda for Anne and Alexandra.39
41 While his wife and daughter were wintering in Bermuda, Bucky sought upward mobility in a new job. An old friend of his had been appointed president of die Kelly-Springfield Truck Company and offered Bucky the prestigious position of national accounts sales manager. As the salary was considerably more than he was making at Armour, Fuller jumped at the opportunity.
42 Then, in the first of what would be a lifelong series of unpleasant confrontations with big business, working for other people, and pursuing endeavors for financial gain, that apparently logical decision turned sour within a few months. What neither Fuller nor his friend knew when they began working for Kelly-Springfield was that its parent company, J. P. Morgan and Company, had, months earlier, made a decision to close down the company.40
43 Even though Fuller increased sales dramatically during his three-month tenure as sales manager and the company was on an upswing, Morgan’s earlier decision was uncompromising. Thus, in the summer of 1922, Bucky found himself unemployed, and he blamed his problem on the inconsiderate masters of industry, whom he would later refer to as ‘‘the great pirates.’’41 Only with the perspective of many more decades and numerous jobs would Fuller eventually realize that his temperament was simply not suited to working for someone else, and that he was far more successful when he was self-employed and in total control of his time and endeavors.
44 Still, as a young man with a family to support, Bucky was extremely depressed, and he began finding solace in something which had been a part of his wilder youth: alcohol. In his earlier years, he had frequently partied and got drunk with friends, but when Alexandra was bom, he made a conscious decision to stop that behavior and become a better parental role model. The combination of his financial problems and his daughter’s failing health, however, caused Fuller to turn back to drinking as an escape from reality.42
45 When Alexandra returned from Bermuda stronger and healthier than ever, Bucky felt encouraged. He was also pleased that support from a network of family and friends was beginning to materialize. His former naval comrades rescued Bucky from his financial dilemma by offering to have him temporarily restored to active naval duty in the New York area, and he quickly accepted an interim assignment commanding Eagle Boat Number 15 during naval-reserve summer training.43
46 Number 15 was part of a squadron of Eagle Boats (i.e., a ship regarded as a hybrid between a destroyer escort and a PT boat) com-manded by a very rich naval reserve officer, twenty-six-year-old Vincent Astor.44 Astor was a tall, thin young man who had inherited approx-imately $70 million on his twenty-first birthday and who appeared to be the antithesis of the short, impoverished Fuller. However, in actuality, the two young men found that they had a great deal in common and quickly became close friends. Astor then chose Number 15 as his flagship for the summer.45
47 Both Fuller and Astor were avid sailors who took their military duties seriously but were inclined to devote an equal amount of energy to party-ing and having a good time. Accordingly, the two men truly enjoyed touring New York harbor with their summer flotilla. They even went so far as to present the New York police commissioner with an honorary appointment in their squadron. In return, the police commissioner desig-nated them honorary captains in the New York City Police Department, a distinction which included an impressive gold badge.46
48 That post actually did provide Bucky with two benefits. First, he was able to function as a police officer during the New York World Series, when he was permitted to put on a uniform and patrol the stands. Bucky’s ‘‘beat’’ was the nonsmoking section of the stadium, where he made sure people did not smoke during the game. The other benefit was the ability to engage his passion for fast cars without incurring tickets or fines. When-ever a New York police officer would stop him for speeding, he would simply show his police badge, and the unwitting policeman had no choice but to salute and apologize for the inconvenience.47
49 When the naval reserve flotilla was disbanded in September, Fuller and Astor remained close friends, with Astor taking Bucky to society parties and Bucky returning the favor by showing Astor the Bohemian life of Greenwich Village. It was at one such event that Astor offered Bucky the use of his private seaplane for the month of October.48
50 Astor and Fuller had used the plane to fly to various parties during the summer, and Bucky was fascinated with the machine. Because Astor had to travel to Europe for the month of October, his private plane and pilot were free, and thus, the impoverished Fuller became master of one of only two such custom-built flying boats.49
51 Since Alexandra’s health continued to improve, Bucky and Anne were able to leave her with family and nurses for days while they flew to weddings and other gatherings up and down the eastern seaboard. Natu-rally, a couple using Vincent Astor’s private plane was the delight of the social set, and the Fullers found themselves written up extensively in society columns. The most joyous of those October plane trips for Bucky was their journey to Bear Island. Staying for over a week, theirs was the first plane ever to spend more than a few hours on Penobscot Bay. Every day during that stay, Bucky flew to a different local site, and wherever the plane touched down, crowds gathered.50
52 Then, October ended, and Bucky was abruptly returned to a far less glamorous reality. It had been a joyous month, but he was deeply in debt and without a job or any prospects.51
53 Once again Fuller became depressed and despondent, and a few days prior to the Yale-Harvard football game he decided to take his mind off his troubles by attending that game with friends. On a beautiful November day, Anne and Alexandra walked him down to the station near their Long Island home to catch the train for Boston and the game. As canes were in fashion and his football knee injury had left him with a slightly wobbly leg, Bucky walked with a cane.52
54 Throughout his life, Bucky never forgot that day and the walk re-counting football stories to his nearly four-year-old daughter. He de-scribed to her the scene of singing school songs, cheering for the team, and the heroic athletes on the field. He also described a picture of thou-sands of fans cheering from the stands and waving school pennants at-tached to small canes which were sold at the gates.53
55 Before he got on the train, little Alexandra looked up and asked, ‘‘Daddy, will you bring me a cane?’’ Bucky promised he would bring back the souvenir as he set off for an enjoyable day of football and friends.54
56 Harvard won that day, and Bucky spent most of his time lost in drink, camaraderie, and parties, forgetting his troubles as well as his family on Long Island. When he arrived in Pennsylvania Station in New York the following afternoon, Bucky telephoned Anne, who could barely speak. She told him that Alexandra had suffered a relapse and was in a coma. Stunned, Bucky caught the next train to Long Island. Arriving home, he found Alexandra still unconscious and a doctor doing all he could to save her life.55
57 Bucky could only sit near her bed looking on helplessly as the doctor and nurses continued their work well into the night. Eventually, the situa-tion calmed down, but Alexandra’s condition did not improve. Then, in the early hours before dawn, she opened her eyes and smiled up at Bucky. As he bent close to his daughter, Bucky heard her tiny voice ask, ‘‘Dad-dy, did you bring me my cane?’’56
58 Fuller could only tum away in shame and agony. In the furor of drinking and celebrating, he had forgotten his daughter’s simple request. Following her question, Alexandra closed her eyes for the last time and died in her father’s arms a few hours later. Bucky never forgave himself for that incident, which, even in the last years of his life, would bring tears of remorse to his eyes.57
59 A portion of the guilt he felt did resolve itself in a 1967 incident. After decades of pragmatically studying spiritual and metaphysical phe-nomena, Fuller felt he was able to appreciate and interpret the intercon-nectedness of that event and the death of his daughter over a half century earlier.
60 In 1967, he was spending time on the island of Bali, where he felt quite at home. His Balinese hosts also felt that he had some deeper connection to them and their homeland, and they invited him to join in visiting a prominent artist friend who lived in a remote house far up in the hills. The only means of reaching the artist was to hike up a volcanic mountain, which was constantly being pounded by rainstorms. At the age of seventy-two, Fuller found that the journey was not easy, and his native friends helped him whenever possible.58
61 Returning down the slippery slopes following a tremendous rain-storm was even more difficult, and one of his Balinese friends cut down a bamboo strip and fashioned a staff for Bucky. When they returned home, Bucky’s guide asked if he could have that staff, and Bucky gave it to him. The following morning the guide approached Fuller and said, ‘‘All of us, we Balinese, are saying that you are not a stranger. You were here long, long ago and you have just come back to us. Sol have set aside a room in my house and put your staff in it. Nobody will ever go into that room again because your cane is there.’’59
62 That traditional honor of permanently maintaining a room for him moved Bucky very deeply. He was even more touched by the fact that his guide and friend chose to keep a symbolic cane in that room. That gesture provided Fuller with an enormous sense of relief which he later described in detail.60
63 Fuller recounted, ‘‘I said to myself, this is a very mysterious thing. All those years and all those things that have happened since little Alex-andra died. Now somehow I feel intuitively that this is a kind of message. That she has her cane at last.’’61
64 Alexandra’s death in the late fall of 1922 marked the onset of what Bucky would later describe as ‘‘a winter of horror.’’ Only months later, Anne’s mother succumbed to illness and died, devastating the large fami-ly, especially Anne’s father. As the eldest daughter, Anne felt obligated to assist her father, and the Fullers were soon living in the Hewlett family homestead while Anne managed the household and cared for her young brothers and sisters.62
65 Meanwhile, Bucky was becoming ever more distant and depressed. That attitude did not make him much of a companion, much less a pro-spective employee, and he remained unemployed.63
66 Fuller continued to dwell on his responsibility in Alexandra’s death. During months of solitary contemplation, he even convinced himself that if he had only provided her with a home which was not so damp and drafty, she would have survived. Learning of other family members and friends who were dying from the epidemics regularly sweeping the coun-try only reinforced Fuller’s misguided notion that drafty houses were primarily responsible for the problem.64 Accordingly, when he found an opportunity to do something about redesigning housing, Bucky jumped at it. Anne’s father, James Monroe Hewlett, had been working on a new form of building construction over the years, and he had eventually in-vented a technology which produced structures of enormous strength and insulation capacity at a fraction of the cost of conventional construction techniques.65
67 Mr. Hewlett had spent a great deal of time attempting to interest others in his idea, with no success. Bucky was not so difficult to convince. Being extremely naive about business and having no experience with starting a new enterprise, he perceived Mr. Hewlett’s idea as a real oppor-tunity. By introducing it to the general public, he could dramatically improve housing while also earning a living. With that honorable intention as his primary goal, Bucky told Mr. Hewlett that he would be responsible for implementation of the new technology.66 Thus, Fuller entered into the first of what would be many new ventures focused on providing less expensive, more efficient shelter for the benefit of humanity.
68 The foundation of Mr. Hewlett’s idea was a new type of brick formed out of composite material and connected with concrete pillars rather than mortar. Each brick was sixteen inches long, eight inches wide, and four inches high. The bricks also contained two four-inch vertical holes, even-ly spaced in from the ends. The bricks were to be laid in alternate layers like ordinary bricks but without any mortar to hold them in place. Instead, the four-inch holes, which alternated between left and right as the bricks were stacked, were filled with concrete after each layer of bricks was laid. Thus, a strong shaft of concrete held the completed walls in place.67 Those shafts were also aided in supporting the structure by a layer of mortar or plaster, which was often used as wall covering and bonded to the bricks.68
69 When Bucky took on the operation, it was merely an idea. He had no production strategy, and, in fact, Mr. Hewlett had not even decided what material would be most suited for fabricating the bricks. Still, Bucky jumped in with his typical enthusiasm and was soon tackling every obsta-cle, including selecting the best material and method of production for the bricks.69
70 After weeks of testing in the bam behind Rock Hall, which he appropriated for his factory, Fuller decided to fabricate the bricks out of shredded wood bonded in high-pressure molds with a bit of magnesium-oxy-chloride cement. With their two holes and shredded-wood composi-tion, the finished products looked more like oversized dominoes of shred-ded wheat than bricks. That appearance was no coincidence. In examining possible methods of formation, Fuller had earlier invited Scott Perky, the son of the man who invented shredded wheat, over to dinner so that he could learn about the technology of shredded-wheat manufacturing.70
71 Despite Bucky’s enthusiasm and a superior method of construction, the project followed the course of most new businesses and progressed slowly during the first months. Bucky continued to retain the support of his father-in-law throughout that difficult time. Mr. Hewlett recognized
72 Bucky’s talent and ability and encouraged him to think for himself and try new ideas.71 Without that support, Fuller might well have surrendered to the pressures of society and settled for the mediocrity of simply earning a living. With Mr. Hewlett’s trust and backing, Bucky met all challenges and invented the machinery to produce the bricks. Thus, in conjunction with Mr. Hewlett, Fuller was granted his first patents. Those patents covered both the machinery and technology for creating what they named the Stockade Building System.72
73 They chose to christen their company Stockade because when walls of their buildings were completed, they were supported by the concrete pillars which had been poured in the holes row by row as the bricks were laid. The resulting series of concrete poles reminded the two men of the poles which had been the basis of earlier stockade forts, and they adopted that name.73
74 After months of preparation, Stockade Building Systems was ready to open its doors for business. To raise money, stock in a parent company was sold to people interested in organizing subsidiary local Stockade Building companies for construction of buildings in specific areas. Many of the investors in the parent company, Stockade Building Systems, were relatives and friends of both Bucky and Mr. Hewlett.74 The investors saw an opportunity to make money and wanted to be a part of Stockade’s imminent prosperity. They did not, however, realize that Stockade had as its president a man who would one day admit that he was a terrible businessperson: R. Buckminster Fuller. At the time, Bucky was quite naive and had no idea that he possessed such a radical aversion to the business environment or would fare so poorly in it. He truly believed that if he produced a good product at a reasonable price, he could contribute to society while earning enough money to support his family.75
75 Five factories were opened in the East from New Jersey to Illinois. As president, chief engineer, and inventor, Bucky was expected to sup-port those outlets in every aspect of their operation, including sales, marketing, and management, as well as engineering. He was, therefore, away from Anne and home a great deal. Unlike modem traveling busi-nesspeople, who are able to fly home for weekends, Fuller was at the mercy of the transportation of that era. Traveling by car and train, he would sometimes be on the road for weeks or months at a time.76
76 That freedom encouraged his continuing penchant for drinking and partying. During those escapades, he found some escape from his sorrow over Alexandra’s death as well as the companionship of his drinking friends. Drinking also tended to help him forget the seemingly endless problems that he discovered were inherent in supporting a new business founded on an unfamiliar technology.
77 When he was home, the pressure of the business and his drinking only served to augment Bucky’s sometimes short temper and often created enormous tension between him and Anne. Bucky had always been apt to fly off the handle in a spurt of emotion, but his generally jovial nature tended to obscure that trait. However, the pressures of entrepreneurship and the death of Alexandra helped move that characteristic into greater evidence.
78 In one representative incident, he displayed the level of indignation which often boiled just beneath his calm exterior during those years. He and Anne were spending an evening at the Hewlett house, and she was innocently flirting with a young man who was also a guest for the evening. Bucky sat silently observing the scene for quite some time, and although he said nothing, the expression on his face made it clear that he was jealous and becoming angrier by the minute. Then, without any warning, he leaped up, stormed out of the house, and began walking the twenty miles back to their New York apartment. He stubbornly continued his hike over country roads throughout the night and reached the Queensborough Bridge at dawn. Even though he had very little cash with him, no one, including Anne, heard from him for two days.77
79 Then, without a mention of the incident, Bucky cheerfully walked back into their apartment, and nothing more was said of the incident. Always the poised lady she was raised to be, Anne calmly went about her business, and no one ever found out where Bucky had slept or how he had lived for those days.78
80 After months of shuffling from one factory or construction site to another, Bucky finally decided to move to Chicago to oversee the start-up of a Stockade plant in Joliet, Illinois. Leaving Anne to live near her family on Long Island, he rented an apartment in Chicago, which he seldom used since he was constantly at work or out drinking and carousing. As prohibi-tion was the law of the land, Bucky quickly found his way into the Chicago speakeasy scene. One of his favorite hangouts was a speakeasy he passed during his daily drive between Chicago and the manufacturing plant in Joliet, where he met another regular customer who was about to gain notoriety, Al Capone.79
81 Always searching for a party and good time, Fuller also spent a great deal of his time in brothels. In the later years of his life, he would recount his prowess in such establishments over the years while exposing his naivete by saying, ‘‘I’m sure I went to over a thousand of them. They seemed to be the only place where people really talked straight to me; those girls. . . . They were terribly interesting as people. I enjoyed talk-ing to them.’’80
82 In 1926, Bucky’s life reverted to a more normal regimen when Anne joined him in Chicago. Although Stockade Building Systems was still struggling, as president of the company, an officer of one of the franchise companies, and general manager of another, Bucky was earning a hand-some salary. Still, the work was arduous at best.
83 Bucky was constantly confronted and harassed by the individuals and organizations dominating the construction industry. The benefits provided by Stockade buildings were unmistakable, but the construction establish-ment was, and still is, concerned primarily with finances and maintaining the status quo.81
84 Stockade bricks weighed only two pounds, could be tossed up to a second-floor scaffolding, were virtually unbreakable, and required no mortar. Because of those advances, solid buildings could be erected in a fraction of the time required to construct conventional buildings. The bricks were also fireproof and waterproof.82
85 The problems Fuller encountered in selling his new technology to others were epitomized by the reception that those fully fireproof bricks received from the establishment. Fuller permitted engineers, local govern-ment officials, and anyone else interested to test sample walls built of Stockade bricks. No one could get the bricks to bum, but their appearance continued to cause suspicion and challenges. Because they were fabri-cated from waste wood shavings, the bricks had a wood-like appearance, and people believed they would bum easily even though that was the antithesis of the truth. Once the wood shavings were mixed with concrete and molded under pressure, the final product was more akin to a light-weight rock than to a piece of wood, and over time, the walls tended to become petrified, making them even more solid and fireproof.83
86 Still, the wood tone haunted Fuller, until he finally acquiesced to popular opinion. Rather than suggest that officials examine the results of tests or test the bricks themselves, Fuller simply added a bit of gray dye to the brick formula. That simple change produced bricks which, although identical in construction to the earlier ones, looked like cinder blocks rather than shredded wheat and were viewed as fireproof.84
87 The fireproof question was only one of many Fuller confronted dur-ing the four years he championed the Stockade System. Most of his problems emanated from trade unions, architects, and contractors. Those three factions composed the majority of the building-industry establish-ment, and, as such, they opposed any innovation. In fact, Fuller found that an innovation such as his, which would increase construction efficien-cy, was actively suppressed by those in power, who feared change would threaten jobs and profits.85
88 Accordingly, almost every time Stockade Systems landed a contract, local officials demanded that the company construct a sample wall for testing before they would issue a building permit. As chief engineer, Fuller was generally the person who traveled to the locality and attempted to convince officials that although his new technology was radically dif-ferent, it exceeded the requirements of their building codes.
89 Unconvinced and fearing the unknown, most local officials forced the issue and demanded a test wall. Thus, Bucky was coerced into hiring a crew, shipping in supplies, constructing a wall, and allowing the concrete to set for a few days. Only then could he schedule a time when all the necessary individuals could witness a test of the wall’s strength, water and fire resistance, and general performance. In every instance, the tests proved that Stockade System’s walls were vastly superior to anything being used at the time. However, the time and money required to run a test in every community and sometimes for each building in the same commu-nity were an insurmountable handicap.86
90 Interestingly enough, nearly forty years later, another of Fuller’s inventions had to surmount similar skepticism. In the 1960s, following his invention of the geodesic dome and its subsequent popularity, Fuller observed that most of the independent individuals attempting to construct domes were confronted by local officials leery of such construction. Time and time again, potential dome builders were impeded by building codes and officials steeped in tradition. Even forty years after his Stockade experience, the construction industry establishment continued to be, by and large, unwilling to consider any technology which might upset their domination or threaten their profits.
91 Despite such obstacles, Fuller persisted in his quest to revolutionize the construction industry. Between 1922 and 1927 Stockade erected 240 buildings but did not generate any profit, even though most businesses were thriving in a period of great economic prosperity. Because Mr. Hewlett held a majority of the company’s stock, he maintained controlling interest in the company, and Bucky was free to continue his attempts at radically improving housing and construction.87
92 However, in 1927 his own financial difficulties forced Mr. Hewlett to sell his stock in the company. Within weeks Stockade Building Systems became a subsidiary of Celotex Corporation, whose primary motivation was akin to that of other conventional companies: making a profit. Cel-otex management took one look at Stockade’s financial records and called for a complete overhaul of the company.88 The first casualty of that transition was Stockade’s controversial president. Hence, Fuller again found himself unemployed and with no prospects for supporting himself and his wife. As the Fullers’ lifestyle had matched his larger salary, they had no savings to fall back upon.89
93 Bucky’s idea was, however, validated by Celotex. The corporation adapted his formula and methodology, applying it to another insulating product, ceiling tiles. Using Fuller’s ideas, they created and profitably marketed the acoustic ceiling tiles covered with small holes seen through-out the World for decades.90
94 Bucky had devoted five years to persuading others that his invention was beneficial; however, by 1927, the rigorous opposition to his ideas seemed so incessant that it nearly overwhelmed him. With no job or money, he again fell into depression and despair.
95 In addition, Anne was once again pregnant. On August 28 of that same year, she gave birth to another girl whom she chose to name Allegra after the daughter of Lord Byron, a woman whose book of letters to her father Anne had been reading.91
96 Once again Bucky felt the responsibilities of parenthood upon him, and he vowed to be a more supportive father. He also began assessing the first thirty-two years of his life and observed that he had drastically failed in every attempt to work within the business community and earn mon-ey. 92 Thus, Bucky decided he needed to shift direction. He had to support his wife and new child. The primary question he posed to himself was not how to do that, but whether his small family would derive more value from him alive or from the cash they would receive from his life insurance policy should he suddenly die.