7 The House That Failed
2Hitler and the other members of the Axis expected to win the war they had begun. But they had sadly underestimated the fantastic ability of American industry to meet the needs of an emergency situation. By 1944, factories in the United States were pouring out thousands of fighter planes, bombers, warships, merchant ships, guns, shells, bullets, and uniforms. Millions of men who had never had an inkling of what it was like to be a soldier or to be in a war had been whipped into strong and spirited groups of fighting men, ready to defend their way of life against an invasion by the few who wished to dominate the earth.
3 The removal of so many men from industry meant that there were more jobs than people. Women were recruited to do work in shipyards and factories that had never been done by women before. One of the songs sung and whistled by everyone was ‘‘Rosie, the Riveter.’’ In many cities, factories were running on a twenty-four-hour basis, three shifts a day. Rooms were hard to find; often, the same bed was being shared by three different people,
4 one coming in to sleep just as another awakened for work.
5 This was the situation in the city of Wichita, Kansas, in 1944. But suddenly workers in the Beech Aircraft Company in that city began quitting their jobs to find work in other cities. No one knew exactly why this was happening, but some labor union leaders felt that the workers expected many fewer airplanes would be built when the war was over, and then they would be out of jobs. At that time, no one seemed to see the possibilities of commercial aviation.
6 What the aircraft industry needed was some kind of proof that it could go on employing a large number of people after the war. The problem of finding this proof was referred to the Laboi- Department in Washington. There, someone remembered a man named R. Buckminster Fuller who had said something about being able to turn out houses in the same assembly line way as airplanes. Where was Fuller? Why, he was right there in Washington, immediately available for advice.
7 Bucky had the answer to the problem right away. The aircraft industry had made tremendous progress during the war. In fact, many of the new alloys and other products that had not been available during the late 20’s, when the 4-D House had been created, were now being used. To change from making aluminum alloy parts for airplanes to aluminum alloy parts for houses was a simple matter. The industry could certainly switch to manufacturing Dymaxion Houses in a very short time. Actually, Bucky pointed out, two problems could be solved at once. The industry would be saved, and adequate, cheap housing could be provided at once to ease the housing shortage, not only in the United States, but in countries all over the world.
8 Under the prodding of officials of the International Order of Machinists, the Beech Aircraft Company of Wichita agreed to finance the planning and setting up of an experimental assembly line for the manufacture of the Dymaxion House. Bucky resigned from his Washington position and went to Kansas. His greatest opportunity for success seemed to have arrived.
9 While the first parts were being turned out, Bucky was asked to speak to the aircraft workers about the Dymaxion House. His typically exciting way of describing his own ideas was infectious. Soon fewer and fewer workers were leaving Wichita. Impressed by Bucky’s ability to halt the drain of people from the aircraft industry, the Army Air Force ordered the first two Dymaxion Houses for use in the Pacific Theater of the war.
10 Bucky had changed a few of the original aspects of the Dymaxion House. Instead of little porthole windows, a full strip of Plexiglas went around the entire circumference of the wall. The house dome stood sixteen feet high, covering about 12,000 cubic feet of space. But the parts for a single house could be packed and shipped in only 300 cubic feet! Bucky estimated that counting all costs, the Dymaxion House, completely installed, would cost only about $6,500 —the price of an expensive automobile.
11 Enthusiasm for the Wichita Dymaxion House increased. It seemed evident that the average American housewife looked upon Bucky’s house as her idea of a dream house —spacious, yet easy to clean, efficient, yet charming. Fortune, the magazine that had been Bucky’s past employer, noted that the Wichita House was so radically different, that it could not be compared honestly with existing houses.
12 Meanwhile, the Allies persisted in their efforts against the Axis powers. In June, 1944, the invasion of Hitler’s Europe began. At the same time, American troops were beginning to recapture strategic Pacific Islands, one at a time, from the Japanese. By May of 1945, Germany’s great army had been ground to bits; conquerors no more, the German generals surrendered.
13 Japan’s final defeat occurred, not by the invasion of Japan itself, but by the by-product of a scientific discovery made in 1939. In that year, two German scientists, Lisa Meitner and Otto Frisch, showed that the uranium atom could be split by an atomic bullet, the neutron, with the resulting release of a tremendous amount of energy. Albert Einstein, the great theoretical physicist who had left Germany to live in the United States, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in 1942, suggesting that this kind of atomic energy could be used as a military weapon, and that it might be a good idea for America to develop this weapon before the Germans did. The result, of course, was the first atomic bomb —the A-bomb —that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Three days later, a second A-bomb fell on the city of Nagasaki. More than 100,000 people were killed by the two bombs.
14 In the face of this new horror, Japan could not go on. On September 2, 1945, the formal surrender of the Japanese took place.
15 World War II was over.
16 Within a few months, members of America’s great civilian army were returning to their homes and families. They wore on their uniforms the little gold button, known familiarly as ‘‘the Ruptured Duck,’’ that was the symbol of an honorable discharge for a job well done. Suddenly, the labor shortage ended. There was still a housing shortage; but it seemed to have nothing to do with industry or labor.
17 Bucky’s Wichita House had just reached the point where full production could be planned and begun. This meant that the tools for the major assembly line sections had to be acquired and set up. The price for this readying was about ten million dollars. Bucky waited for the Beech Aircraft Company executives to give the word to go ahead, but with the war ending, and with thousands of trained pilots returning to civilian life, the Beech Company saw a sure success in the increase of a demand for small private planes. They decided to put all their finances and industrial effort into producing these, and not houses. After all, they had not actually given Bucky written guarantees that they would produce his house.
18 Of course, Buckminster Fuller understood their problems perfectly. But now, at the age of fifty, he had to turn to other fields of activity and interest.