Contents — Inventions

3 ISBN 0-312-4347 4

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5‘‘My task was not to preach about God, but to serve God in silence about God.’’

6 In 1927 Bucky Fuller was a total failure, a college dropout, penniless, unable to support his wife and newborn daughter, a man on the verge of suicide. Standing on the edge of Lake Michigan, he underwent a profound religious experience that was to shape the course of his activity for the next fifty years. Committing ‘‘ego-cide,’’ he turned away from efforts aimed only at his own personal advantage and dedicated his life to doing what needed to be done for the advantage of all humanity. By not preaching to mankind but by inventing solutions to mankind’s problems—solutions that could be implemented in concrete artifacts that would change the way people lived rather than their opinions—Fuller entered on a half-century experiment (which he nicknamed ‘‘Guinea Pig B’’). He chose to see what ‘‘the little man,’’ the single individual, could do alone—without the backing of big business, governments, or religious establishments—to help solve the problems that confront humanity today.

7 This book of Fuller’s 28 patented inventions stands as a resounding affirmation of what an individual, relying on his own initiative and integrity, can accomplish against overwhelming odds, even in today’s mass society. Over fifty years after beginning this experiment, in the year preceding his death, Fuller looked back in order to render an account to God and to his fellowmen for the course of his lifetime. At the age of eighty-seven he produced perhaps the most original and profound apologia pro vita mia to be seen in this century, a book that invites both intellectual and moral reflection.

10 INVENTIONS

11 Books by R. Buckminster Fuller available from St. Martin’s Press

12 Critical Path

13 Tetrascroll: A Cosmic Fairy Tale Grunch of Giants

14 INVENTIONS

15 THE PATENTED WORKS OF

16 R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

17 ST. MARTIN’S PRESS • NEW YORK

18 CONTENTS

19 Introduction: Guinea Pig B vii


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Patents		15		24Tensegrity	25179
261	27Stockade: Building Structure	281	2916	30Submarisle (Undersea Island)	31194
322	33Stockade: Pneumatic Forming Process	346	3517	36Aspension (Suspension Building)	37201
383	394D House	4011	4118	42Monohex (Geodesic Structures)	43214
444	45Dymaxion Car	4630	4719	48Laminar Dome	49227
505	51Dymaxion Bathroom	5241	5320	54Octa Spinner	55241
566	57Dymaxion Deployment Unit (sheet)	5853	5921	60Star Tensegrity (Octahedral Truss)	61248
62	63	64	6522	66Rowing Needles (Watercraft)	67257
687	69Dymaxion Deployment Unit (frame)	7074	7123	72Geodesic Hexa-Pent	73264
748	75Dymaxion Map	7685	7724	78Floatable Breakwater	79269
809	81Dymaxion House (Wichita)	8295	8325	84Non-symmetrical Tensegrity	85274
8610	87Geodesic Dome	88127	8926	90Floating Breakwater	91281
9211	93Paperboard Dome	94145	9527	96Tensegrity Truss	97286
9812	99Plydome	100157	10128	102Hanging Storage Shelf Unit	103294
10413	105Catenary (Geodesic Tent)	106162	107	108	109
11014	111Octet Truss	112167	Appendix: Honorary Doctorate Citations		113299
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