Preface
3For the chronology of the patented Fuller inventions, the author has chosen to use the official filing dates from the records of the United States Patent Office. It will be appreciated that the dates of conception in each case would be somewhat earlier, and that the length of time between concept and filing of the application for patent is a variable, so that the inventions would not necessarily have been made in the same sequence that the filing dates would suggest. Yet with only one unimportant exception, the official dates do fall in the same order as the dates of conception and reduction to practice. Hence it seems best to use only the official dates that are fixed with certainty by the public records.
4 No exact date is fixed for Fuller’s Energetic and Synergetic Geometry, for this was evolved over a quarter of a century. Where quotations are given from a typical classroom teaching session, such are taken from the privately published ‘‘preliminary fragment’’ of the geometry, the author’s copy of which bears date of November 9,1955.** An earlier document, entitled Dymaxion Comprehensive System---Introducing Energetic Geometry, is dated March 14, 1944.’’ As the latter date precedes the December, 1951, filing date for the first patent in geodesics, the earliest of the inventions to be analyzed in this study, it will be seen that the fundamentals of the geometry were discovered before any of these particular inventions came into the Patent Office. Thus it is that the fabric of the inventor’s comprehensive approach to geometry will be found to be inextricably woven into the compatible fabric of the several inventions.
5 ’Copyright of the same year
6 The inventions selected for study include the one represented by the primary geodesics patent, and all of those which followed. These were not all of Fuller’s inventions, as they were preceded by a number of others, including patents relating to tensile stress values in houses made of preformed components. This earlier group of patents has been omitted in order to focus on the uniquely related discoveries and inventions in geometry, cartography, architecture and undersea islands.
7 The second and third paragraphs of the epilogue, written in Fuller’s own hand, first appeared as part of an exposition on Tensegrity prepared for Portfolio and Art News Annual, 1961, and are reproduced by permission.
8 In addition to reliance on the documentary sources cited, the author has drawn upon the knowledge and ‘‘feel’’ of Fuller’s thought patterns gained through a rewarding twenty-five years of service as his patent lawyer. For his was the challenging and exciting task of capturing the fullest outreach of Fuller’s discoveries for the examiners and readers of patents.
9 Donald W. Robertson
10 Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico November 1, 1972
1213They asked, ‘‘Why houses in the round?’’ Why make them square? said he.
14But more, why tie your thoughts at all, To round, or square. Or old geometry, That’s dead and strange to all reality.
15For Universe is life and motion.
16There’s more of form and energy Than of material things we see.
17We must think comprehensively.