The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was the general exhibition, Category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century, with the most attendees to that date and 62 nations participating. It also set the single-day attendance record for a world's fair, with 569,000 visitors on its third day.

Expo 67 was Canada's main celebration during its centennial year. The fair was originally intended to be held in Moscow, to help the Soviet Union celebrate the Russian Revolution's 50th anniversary; however, for various reasons, the Soviets decided to cancel, and Canada was awarded it in late 1962.

The project was not originally overwhelmingly supported in Canada. It took the determination of Montreal's mayor, Jean Drapeau, and a new team of managers to guide it past political, physical and temporal hurdles. Defying a computer analysis that said it could not be done, the fair opened on time.

After Expo 67 ended in October 1967, the site and most of the pavilions continued on as an exhibition called Man and His World, open during the summer months from 1968 until 1981. By that time, most of the buildings — which had not been designed to last beyond the original exhibition — had deteriorated and were dismantled. Today, the islands that hosted the world exhibition are mainly used as parkland and for recreational use, with only a few remaining structures from Expo 67 to show that the event was held there. Many Canadians from that time still regard it as one of the country's finest cultural achievements.

History[link]

Background[link]

The idea of hosting the 1967 World Exhibition dates back to 1956, but it was in 1958 that Conservative Senator Mark Drouin suggested during his speech at the Brussels Exhibition that Canada should host a World Exhibition to celebrate its centennial. Initially, the exposition was offered to Toronto but politicians there rejected the idea. However, Montreal's mayor, Sarto Fournier, backed the proposal, allowing Canada to make a bid to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). At the BIE's May 5, 1960 meeting in Paris, Moscow was awarded the fair after five rounds of voting that eliminated Austria's and then Canada's bids.^[1] In April 1962,^[2] the Soviets scrapped plans to host the fair due to financial constraints and security concerns.^[3][4] Montreal's new mayor, Jean Drapeau, lobbied the Canadian government to try again for the fair, which they did. On November 13, 1962,^[5] the BIE changed the location of the World Exhibition to Canada,^[5] and Expo 67 went on to become the fourth-best attended BIE-sanctioned world expositions, after Shanghai, Osaka, and Paris.^[6]

Several sites were proposed as the main Expo grounds. One location that was considered was Mount Royal Park, to the north of the downtown core.^[7] But it was Drapeau's idea to create new islands in the St. Lawrence river, along with enlarging the existing Île Sainte-Hélène. The choice overcame opposition from Montreal's surrounding municipalities, and also prevented land speculation.^[8]

Key people[link]

Expo did not get off to a smooth start; in 1963, many top organizing committee officials resigned. One of the reasons for the resignations was that a computer program predicted that the event could not possibly be constructed in time.^[9] Another, more likely, reason for the mass resignations was that on April 22, 1963, the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson took power. This meant that former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government appointees to the board of directors of the Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition were likely forced to resign.^[10]

Pierre Dupuy, a diplomat, was named Commissioner General, after Diefenbaker appointee Paul Bienvenu resigned from the post in 1963.^[11] One of the main responsibilities of the Commissioner General was to attract other nations to build pavilions at Expo.^[11] Dupuy would spend most of 1964 and 1965 soliciting 125 countries, spending more time abroad than in Canada.^[12] Dupuy's 'right-hand' man was Robert Fletcher Shaw, the deputy commissioner general and vice-president of the fair's corporation.^[12] He also replaced a Diefenbaker appointee, C.F. Carsley.^[12] Shaw was a professional engineer and builder, and he was in charge when Dupuy was away.^[12] Dupuy hired Andrew Kniewasser as the general manager. The management group became known as Les Durs - the tough guys - and they were in charge of creating, building and managing Expo.^[12] Les Durs consisted of: Jean-Claude Delorme, Legal Counsel and Secretary of the Corporation; Dale Rediker, Director of Finances; Colonel Edward Churchill, Director of Installations; Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, Director of Operations, dubbed "The Mayor of Expo"; Pierre de Bellefeuille, Director of Exhibitors; and Yves Jasmin, Director of Information, Advertising and Public Relations.^[13][14]

As historian Pierre Berton put it, the cooperation between Canada's French and English speaking communities "was the secret of Expo's success — 'the Québécois flair, the English-Canadian pragmatism.'"^[15] However, Berton also points out that this is an over-simplification of national stereotypes. Arguably Expo did, for a short period anyway, bridge the 'Two Solitudes.'^[16]

Montebello conference produces theme[link]

In May 1963, a group of prominent Canadian thinkers — including Alan Jarvis, director of the National Gallery of Canada; novelists Hugh MacLennan and Gabrielle Roy; J. Tuzo Wilson, geophysicist; and Claude Robillard, town planner — met for three days at the Seigneury Club in Montebello, Quebec.^[17] The theme, "Man and His World", was based on the 1939 book entitled Terre des Hommes (translated as Wind, Sand and Stars) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In Roy's introduction to the Expo 67 corporation's book, entitled Terre des Hommes/Man and His World, she elucidates the theme:

In Terre des Hommes, his haunting book, so filled with dreams and hopes for the future, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry writes of how deeply moved he was when, flying for the first time by night alone over Argentina, he happened to notice a few flickering lights scattered below him across an almost empty plain. They "twinkled here and there, alone like stars." .... In truth, being made aware of our own solitude can give us insight into the solitude of others. It can even cause us to gravitate towards one another as if to lessen our distress. Without this inevitable solitude, would there be any fusion at all, any tenderness between human beings. Moved as he was by a heightened awareness of the solitude of all creation and by the human need for solidarity, Saint-Exupéry found a phrase to express his anguish and his hope that was as simple as it was rich in meaning; and because that phrase was chosen many years later to be the governing idea of Expo 67, a group of people from all walks of life was invited by the Corporation to reflect upon it and to see how it could be given tangible form.

— Gabrielle Roy^[18]

The organizers also created seventeen theme elements for Man and his World:^[19]

Habitat 67, a housing complex built for Expo 67

• Du Pont Auditorium of Canada: The philosophy and scientific content of theme exhibits were presented and emphasized in this 372 seat hall.^[20]
• Habitat 67
• Labyrinth
• Man and his Health
• Man in the Community
• Man the Explorer: Man, his Planet and Space; Man and Life; Man and the Oceans; Man and the Polar Regions
• Man the Creator: The Gallery of Fine Arts; Contemporary Sculpture; Industrial Design; Photography.
• Man the Producer: Resources for Man; Man in Control; Progress.
• Man the Provider

Construction begins[link]

Construction started on August 13, 1963, when Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson pulled a lever that signalled a front-end loader to dump the first batch of fill to enlarge Île Sainte-Hélène.^[21] The 25 million tons of fill needed to construct the islands was coming from the Montreal metro's excavations, a public works project that was already under construction before Expo was awarded to Montreal.^[22] Expo's initial period of construction mainly centred on enlarging Île Ste-Hélène and creating the artificial island of Île Notre-Dame. While construction continued, the land rising out of Montreal harbour was not owned by the Expo Corporation yet. After the final mounds of earth completed the islands, the grounds that would hold the fair were officially transferred from the City of Montreal to the corporation on June 20, 1964.^[11] This gave Colonel Churchill only 1042 days to have everything built and functioning for opening day. To get Expo built in time, Churchill used the then new project management tool known as the critical path method (CPM).^[23] On April 28, 1967, opening day, everything was ready, with one exception: Habitat 67, which was then displayed as a work in progress.^[24]

Building and enlarging the islands, along with the new Concorde Bridge built to connect them with the site-specific mass transit system known as the Montreal Expo Express, plus a boat pier, cost more than the Saint Lawrence Seaway project did only five years earlier: this was even before any buildings or infrastructure were constructed.^[11] With the initial phase of construction completed, it is easy to see why the budget for the exhibition was going to be larger than anyone expected. In the fall of 1963, Expo's general manager, Andrew Kniewasser, presented the master plan and the preliminary budget of $167 million for construction: it would balloon to over $439 million by 1967. The plan and budget narrowly passed a vote in Pearson's federal cabinet, passing by one vote, and then it was officially submitted on December 23, 1963.^[25]

Logo[link]

The logo was designed by Montreal artist Julien Hébert.^[26] The basic unit of the logo is an ancient symbol of man. Two of the symbols (pictograms of 'man') are linked as to represent friendship. The icon was repeated in a circular arrangement to represent 'friendship around the world'. The logotype is lower-case Optima font. It did not enjoy unanimous support from federal politicians, as some of them tried to kill it with a motion in the Canadian House of Commons.^[26]

Theme songs[link]

The official Expo 67 theme song was composed by Stephane Venne and was titled: "Hey Friend, Say Friend/Un Jour, Un Jour".^[27] Complaints were made about the suitability of the song, as its lyrics mentioned neither Montreal nor Expo 67.^[27] The song was selected from an international competition with over 2,200 entries from 35 countries.^[28]

However, the song that most Canadians associate with Expo was written by Bobby Gimby, a veteran commercial jingle writer who composed the popular Centennial tune "Ca-na-da".^[29] Gimby earned the name the "Pied Piper of Canada".^[30]

The theme song "Something to Sing About", used for the Canadian pavilion, was initially written for a 1963 television special.^[28] The Ontario pavilion also had its own theme song: "A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow", which has evolved to become an unofficial theme song for the province.^[31]

Expo opens[link]

Official opening ceremonies were held on Thursday afternoon, April 27, 1967.^[32] The ceremonies were an invitation-only event, held at Place des Nations.^[33] Canada's Governor General, Roland Michener, proclaimed the exhibition open after the Expo flame was ignited by Prime Minister Pearson.^[34] On hand were over 7,000 media and invited guests including 53 heads of state.^[34] Over 1,000 reporters covered the event, broadcast in NTSC Colour, live via satellite, to a worldwide audience of over 700 million viewers and listeners.^{[Note 1]}

Expo 67 officially opened to the public on the morning of Friday, April 28, 1967, with a space age style countdown.^[35] A capacity crowd at Place d'Accueil participated in the atomic clock-controlled countdown that ended when the exhibition opened precisely at 9:30 a.m. EST.^[35] An estimated crowd of between 310,000 and 335,000 visitors showed up for opening day, as opposed to the expected crowd of 200,000. ^[36] The first person through the Expo gates at Place d'Accueil was Al Carter, a 41-year-old jazz drummer from Chicago, who was recognized for his accomplishment by Expo 67's director of operations Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien.^[37] Beaubien presented Carter with a gold watch for his feat.^[38]

On opening day, there was considerable comment on the uniform of the hostesses from the UK Pavilion.^[39] The dresses had been designed to the then new miniskirt style, popularized a year earlier by Mary Quant.^[40]

Entertainment, Ed Sullivan Show, and VIPs[link]

Man, a sculpture by Alexander Calder for Expo 67, on Saint Helen's Island Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montréal, Quebec.

The World Festival of Art and Entertainment at Expo 67 featured art galleries, opera, ballet and theatre companies, orchestras, jazz groups, famous Canadian pop musicians and other cultural attractions.^[41] Many pavilions had music and performance stages, where visitors could find free concerts and shows. Most of the featured entertainment took place in the following venues: La Place des Arts; Expo Theatre; Place des Nations; La Ronde and Automotive Stadium.^[41]

The La Ronde amusement park was always intended to be a lasting legacy of the fair. Most of its rides and booths were permanent. When the Expo fairgrounds closed nightly, at around 10:00 p.m., visitors could still be entertained at La Ronde, which closed at 2:30 a.m.^[41]

In addition, The Ed Sullivan Show was broadcast live on May 7 and May 21 from Expo 67. Stars on the shows included America's The Supremes, Britain's Petula Clark and Australia's The Seekers.^[42]

The fair was visited by many of the most notable people of the day including Queen Elizabeth II, Lyndon Johnson, Princess Grace, Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Ethiopia's leader Haile Selassie, Charles de Gaulle, Bing Crosby, Harry Belafonte, Maurice Chevalier, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Marlene Dietrich.^[43] Musicians like Thelonious Monk, Grateful Dead, Tiny Tim, and Jefferson Airplane entertained the crowds.^[43][44]

Problems[link]

Despite its successes, there were problems: Front de libération du Québec militants had initially threatened to disrupt the exhibition, but were inactive during this period. Vietnam war protesters picketed during the opening day, April 28. American President Lyndon B. Johnson's visit became a focus of war protesters. The Cuba pavilion attracted threats that it would be destroyed by anti-Castro forces that never materialized.^[45] In June, the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East flared up again in the Six Day War, which resulted in Kuwait pulling out of the fair in protest to the way Western nations dealt with the war.^[45] The president of France, Charles De Gaulle, caused an international incident on July 24 when he addressed thousands at Montreal City Hall by yelling out the now famous words "Vive Montréal... Vive le Québec ...Vive le Québec Libre!" ^[46]

In September, the most serious problem turned out to be a 30-day transit strike. By the end of July, estimates predicted that Expo would exceed 60 million visitors, but the strike cut deeply into attendance and revenue figures, just as the fair was cruising to its conclusion.^[45] Another major problem, beyond the control of Expo's management, was guest accommodation and lodging. Logexpo was created to direct visitors to accommodations in the Montreal area, which usually meant that visitors would stay at the homes of people they were unfamiliar with, rather than traditional hotels or motels. The Montreal populace opened their homes to thousands of guests. Unfortunately for some visitors, they were sometimes sent to less than respectable establishments where operators took full advantage of the tourist trade. Management of Logexpo was refused to Expo and was managed by a Quebec provincial authority. Still, Expo would get most of the blame for directing visitors to these establishments. But overall, a visit to Expo from outside Montreal was still seen as a bargain.^[45]

Expo ends[link]

Site map of Expo 67

Expo 67 closed on Sunday afternoon, October 29, 1967. On the final day 221,554 visitors added to the more than 50 million (50,306,648) that attended Expo 67 at a time when Canada's population was only 20 million, setting a per-capita record for World Exhibition attendance that still stands.^[47] Starting at 2:00 p.m., Expo Commissioner General Pierre Dupuy officiated over the medal ceremony, in which participating nations and organizations received gold and silver medallions, as well as the ceremony in which national flags were lowered in the reverse order to which they had been raised, with Canada's flag lowered first and Nigeria's lowered last.^[45] After Prime Minister Pearson doused the Expo flame, Governor General Michener closed Expo at Place des Nations with the mournful spontaneous farewell: "It is with great regret that I declare that the Universal and International Exhibition of 1967 has come to an official end."^[45] All rides and the minirail were shut down by 3:50 p.m., and the Expo grounds closed at 4:00 p.m., with the last Expo Express train leaving for Place d'Accueil at that time.^[45] A fireworks display, that went on for an hour, was Expo's concluding event.^[45]

Expo performed better financially than expected. Expo was intended to have a deficit, shared between the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government. Significantly better-than-expected attendance revenue reduced the debt to well below the original estimates. The final financial statistics, in 1967 Canadian dollars, were: revenues of $221,239,872, costs of $431,904,683, and a deficit of $210,664,811.^[47]

Pavilions [link]

The Expo 67 Soviet pavilion was disassembled after the fair closed, and moved to Moscow to become the All-Russia Exhibition Centre.

Expo 67 featured 90 pavilions representing Man and His World themes, nations, corporations, and industries including the U.S. pavilion, a geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller. Expo 67 also featured the Habitat 67 modular housing complex designed by architect Moshe Safdie, which was later purchased by private individuals and is still occupied.

The most popular pavilion was the Soviet Union's exhibit. It attracted about 13 million visitors.^[48] Rounding out the top five pavilions, in terms of attendance were: the Canadian Pavilion (11 million visitors), the United States (9 million), France (8.5 million), and Czechoslovakia (8 million).^[48]

The participating countries were:^[49]

• Africa: Algeria, Cameroun, Chad, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, and Upper Volta;
• Asia: Burma, Ceylon, China (Taiwan), Korea, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Thailand and the United Arab Republic;
• Australia;
• Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, the USSR, and Yugoslavia;
• South America & Caribbean: Barbados, Cuba, Grenade, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela;
• North America: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Some absent countries were Spain, South Africa, the People's Republic of China and many South American countries.

Legacy [link]

Place des Nations as it appeared in 2006.

After 1967, the exposition struggled for several summer seasons as a standing collection of international pavilions known as "Man and His World."^[50] However, as attendance declined, the physical condition of the site deteriorated, and less and less of it was open to the public. In 1975 the Île Notre-Dame section of the site was completely rebuilt around the new rowing and canoe sprint (then flatwater canoeing) basin for Montreal's 1976 Summer Olympics.^[51] Space for the basin, the boathouses, the changing rooms and other buildings was obtained by demolishing many of the former pavilions and cutting in half the area taken by the artificial lake and the canals. In 1976, a fire destroyed the acrylic outer skin of Buckminster Fuller's dome.^[52] With the site falling into disrepair, it began to resemble ruins of a futuristic city. Minor thematic exhibitions were held at the Atlantic pavilion and Quebec pavilion, until the Montreal Casino was built. The remaining original exhibits of the site closed for good in 1981.^[50]

After the Man and his World summer exhibitions were discontinued, the former site for Expo 67 on Île Sainte-Hélène and Île Notre-Dame was incorporated into a municipal park run by the city of Montreal.^[53] In the year 2000, the park was renamed from Parc des Îles to Parc Jean-Drapeau, after Mayor Jean Drapeau, who brought the exhibition to Montreal. In 2006, the corporation that runs the park also changed its name from the Société du parc des Îles to the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau.^[53] Two prominent buildings remain in use on the former Expo grounds: the American pavilion's metal-lattice skeleton from its Buckminster Fuller dome, now enclosing an environmental sciences museum called the Montreal Biosphère;^[52] and Habitat 67, now a condominium residence. Also, the French and Quebec pavilions now form the Montreal Casino. ^[54] La Toundra Hall is part of the surviving structural remains of the Canadian pavilion.^[55] It is now a restaurant and special events hall.^[55] Another part of the pavilion now serves as the administration building of Parc Jean-Drapeau.^[56] Katimavik's distinctive inverted pyramid and much of the rest of the Canadian pavilion were dismantled during the 1970s. Place des Nations, where the opening and closing ceremonies were held, also survives. Other remaining structures include sculptures, lampposts and landscaping. The Montreal Metro subway still has at least one "Man and His World" logo on a station's wall. La Ronde survives, and since 2001 it was leased to the New York amusement park company Six Flags.^[53] The Alcan Aquarium built for the Expo remained in operation for a number of decades until its closure in 1991. The Expo 67 parking lot was converted into Victoria STOLport, an experimental short-take off airport in the 1970s.^[57]

The former Expo 67 American Pavilion became the Montreal Biosphère, an environmental museum on Île Sainte-Hélène.

Another attraction on today's Île Notre-Dame site is the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve race track that is used for the Canadian Grand Prix.^[58] The Olympic basin is used today by many local rowing clubs.^[51] A beach was built on the shores of the remaining artificial lake. There are many acres of parkland and cycle paths on both Île Sainte-Hélène and the western tip of Île Notre-Dame. In previous years the site has been used for a number of events such as a BIE sponsored international botanical festival, Les floralies. ^[58] The young trees and shrubs planted for Expo 67 are now mature. The plants introduced during the botanical events have flourished also.

In a political and cultural context, Expo 67 was seen as a landmark moment in Canadian history.^[59] In 1968, as a salute to the cultural impact the exhibition had on the city, Montreal's new Major League baseball team, the Expos, was named after the event.^[50] 1967 was also the year that invited Expo guest Charles De Gaulle, on July 24, addressed thousands at Montreal City Hall by yelling out the now famous words: "Vive Montréal... Vive le Québec... Vive le Québec Libre!" (See Vive le Québec libre speech). De Gaulle was rebutted in Ottawa by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson: "Canadians do not need to be liberated, Canada will remain united and will reject any effort to destroy her unity".^[46] In the years that followed, the tensions between the English and French communities would continue. As an early 21st-century homage to the fair, satirists Bowser and Blue wrote a full-length musical set at Expo 67 called "The Paris of America" which ran for six sold-out weeks at Centaur Theatre in Montreal in April and May 2003.^[60]

Expo 67 was one of the most successful World Exhibitions and is still regarded fondly by Canadians.^[59] 1967 is often referred to as "the last good year" before economic decline, Quebec sovereigntism (seen as negative from a federalist viewpoint), and political apathy became common.^[61] In this way, it has much in common with the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. In 2007, a new group, Expo 17, was looking to bring a smaller-scale — BIE sanctioned — exposition to Montreal for Expo 67's 50th anniversary and Canada's Sesquicentennial in 2017.^[62] Expo 17 hoped a new world's fair would regenerate the spirit of Canada's landmark centennial project.^[62]

See also [link]

• 1967 in Canada
• 67 X
• A Centennial Song
• Alfa Romeo Montreal, a concept car first shown during Expo 67 and later mass-produced
• Buckminster Fuller
• Canadian National Exhibition and the Pacific National Exhibition, held annually
• Expo 67 pavilions
• Expo '86, held in Vancouver in 1986
• List of world's fairs
• Ontario Place, a Toronto waterfront park created in the 1970s in a style similar to Expo 67
• Montreal Biosphère

References[link]

Notes[link]

Citations[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Berton, Pierre (1997). 1967: The Last Good Year. Toronto: Doubleday Canada Limited. ISBN 0-385-25662-0. 
• Official Expo 1967 Guide Book. Toronto: Maclean-Hunter Publishing Co. Ltd.. 1967. 
• Roy, Gabrielle; Guy Robert (1967). Terres des Hommes/Man and His World. Ottawa: Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Expo 1967

Multimedia[link]

• CBC Archives A look at the transit labour strike (audio)
• CBC Digital Archives - Expo 67: Montreal Welcomes the World
• Expo 67 - A Virtual Experience, from the website of Library and Archives Canada
• Historica Minutes TV Commercial Canadian Heritage
• Impressions of Expo 67, National Film Board of Canada

Other websites [link]

• The Expo 67 Foundation
• Expo 67 in Montreal's extensive photo collection about the fair
• Photos of 140 pavilions at Expo 67
• Architecture at Expo 67
• Everything you want to know about the Expo 67
• Usage of wood at Expo 67
• The Films of Expo 67, from Time magazine
• Canadian Film Encyclopedia: Films at Expo 67
• Expo 67 at ExpoMuseum
• Australia at Expo 67 Montreal
• Group trying to bring Expo back to Montreal for Canada's Sesquicentennial in 2017
• Expo 67 in Montreal photo collection and links

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Vladimir Vernadsky
Born	Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky 12 March 1863 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died	6 January 1945 (age 81) Moscow, Soviet Union
Residence	Russian Empire Soviet Union
Nationality	Ukrainian
Fields	Geology, crystallography, mineralogy, geochemistry, nuclear geology, biology, biogeochemistry, philosophy
Institutions	Moscow State University National Academy of Science of Ukraine
Alma mater	Saint Petersburg State University
Known for	Noosphere biogeochemistry

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (Russian: Влади́мир Ива́нович Верна́дский, Ukrainian: Володимир Іванович Вернадський; 12 March [O.S. 28 February] 1863 – 6 January 1945) was a Russian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology.^[1] His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism. He also worked in Ukraine, where he founded the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (now National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). He is most noted for his 1926 book The Biosphere in which he inadvertently worked to popularize Eduard Suess’ 1885 term biosphere, by hypothesizing that life is the geological force that shapes the earth. In 1943 he was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Biography[link]

Vernadsky was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, on 12 March 1863, of mixed Russian and Ukrainian parents. His father, a descendent of Ukrainian Cossacks,^[2] had been a professor of political economy in Kiev before moving to Saint Petersburg, and his mother was a noblewoman of Russian ethnicity^[3] (Vernadsky considered himself both Russian and Ukrainian, and had some knowledge of the Ukrainian language.)^[4]

Vernadsky graduated from Saint Petersburg State University in 1885. As the last mineralogist had died in 1887 in Russia, and Vasily Dokuchaev, a soil scientist, and Alexey Pavlov, a geologist, had been teaching Mineralogy for a while, Vernadsky chose to enter Mineralogy. He wrote to his wife Natasha on 20 June 1888 from Switzerland:

...to collect facts for their own sake, as many now gather facts, without a program, without a question to answer or a purpose is not interesting. However, there is a task which someday those chemical reactions which took place at various points on earth; these reactions take place according to laws which are known to us, but which, we are allowed to think, are closely tied to general changes which the earth has undergone by the earth with the general laws of celestial mechanics. I believe there is hidden here still more to discover when one considers the complexity of chemical elements and the regularity of their occurrence in groups...

While trying to find a topic for his doctorate, he first went to Naples to study with crystallographer Arcangelo Scacchi, who was senile by that time. Scacchi's condition led Vernadsky to go to Germany to study under Paul Groth. Vernadsky learned how to use the modern equipment of Groth who had developed a machine to study the optical, thermal, elastic, magnetic and electrical properties of crystals. He also gained access to the physics lab of Leonhard Sohncke (Direcktor, Physikalischen Institut der Universität Jena, 1883–1886; Professor der Physik an der Technischen Hochschule München 1886 -1897), who was studying crystallisation during that period.

Vernadsky first popularized the concept of the noosphere and deepened the idea of the biosphere to the meaning largely recognized by today's scientific community. The word 'biosphere' was invented by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, whom Vernadsky met in 1911.

In Vernadsky's theory of the Earth's development, the noosphere is the third stage in the earth's development, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transformed the biosphere. In this theory, the principles of both life and cognition are essential features of the Earth's evolution, and must have been implicit in the earth all along. This systemic and geological analysis of living systems complements Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection,^{[citation needed]} which looks at each individual species, rather than at its relationship to a subsuming principle.

Vernadsky's visionary pronouncements were not widely accepted in the West. However, he was one of the first scientists to recognize that the oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere result from biological processes. During the 1920s he published works arguing that living organisms could reshape the planets as surely as any physical force. Vernadsky was an important pioneer of the scientific bases for the environmental sciences.^[5]

Vernadsky was a member of the Russian and Soviet Academies of Sciences since 1912 and was a founder and first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev, Ukraine (1918). He was a founder of the National Library of Ukrainian State and worked closely with the Tavrida University in Crimea. During the Russian Civil War, he hosted gatherings of the young intellectuals who later founded the émigré Eurasianism movement.^[6] He was opposed to Ukrainian independence.^[4]

In the late 1930s and early 1940s Vernadsky played an early advisory role in the Soviet atomic bomb project, as one of the most forceful voices arguing for the exploitation of nuclear power, the surveying of Soviet uranium sources, and having nuclear fission research conducted at his Radium Institute. He died, however, before a full project was pursued.

Vernadsky's son George Vernadsky (1887–1973) emigrated to the United States where he published numerous books on medieval Russian history, medieval Ukrainian history, and modern Russian history.

A main street in Moscow, and the Tavrida National University in Crimea, are named in honor of Vladimir Vernadsky.

Works (selected)[link]

• Geochemistry, published in Russian 1924
• The Biosphere, first published in Russian in 1926. English translations:
  • Oracle, AZ, Synergetic Press, 1986, ISBN 0-907791-11-5, 86 pp.
  • tr. David B. Langmuir, ed. Mark A. S. McMenamin, New York, Copernicus, 1998, ISBN 0-387-98268-X, 192 pp.
• Essays on Geochemistry & the Biosphere, tr. Olga Barash, Santa Fe, NM, Synergetic Press, ISBN 0-907791-36-0, 2006

Diaries[link]

• Dnevniki 1917-1921: oktyabr 1917-yanvar 1920 (Diaries 1917-1921), Kiev, Naukova dumka, 1994, ISBN 5-12-004641-X, 269 pp.
• Dnevniki. Mart 1921-avgust 1925 (Diaries 1921-1925), Moscow, Nauka, 1998, ISBN 5-02-004422-9, 213 pp.
• Dnevniki 1926-1934 (Diaries 1926-1934), Moscow, Nauka, 2001, ISBN 5-02-004409-1, 455 pp.
• Dnevniki 1935-1941 v dvukh knigakh. Kniga 1, 1935-1938 (Diaries 1935-1941 in two volumes. Volume 1, 1935-1938), Moscow, Nauka, 2006,ISBN 5-02-033831-1,444 pp.
• Dnevniki 1935-1941 v dvukh knigakh. Kniga 2, 1939-1941 (Diaries 1935-1941. Volume 2, 1939-1941), Moscow, Nauka, 2006, ISBN 5-02-033832-X, 295 pp.

See also[link]

• Gaia theory (science)
• Noosphere
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• Russian philosophy

References[link]

• "Science and Russian Cultures in an Age of Revolutions" ISBN 0-253-31123-3
• Lapo, Andrei V. (March 2001). "Vladimir I. Vernadsky (1863-1945), founder of the biosphere concept". Int. Microbiol. 4 (1): pp. 47–9. DOI:10.1007/s101230100008. PMID 11770820. http://www.im.microbios.org/13march01/09%20Lapo%20(P).pdf. 

External links[link]

• The grave of Vernadsky
• Behrends, Thilo, The Renaissance of V.I. Vernadsky, Newsletter of the Geochemical Society, #125, October 2005, http://www.geochemsoc.org/downloads/gn125.pdf retrieved Aug. 22, 2010
• Vernadsky, Vladimir Ivanovich, GEOCHEMISTRY AND THE BIOSPHERE. http://www.synergeticpress.com/vernadsky.html
• Electronic archive of writings from and about Vernadsky (Russian) http://vernadsky.lib.ru/

Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller, c. 1917.
Born	(1895-07-12)July 12, 1895 Milton, Massachusetts, United States
Died	July 1, 1983(1983-07-01) (aged 87) Los Angeles, United States
Occupation	designer, author, inventor
Spouse	Anne Hewlett (m. 1917) «start: (1917)»"Marriage: Anne Hewlett to Buckminster Fuller" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.db.wn.com/index.php/Buckminster_Fuller)
Children	2: Allegra Fuller Snyder and Alexandra who died in childhood

Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983)^[1] was an American systems theorist, architect, engineer, author, designer, inventor, and futurist.

Fuller published more than 30 books, inventing and popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetic. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres.

Biography[link]

Fuller was born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Buckminster Fuller and Caroline Wolcott Andrews, and also the grandnephew of the American Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller. He attended Froebelian Kindergarten. Spending much of his youth on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine, he had trouble with geometry, being unable to understand the abstraction necessary to imagine that a chalk dot on the blackboard represented a mathematical point, or that an imperfectly drawn line with an arrow on the end was meant to stretch off to infinity. He often made items from materials he brought home from the woods, and sometimes made his own tools. He experimented with designing a new apparatus for human propulsion of small boats.

Years later, he decided that this sort of experience had provided him with not only an interest in design, but also a habit of being familiar with and knowledgeable about the materials that his later projects would require. Fuller earned a machinist's certification, and knew how to use the press brake, stretch press, and other tools and equipment used in the sheet metal trade.^[2]

Academia[link]

Fuller attended Milton Academy in Massachusetts, and after that began studying at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House. He was expelled from Harvard twice: first for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and then, after having been readmitted, for his "irresponsibility and lack of interest." By his own appraisal, he was a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment.^[2] It was to be many years before he received a Sc.D. from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Wartime experience[link]

Between his sessions at Harvard, Fuller worked in Canada as a mechanic in a textile mill, and later as a laborer in the meat-packing industry. He also served in the U.S. Navy in World War I, as a shipboard radio operator, as an editor of a publication, and as a crash rescue boat commander. After discharge, he worked again in the meat packing industry, thereby acquiring management experience. In 1917, he married Anne Hewlett. During the early 1920s, he and his father-in-law developed the Stockade Building System for producing light-weight, weatherproof, and fireproof housing—although the company would ultimately fail.^[2]

Bankruptcy and depression[link]

By age 32, Fuller was bankrupt and jobless, living in public, low-income housing in Chicago, Illinois. In 1922,^[3] Fuller's young daughter Alexandra died from complications from polio and spinal meningitis. Allegedly, he felt responsible and this caused him to drink frequently and to contemplate suicide for a while. He finally chose to embark on "an experiment, to find what a single individual [could] contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity."^[4]

Recovery[link]

In 1927 Fuller resolved to think independently which included a commitment to "the search for the principles governing the universe and help advance the evolution of humanity in accordance with them... finding ways of doing more with less to the end that all people everywhere can have more and more." By 1928, Fuller was living in Greenwich Village and spending much of his time at the popular café Romany Marie's,^[5] where he had spent an evening in conversation with Marie and Eugene O'Neill several years earlier.^[6] Fuller accepted a job decorating the interior of the café in exchange for meals,^[5] giving informal lectures several times a week,^[6][7] and models of the Dymaxion house were exhibited at the café. Isamu Noguchi arrived during 1929—Constantin Brâncuşi, an old friend of Marie's,^[8] had directed him there^[5]—and Noguchi and Fuller were soon collaborating on several projects,^[7][9] including the modeling of the Dymaxion car.^[10] It was the beginning of their lifelong friendship.

Geodesic domes[link]

Fuller taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina during the summers of 1948 and 1949,^[11] serving as its Summer Institute director in 1949. There, with the support of a group of professors and students, he began reinventing a project that would make him famous: the geodesic dome. Although the geodesic dome had been created some 30 years earlier by Dr. Walther Bauersfeld, Fuller was awarded United States patents. He is credited for popularizing this type of structure.

One of his early models was first constructed in 1945 at Bennington College in Vermont, where he frequently lectured. In 1949, he erected his first geodesic dome building that could sustain its own weight with no practical limits. It was 4.3 meters (14 ft) in diameter and constructed of aluminum aircraft tubing and a vinyl-plastic skin, in the form of an icosahedron. To prove his design, and to awe non-believers, Fuller suspended from the structure's framework several students who had helped him build it. The U.S. government recognized the importance of his work, and employed his firm Geodesics, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina to make small domes for the army. Within a few years there were thousands of these domes around the world.

His first "continuous tension – discontinuous compression" geodesic dome (full sphere in this case) was constructed at the University of Oregon Architecture School in 1959 with the help of students. (Ref: The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller ISBN 0-385-01804-5.) These continuous tension – discontinuous compression structures featured single force compression members (no flexure or bending moments) that did not touch each other and were 'suspended' by the tensional members.

Best-known work[link]

For the next half-century, Fuller developed many ideas, designs and inventions, particularly regarding practical, inexpensive shelter and transportation. He documented his life, philosophy and ideas scrupulously by a daily diary (later called the Dymaxion Chronofile), and by twenty-eight publications. Fuller financed some of his experiments with inherited funds, sometimes augmented by funds invested by his collaborators, one example being the Dymaxion car project.

World stage[link]

The Montreal Biosphère by Buckminster Fuller, 1967

International recognition began with the success of huge geodesic domes during the 1950s. Fuller lectured at NC State University in Raleigh in 1949, where he met James Fitzgibbon, who would become a close friend and colleague. Fitzgibbon was director of Geodesics, Inc. and Synergetics, Inc. the first licensees to design geodesic domes. Thomas C. Howard was head designer, architect and engineer for both companies. From 1959 to 1970, Fuller taught at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU). Beginning as an assistant professor, he gained full professorship in 1968, in the School of Art and Design. Working as a designer, scientist, developer, and writer, he lectured for many years around the world. He collaborated at SIU with the designer John McHale. In 1965, Fuller inaugurated the World Design Science Decade (1965 to 1975) at the meeting of the International Union of Architects in Paris, which was, in his own words, devoted to "applying the principles of science to solving the problems of humanity." Later in his SIU tenure, Fuller was also a visiting professor at SIU Edwardsville, where he designed the dome for the campus Religious Center.^[12]

Fuller believed human societies would soon rely mainly on renewable sources of energy, such as solar- and wind-derived electricity. He hoped for an age of "omni-successful education and sustenance of all humanity." Fuller referred to himself as "the property of universe" and during one radio interview he gave later in life, declared himself and his work "the property of all humanity". For his lifetime of work, the American Humanist Association named him the 1969 Humanist of the Year.

Honors[link]

Fuller was awarded 28 United States patents^[13] and many honorary doctorates. In 1960, he was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal from The Franklin Institute. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1968.^[14] On January 16, 1970, he received the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects. He also received numerous other awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented to him on February 23, 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.

Last filmed appearance[link]

Fuller's last filmed interview took place on April 3, 1983, in which he presented his analysis of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers as a unique embodiment of the structural principles found in nature. Portions of this interview appear in I Build the Tower, a documentary film on Rodia's architectural masterpiece.

Death[link]

Gravestone (see trim tab)

Fuller died on July 1, 1983, 11 days before his 88th birthday. During the period leading up to his death, his wife had been lying comatose in a Los Angeles hospital, dying of cancer. It was while visiting her there that he exclaimed, at a certain point: "She is squeezing my hand!" He then stood up, suffered a heart attack, and died an hour later, at age 87. His wife of 66 years died 36 hours later. They are buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Philosophy and worldview[link]

The grandson of Unitarian minister Arthur Buckminster Fuller,^[15] R. Buckminster Fuller was also Unitarian.^[16] Buckminster Fuller was an early environmental activist. He was very aware of the finite resources the planet has to offer, and promoted a principle that he termed "ephemeralization", which, in essence—according to futurist and Fuller disciple Stewart Brand—Fuller coined to mean "doing more with less".^[17] Resources and waste material from cruder products could be recycled into making more valuable products, increasing the efficiency of the entire process. Fuller also introduced synergetics, an encompassing term which he used broadly as a metaphoric language for communicating experiences using geometric concepts and, more specifically, to reference the empirical study of systems in transformation, with an emphasis on total system behavior unpredicted by the behavior of any isolated components. Fuller coined this term long before the term synergy became popular.

Fuller was a pioneer in thinking globally, and he explored principles of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering and design.^[18][19] He cited François de Chardenedes' opinion that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost out of our current energy "budget" (essentially, the net incoming solar flux), had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U.S. gallon (US$300,000 per litre) to produce. From this point of view, its use as a transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their earnings.^[20] An encapsulation quotation of his views might be, "There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance."^[21][22][23]

Fuller was concerned about sustainability and about human survival under the existing socio-economic system, yet remained optimistic about humanity's future. Defining wealth in terms of knowledge, as the "technological ability to protect, nurture, support, and accommodate all growth needs of life," his analysis of the condition of "Spaceship Earth" caused him to conclude that at a certain time during the 1970s, humanity had attained an unprecedented state. He was convinced that the accumulation of relevant knowledge, combined with the quantities of major recyclable resources that had already been extracted from the earth, had attained a critical level, such that competition for necessities was not necessary anymore. Cooperation had become the optimum survival strategy. "Selfishness," he declared, "is unnecessary and hence-forth unrationalizable.... War is obsolete."^[24] He criticized previous utopian schemes as too exclusive, and thought this was a major source of their failure. To work, he thought that a utopia needed to include everyone.^[25]

Fuller also claimed that the natural analytic geometry of the universe was based on arrays of tetrahedra. He developed this in several ways, from the close-packing of spheres and the number of compressive or tensile members required to stabilize an object in space. One confirming result was that the strongest possible homogeneous truss is cyclically tetrahedral.^[26]

In his 1970 book I Seem To Be a Verb, he wrote: "I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process—an integral function of the universe."

He had become a guru of the design, architecture, and 'alternative' communities, such as Drop City, the community of experimental artists to whom he awarded the 1966 "Dymaxion Award" for "poetically economic" domed living structures.

Major design projects[link]

A geodesic sphere

The geodesic dome[link]

Fuller was most famous for his lattice shell structures – geodesic domes, which have been used as parts of military radar stations, civic buildings, environmental protest camps and exhibition attractions. An examination of the geodesic design by Walther Bauersfeld for the Zeiss Planetarium, built some 20 years prior to Fuller's work, reveals that Fuller's Geodesic Dome patent (U.S. 2,682,235; awarded in 1954), follows the same design as Bauersfeld's.^[27]

Their construction is based on extending some basic principles to build simple "tensegrity" structures (tetrahedron, octahedron, and the closest packing of spheres), making them lightweight and stable. The geodesic dome was a result of Fuller's exploration of nature's constructing principles to find design solutions. The Fuller Dome is referenced in the Hugo Award-winning novel Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, in which a geodesic dome is said to cover the entire island of Manhattan, and it floats on air due to the hot-air balloon effect of the large air-mass under the dome (and perhaps its construction of lightweight materials).^[28]

Transportation[link]

In the 1930s, Fuller designed and built prototypes of what he hoped would be a safer, aerodynamic car, which he called the Dymaxion. ("Dymaxion" is said to be a syllabic abbreviation of dynamic maximum tension, or possibly of dynamic maximum ion.)^[29] Fuller worked with professional colleagues for three years beginning in 1932 on a design idea Fuller had derived from aircraft technologies. The three prototype cars were different from anything being sold at the time. They had three wheels: two front drive wheels and one rear, steered wheel. The engine was in the rear, and the chassis and body were original designs. The aerodynamic, somewhat tear-shaped body was large enough to seat eleven people and was about 18 feet (5.5 m) long, resembling a blend of a light aircraft (without wings) and a Volkswagen van of 1950s vintage. All three prototypes were essentially a mini-bus, and its concept long predated the Volkswagen Type 2 mini-bus conceived in 1947 by Ben Pon.

Despite its length, and due to its three-wheel design, the Dymaxion turned on a small radius and could easily be parked in a tight space. The prototypes were efficient in fuel consumption for their day, traveling about 30 miles per gallon. Fuller contributed a great deal of his own money to the project, in addition to funds from one of his professional collaborators. An industrial investor was also very interested in the concept. Fuller anticipated that the cars could travel on an open highway safely at up to about 160 km/h (100 miles per hour), but, in practise, they were difficult to control and steer above 80 km/h (50 mph). Investors backed out and research ended after one of the prototypes was involved in a high-profile collision that resulted in a fatality. In 2007, Time Magazine reported on the Dymaxion as one of the "50 worst cars of all time".^[30]

In 1943, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser asked Fuller to develop a prototype for a smaller car, but Fuller's five-seater design was never developed further.

Housing[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

A Dymaxion House at The Henry Ford.

Fuller's energy-efficient and inexpensive Dymaxion House garnered much interest, but has never been produced. Here the term "Dymaxion" is used in effect to signify a "radically strong and light tensegrity structure". One of Fuller's Dymaxion Houses is on display as a permanent exhibit at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. Designed and developed during the mid-1940s, this prototype is a round structure (not a dome), shaped something like the flattened "bell" of certain jellyfish. It has several innovative features, including revolving dresser drawers, and a fine-mist shower that reduces water consumption. According to Fuller biographer Steve Crooks, the house was designed to be delivered in two cylindrical packages, with interior color panels available at local dealers. A circular structure at the top of the house was designed to rotate around a central mast to use natural winds for cooling and air circulation.

Conceived nearly two decades before, and developed in Wichita, Kansas, the house was designed to be lightweight and adapted to windy climates. It was to be inexpensive to produce and purchase, and assembled easily. It was to be produced using factories, workers, and technologies that had produced World War II aircraft. It was ultramodern-looking at the time, built of metal, and sheathed in polished aluminum. The basic model enclosed 90 m² (1000 square feet) of floor area. Due to publicity, there were many orders during the early Post-War years, but the company that Fuller and others had formed to produce the houses failed due to management problems.

In 1969, Fuller began the Otisco Project, named after its location in Otisco, New York. The project developed and demonstrated concrete spray technology used in conjunction with mesh covered wireforms as a viable means of producing large scale, load bearing spanning structures built on site without the use of pouring molds, other adjacent surfaces or hoisting.

The initial construction method used a circular concrete footing in which anchor posts were set. Tubes cut to length and with ends flattened were then bolted together to form a duodeca-rhombicahedron (22 sided hemisphere) geodesic structure with spans ranging to 60 feet (18 m). The form was then draped with layers of ¼-inch wire mesh attached by twist ties. Concrete was then sprayed onto the structure, building up a solid layer which, when cured, would support additional concrete to be added by a variety of traditional means. Fuller referred to these buildings as monolithic ferroconcrete geodesic domes. The tubular frame form proved too problematic when it came to setting windows and doors, and was abandoned. The second method used iron rebar set vertically in the concrete footing and then bent inward and welded in place to create the dome's wireform structure and performed satisfactorily. Domes up to three stories tall built with this method proved to be remarkably strong. Other shapes such as cones, pyramids and arches proved equally adaptable.

The project was enabled by a grant underwritten by Syracuse University and sponsored by US Steel (rebar), the Johnson Wire Corp, (mesh) and Portland Cement Company (concrete). The ability to build large complex load bearing concrete spanning structures in free space would open many possibilities in architecture, and is considered as one of Fuller's greatest contributions.

Alternative map projection[link]

Fuller also designed an alternative projection map, called the Dymaxion map. This was designed to show Earth's continents with minimum distortion when projected or printed on a flat surface.

Quirks[link]

Fuller was a frequent flier, often crossing time zones. He famously wore three watches; one for the current zone, one for the zone he had departed, and one for the zone he was going to.^[31][32] In this respect he follows the jazz drummer Buddy Rich, who in the Pete Atkin / Clive James song “The Wristwatch for a Drummer”, also “wears three, one on the right wrist, one on the left, and the third one around his knee”. The wristwatch in question is the imagined “Omega Incabloc Oyster Accutron 72” for which “Buckminster Fuller designed the case”^[33] Fuller also noted that a single sheet of newsprint, inserted over a shirt and under a suit jacket, provided completely effective heat insulation during long flights.

He experimented with polyphasic sleep, which he called Dymaxion sleep. In 1943, he told Time Magazine that he had slept only two hours a day for two years. He quit the schedule because it conflicted with his business associates' sleep habits, but stated that Dymaxion sleep could help the United States win World War II.^[34]

Fuller documented his life copiously from 1915 to 1983, approximately 270 feet (82 m) of papers in a collection called the Dymaxion Chronofile. He also kept copies of all incoming and outgoing correspondence. The enormous Fuller Collection is currently housed at Stanford University.

If somebody kept a very accurate record of a human being, going through the era from the Gay 90s, from a very different kind of world through the turn of the century—as far into the twentieth century as you might live. I decided to make myself a good case history of such a human being and it meant that I could not be judge of what was valid to put in or not. I must put everything in, so I started a very rigorous record.^[35][36]

In his youth, Fuller experimented with several ways of presenting himself: R. B. Fuller, Buckminster Fuller, but as an adult finally settled on R. Buckminster Fuller, and signed his letters as such. However, he preferred to be addressed as simply "Bucky".

Practical achievements[link]

Fuller introduced a number of concepts, and helped develop others. Certainly, a number of his projects were not successful in terms of commitment from industry or acceptance by most of the public. However, more than 500,000 geodesic domes have been built around the world and many are in use. According to the Buckminster Fuller Institute,^[37] the largest geodesic-dome structures are:

• Seagaia Ocean Dome: Miyazaki, Japan, 216 m (710 ft).
• Multi-Purpose Arena: Nagoya, Japan, 187 m (614 ft).
• Tacoma Dome: Tacoma, Washington, USA, 162 m (530 ft).
• Superior Dome: Northern Michigan Univ. Marquette, Michigan, USA, 160 m (525 ft).
• Walkup Skydome: Northern Arizona Univ. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, 153 m (502 ft).
• Poliedro de Caracas: Caracas, Venezuela, 145 m (475 ft).^[38][39][40]
• Round Valley High School Stadium: Springerville-Eagar, Arizona, USA, 134 m (440 ft).
• Former Spruce Goose Hangar: Long Beach, California, USA, 126 m (415 ft).
• Formosa Plastics Storage Facility: Mai Liao, Taiwan, 123 m (402 ft).
• Union Tank Car Maintenance Facility: Baton Rouge, Louisiana USA, 117 m (384 ft), destroyed in November 2007.^[41]
• Lehigh Portland Cement Storage Facility: Union Bridge, Maryland USA, 114 m (374 ft).
• The Eden Project, Cornwall, United Kingdom^[42]

Panoramic view of the geodesic domes at the Eden Project

Other notable domes include:

• Spaceship Earth at Disney World's Epcot Center in Florida, 80.8-meters (265 ft) wide (Spaceship Earth is actually a self supporting geodesic sphere, the only one currently in existence.)
• The Gold Dome in Oklahoma City, formerly a bank and now a multicultural society and business center.
• Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, is a geodesic sphere hosting the Telus World of Science, a science centre (formerly called Science World), that was originally the Expo Centre built for Expo 86.
• The dome over a shopping center in downtown Ankara, Turkey, 109.7-meter (360 ft) tall
• The dome enclosing a civic center in Stockholm, Sweden, 85.3-meter (280 ft) high.
• The world's largest aluminum dome formerly housed the “Spruce Goose” airplane in Long Beach Harbor, California, USA.

However, contrary to Fuller's hopes, domes are not an everyday sight in most places. In practice, most of the smaller owner-built geodesic structures had disadvantages (see geodesic domes), including their unconventional appearance.

A spin-off of Fuller's dome-design conceptualization was the Buckminster Ball, which was the official FIFA approved design for footballs (association football), from their introduction at the 1970 World Cup until recently. The design was a truncated icosahedron – essentially a "Geodesic Sphere", consisting of 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal panels. This was used continuously for 34 years until replaced by the 14-panel Teamgeist for the 2006 World Cup.

Fuller was followed (historically) by other designers and architects, such as Sir Norman Foster and Steve Baer, willing to explore the possibilities of new geometries in the design of buildings, not based on conventional rectangles.

Language and neologisms[link]

Buckminster Fuller spoke and wrote in a unique style and said it was important to describe the world as accurately as possible.^[43] Fuller often created long run-on sentences and used unusual compound words (omniwell-informed, intertransformative, omni-interaccommodative, omniself-regenerative) as well as terms he himself invented.^[44]

Fuller used the word Universe without the definite or indefinite articles (the or a) and always capitalized the word. Fuller wrote that "by Universe I mean: the aggregate of all humanity's consciously apprehended and communicated (to self or others) Experiences."^[45]

The words "down" and "up", according to Fuller, are awkward in that they refer to a planar concept of direction inconsistent with human experience. The words "in" and "out" should be used instead, he argued, because they better describe an object's relation to a gravitational center, the Earth. "I suggest to audiences that they say, 'I'm going "outstairs" and "instairs."' At first that sounds strange to them; They all laugh about it. But if they try saying in and out for a few days in fun, they find themselves beginning to realize that they are indeed going inward and outward in respect to the center of Earth, which is our Spaceship Earth. And for the first time they begin to feel real 'reality.'"^[46]

"World-around" is a term coined by Fuller to replace "worldwide". The general belief in a flat Earth died out in Classical antiquity, so using "wide" is an anachronism when referring to the surface of the Earth—a spheroidal surface has area and encloses a volume but has no width. Fuller held that unthinking use of obsolete scientific ideas detracts from and misleads intuition. Other neologisms collectively invented by the Fuller family, according to Allegra Fuller Snyder, are the terms "sunsight" and "sunclipse", replacing "sunrise" and "sunset" to overturn the geocentric bias of most pre-Copernican celestial mechanics.

Fuller also invented the word "livingry," as opposed to weaponry (or "killingry"), to mean that which is in support of all human, plant, and Earth life. "The architectural profession—civil, naval, aeronautical, and astronautical—has always been the place where the most competent thinking is conducted regarding livingry, as opposed to weaponry."^[47]

As well as contributing significantly to the development of tensegrity technology, Fuller invented the term "tensegrity" from tensional integrity. "Tensegrity describes a structural-relationship principle in which structural shape is guaranteed by the finitely closed, comprehensively continuous, tensional behaviors of the system and not by the discontinuous and exclusively local compressional member behaviors. Tensegrity provides the ability to yield increasingly without ultimately breaking or coming asunder."^[48]

"Dymaxion" is a portmanteau of "dynamic maximum tension". It was invented by an adman about 1929 at Marshall Field's department store in Chicago to describe Fuller's concept house, which was shown as part of a house of the future store display. These were three words that Fuller used repeatedly to describe his design.

Fuller also helped to popularise the concept of Spaceship Earth: "The most important fact about Spaceship Earth: an instruction manual didn't come with it."^[49]

Concepts and buildings[link]

His concepts and buildings include:

Influence and legacy[link]

Among the many people who were influenced by Buckminster Fuller are: Constance Abernathy,^[52] Ruth Asawa,^[53] J. Baldwin,^[54][55] Michael Ben-Eli,^[56] Pierre Cabrol,^[57] Joseph Clinton,^[58] Peter Floyd,^[56] Medard Gabel,^[59] Michael Hays,^[56] David Johnston,^[60] Robert Kiyosaki,^[61] Peter Pearce,^[56] Shoji Sadao,^[56] Edwin Schlossberg,^[56] Kenneth Snelson,^[53][62][63] and Robert Anton Wilson.^[64]

An allotrope of carbon, fullerene—and a particular molecule of that allotrope C₆₀ (buckminsterfullerene or buckyball) has been named after him. The Buckminsterfullerene molecule, which consists of 60 carbon atoms, very closely resembles a spherical version of Fuller's geodesic dome. The 1996 Nobel prize in chemistry was given to Kroto, Curl, and Smalley for their discovery of the fullerene.^[65]

On July 12, 2004, the United States Post Office released a new commemorative stamp honoring R. Buckminster Fuller on the 50th anniversary of his patent for the geodesic dome and by the occasion of his 109th birthday.

Fuller was the subject of two documentary films: The World of Buckminster Fuller (1971) and Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud (1996). Additionally, filmmaker Sam Green and the band Yo La Tengo collaborated on a 2012 "live documentary" about Fuller, The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller.^[66]

In June 2008, the Whitney Museum of American Art presented "Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe", the most comprehensive retrospective to date of his work and ideas.^[67] The exhibition traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2009. It presented a combination of models, sketches, and other artifacts, representing six decades of the artist's integrated approach to housing, transportation, communication, and cartography. It also featured the extensive connections with Chicago from his years spent living, teaching, and working in the city.^[68]

In 2009 Noel Murphy wrote and performed the one-man show Buckminster Fuller LIVE! and then later on in 2010 Murphy directed the documentary film, The Last Dymaxion: Buckminster Fuller's Dream Restored.^{[citation needed]}

On February 25, 2011^{[citation needed]}, the indie rock band Driftless Pony Club released Buckminster, a concept album based upon the life and work of Fuller.^[69]

Patents[link]

(from the Table of Contents of Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller (1983) ISBN 0-312-43477-4)

• 1927 U.S. Patent 1,633,702 Stockade: Building Structure
• 1927 U.S. Patent 1,634,900 Stockade: Pneumatic Forming Process
• 1928 (Application Abandoned) 4D House
• 1937 U.S. Patent 2,101,057 Dymaxion Car
• 1940 U.S. Patent 2,220,482 Dymaxion Bathroom
• 1944 U.S. Patent 2,343,764 Dymaxion Deployment Unit (sheet)
• 1944 U.S. Patent 2,351,419 Dymaxion Deployment Unit (frame)
• 1946 U.S. Patent 2,393,676 Dymaxion Map
• 1946 (No Patent) Dymaxion House (Wichita)
• 1954 U.S. Patent 2,682,235 Geodesic Dome
• 1959 U.S. Patent 2,881,717 Paperboard Dome
• 1959 U.S. Patent 2,905,113 Plydome
• 1959 U.S. Patent 2,914,074 Catenary (Geodesic Tent)
• 1961 U.S. Patent 2,986,241 Octet Truss
• 1962 U.S. Patent 3,063,521 Tensegrity
• 1963 U.S. Patent 3,080,583 Submarisle (Undersea Island)
• 1964 U.S. Patent 3,139,957 Aspension (Suspension Building)
• 1965 U.S. Patent 3,197,927 Monohex (Geodesic Structures)
• 1965 U.S. Patent 3,203,144 Laminar Dome
• 1965 (Filed – No Patent) Octa Spinner
• 1967 U.S. Patent 3,354,591 Star Tensegrity (Octahedral Truss)
• 1970 U.S. Patent 3,524,422 Rowing Needles (Watercraft)
• 1974 U.S. Patent 3,810,336 Geodesic Hexa-Pent
• 1975 U.S. Patent 3,863,455 Floatable Breakwater
• 1975 U.S. Patent 3,866,366 Non-symmetrical Tensegrity
• 1979 U.S. Patent 4,136,994 Floating Breakwater
• 1980 U.S. Patent 4,207,715 Tensegrity Truss
• 1983 U.S. Patent 4,377,114 Hanging Storage Shelf Unit

Bibliography[link]

• 4d Timelock (1928)
• Nine Chains to the Moon (1938)
• Untitled Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization (1962)
• Ideas and Integrities, a Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure (1963) ISBN 0-13-449140-8
• No More Secondhand God and Other Writings (1963)
• Education Automation: Freeing the Scholar to Return (1963)
• What I Have Learned: A Collection of 20 Autobiograhical Essays, Chapter "How Little I Know", (1968)
• Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1969) ISBN 0-8093-2461-X
• Utopia or Oblivion (1969) ISBN 0-553-02883-9
• Approaching the Benign Environment (1970) ISBN 0-8173-6641-5 (with Eric A. Walker and James R. Killian, Jr.)
• I Seem to Be a Verb (1970) coauthors Jerome Agel, Quentin Fiore, ISBN 1-127-23153-7
• Intuition (1970)
• Buckminster Fuller to Children of Earth (1972) compiled and photographed by Cam Smith, ISBN 0-385-02979-9
• The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller (1960, 1973) coauthor Robert Marks, ISBN 0-385-01804-5
• Earth, Inc (1973) ISBN 0-385-01825-8
• Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1975) in collaboration with E.J. Applewhite with a preface and contribution by Arthur L. Loeb, ISBN 0-02-541870-X
• Tetrascroll: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, A Cosmic Fairy Tale (1975)
• And It Came to Pass — Not to Stay (1976) ISBN 0-02-541810-6
• R. Buckminster Fuller on Education (1979) ISBN 0-87023-276-2
• Synergetics 2: Further Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1979) in collaboration with E.J. Applewhite
• Buckminster Fuller Sketchbook (1981)
• Critical Path (1981) ISBN 0-312-17488-8
• Grunch of Giants (1983) ISBN 0-312-35193-3
• Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller (1983) ISBN 0-312-43477-4
• Humans in Universe (1983) coauthor Anwar Dil, ISBN 0-89925-001-7
• Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity (1992) coauthor Kiyoshi Kuromiya, ISBN 0-02-541850-5

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	World War I portal
	Sustainable development portal

• The Buckminster Fuller Challenge
• Cloud nine (Tensegrity sphere)
• Design science revolution
• Emissions Reduction Currency System
• Noosphere
• Old Man River's City project
• Spome
• Whole Earth Catalog

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Applewhite, E. J. Cosmic Fishing: An account of writing Synergetics with Buckminster Fuller. 1977 (ISBN 0-02-502710-7)
• Applewhite, E. J., ed. Synergetics Dictionary, The Mind Of Buckminster Fuller; in four volumes. Garland Publishing, Inc. New York and London. 1986 (ISBN 0-8240-8729-1)
• Chu, Hsiao-Yun. "Fuller's Laboratory Notebook." Collections, Volume 4 Issue 4 Fall 2008 (Lanham, MD: Altamira Press), 295–306.
• Chu, Hsiao-Yun and Roberto Trujillo. New Views on R. Buckminster Fuller.(Stanford, CA; Stanford University Press, 2009) ISBN 0-8047-6279-1
• Eastham, Scott: American Dreamer. Bucky Fuller and the Sacred Geometry of Nature; The Lutterworth Press 2007, Cambridge; ISBN 978-0-7188-3031-1
• Edmondson, Amy: "A Fuller Explanation"; EmergentWorld LLC. 2007 (ISBN 978-0-6151-8314-5)
• Hatch, Alden Buckminster Fuller At Home In The Universe. 1974 (ISBN 0-440-04408-1) Crown Publishers, New York.
• Hoogenboom, Olive (1999). "Fuller, R. Buckminster". American National Biography. 8. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 559–562. 
• Kenner, Hugh. Bucky: a guided tour of Buckminster Fuller. 1973 (ISBN 0-688-00141-6)
• Krausse, Joachim and Lichtenstein, Claude. ed. Your Private Sky, R. Buckminster Fuller: The Art Of Design Science. Lars Mueller Publishers. 1999 (ISBN 3-907044-88-6)
• McHale, John. R. Buckminster Fuller. George Brazillier, Inc., New York. hardback. 1962.
• Pawley, Martin. Buckminster Fuller. Taplinger Publishing Company, New York. 1991. hardcover (ISBN 0-8008-1116-X)
• Potter, R. Robert. Buckminster Fuller (Pioneers in Change Series). Silver Burdett Publishers. 1990 (ISBN 0-382-09972-9)
• Robertson, Donald. Mind's Eye Of Buckminster Fuller. 1974 (ISBN 0-533-01017-9) Vantage Press, Inc., New York.
• Sieden, Lloyd. Buckminster Fuller's Universe, His Life and Work. 1989 (ISBN 0-7382-0379-3), explores Fuller's personal life, his beliefs and drives.
• Snyder, Robert. Buckminster Fuller: An Autobiographical Monologue/Scenario. St. Martin's Press, New York. hardback. 1980 (ISBN 0-312-24547-5)
• Sterngold, James. "The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller." The New York Times [Arts Section], June 15, 2008.
• Ward, James, ed., The Artifacts Of R. Buckminster Fuller, A Comprehensive Collection of His Designs and Drawings in Four Volumes: Volume One. The Dymaxion Experiment, 1926–1943; Volume Two. Dymaxion Deployment, 1927–1946; Volume Three. The Geodesic Revolution, Part 1, 1947–1959; Volume Four. The Geodesic Revolution, Part 2, 1960–1983: Edited with descriptions by James Ward. Garland Publishing, New York. 1984 (ISBN 0-8240-5082-7 vol. 1, ISBN 0-8240-5083-5 vol. 2, ISBN 0-8240-5084-3 vol. 3, ISBN 0-8240-5085-1 vol. 4)
• Wong, Yunn Chii, The Geodesic Works of Richard Buckminster Fuller, 1948–1968 (The Universe as a Home of Man), PhD thesis, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 1999.
• Wühr, Paul, Das falsche Buch. (Fuller appears as a character in this book.)
• Zung, T.K. Thomas. Buckminster Fuller: Anthology for a New Millennium. St. Martin's Press. 2001 (ISBN 0-312-26639-1)

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Buckminster Fuller

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Buckminster Fuller

• Buckminster Fuller Institute
• Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – February 23, 1983
• Works by Buckminster Fuller on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• Buckminster Fuller, a portrait by Ansel Adams

Articles about Fuller

• WIRED article about Buckminster Fuller
• Dymaxion Man: The Visions of Buckminster Fuller by Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker (June 9, 2008)
• The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller New York Times article questioning Fuller's supposed consideration of suicide, (June 15, 2008)

Collections

• Buckminster Fuller Digital Collection at Stanford includes 380 hrs. of streamed audio-visual material from Fuller's personal archive
• Buckminster Fuller Papers 1,200 feet (370 m) housed at Stanford University Libraries
• Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University – Archival photographs of Buckminster Fuller from the Toronto Telegram.

Everything I Know

• "Everything I Know" Session, Philadelphia, 1975 at Stanford University Libraries archives
• The "Everything I Know" 42-hour lecture session — video, audio, and full transcripts.

Media

• R. Buckminster Fuller on PBS
• Buckminster Fuller discussed on The State of Things
• The World of Buckminster Fuller at the Internet Movie Database, a 1974 documentary
• Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud at the Internet Movie Database, a 1996 episode of American Masters
• Critical Path: R. Buckminster Fuller at the Internet Movie Database, a 2004 short animated documentary

Other resources

• CJ Fearnley's List of Buckminster Fuller Resources on the Internet
• Buckminster Fuller at Pionniers & Précurseurs. Includes a bibliography