5 UNDERSEA ISLAND
2NOW we go back awhile to 1959, for it is not to be supposed that during the years of tensegrity building there was nothing else afoot. Navy man and inveterate sailor that he was, Fuller in 1959 found his thoughts drawn back to the sea. He realized early that more of man’s immediate destiny would lie in his efficient use of undersea resources than in his probes to outer space. His mind began to perceive man-livable complexes beneath the oceans, and it formed a concept of undersea islands. How would such islands be anchored? ‘‘Tetrahedrally,’’ said he. A recurrent realization that the tetrahedron, that first system identifiable as a primary division of universe, would be the least common denominator—this time between the premises of architectural logic at sea and on land. What made sense on land would make sense under the seas.
3 The problem was to gain stability of man’s future undersea living and working quarters. Also for today’s needs in offshore oil drilling rigs, and tomorrow’s in maimed undersea bases for explorations of the ocean floor, Fuller sought an anchoring system which would effectively restrain an undersea island against unwanted motion, yet which would permit steady movement up and down with the ebb and flow of the tides. The ‘‘island,’’ in the case of the well drilling rig, is a submerged caisson within which is installed the derrick and other equipment used in drilling operations. A hollow communications shaft extends from within the caisson to a boarding platform above the surface of the sea. Fuller recognized that arrangements of this kind had been proposed before. He was concerned with finding a more practical anchoring system for the drilling rig.
4 For this purpose, Fuller conceived a system in which the buoyant caisson is submerged under the pull of anchor rodes extending in several directions. The arrangement of the anchor rodes is of special importance. Several of them extend at a tangent to the body of the caisson to exert their pull in a clockwise direction, while others extend at an opposite tangent so as to exert their pull in a counterclockwise direction. Said Fuller, ‘‘The one group of rodes creates a torque which is equal and opposite to that created by the other. This has the result that the caisson is fixed in the grip of opposed torques while yielding to slow vertical movement with the tides against the resilient pull of the catenary sags in the rodes.’’ This gave to Fuller’s system what is described in the patent1 as ‘‘three (or more) criss-crossing pairs of rodes distributed so as to extend tangentially away from the sides of the island in several directions.’’
5 ‘‘Now,’’ said Fuller, ‘‘we come to the most exciting aspect of the system. It is tetrahedral in form!’’ Always he would show strong emotional excitement when he was revealing the kinship of one of his inventions to the tetrahedron. This is understandable when we remember about the key role played by the tetra in the geometry of energy and synergy. The tetra, a fundamental system of the universe, here solves a problem of unusual difficulty. It shapes an anchoring pattern capable of accommodating itself comfortably to the turbulent seas, most ancient and respected adversary of man.
6 ‘‘Do you see the tetrahedrons? The anchors for one rode of each pair are the base corners of a tetra whose apex is the undersea island. The anchors of the other rode of each pair define a similar tetra. Now,’’ said Fuller, with mounting zeal, United States Patent No. 3,080,583, granted March 12, 1963. we have two countertorquing tetrahedra. This arrangement produces vertical stability for our island.
7 ‘‘Again, the ‘two-ness’ of universe,’’ continued Fuller, falling into his familiar drill pattern that sweeps his listener along with the force of rapid fire semantics. You remembered the revelation of the one spherical triangle that is actually two, one convexly curved, the other concave, so that Fuller’s short-hand speech quickly brought the counter-torquing tetrahedra into a more comprehensive perspective. Suddenly you experienced a new thoroughness of understanding, an expanding comprehension that you could almost feel within your cerebrum. It was as though the teacher somehow had communicated a measure of his intuitive powers to you, his pupil. Your mind was securely aboard his undersea island, feeling its steadiness, and understanding why.