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VOICE ONE:
I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program Peoplein America. Today we tell about an unusual man who had manyabilities, Richard Buckminster Fuller.
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VOICE ONE:
Building designer. Engineer. Inventor. Thinker. Poet. Not fivepeople. Just one: Richard Buckminster Fuller. “Bucky” Fuller, as hewas known, was one of the most unusual thinkers of the twentiethcentury. His aim in life was to make the human race a success in theuniverse.
Bucky Fuller spent most of hislife searching for new ideas. He also searched for unusualconnections between existing ideas. He described himself in thesewords: “A complete, future-thinking design-science explorer.”
Fuller believed deeply in technology. Through technology, hesaid, people can do anything they need to do.
VOICE TWO:
R. Buckminster Fuller died in nineteen-eighty-three at the age ofeighty-seven. During his long life, he discussed his idea abouttechnology and human survival. He called his idea “dymaxion.” Itcame from three words. Dynamic, meaning a force. Maximum, meaningthe most. And ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with anelectrical charge.
Fuller explained the word dymaxion as a method of doing more withless. Everything he did was guided by this idea. He designed adymaxion car, a dymaxion house, and a dymaxion map of the world. Buthe probably is known best for another invention — the geodesicdome. A geodesic dome is a round building made of manystraight-sided pieces.
Talking about R. Buckminster Fuller means using strange words.This is because Fuller himself invented words to describe his ideasand designs. His designs were way ahead of his time. They still are.
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VOICE ONE:
R. Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, ineighteen-ninety-five. Bucky could not see clearly, because his eyesdid not point straight ahead. So, his world was filled with massesof color without clear shapes.
When he was four years old, he got eyeglasses to correct theproblem. Suddenly, he could see the shapes of people’s faces. Hecould see stars in the sky and leaves on the trees. He never losthis joy at the beauty he discovered in the world.
As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything. He was a veryindependent thinker at an early age. His refusal to accept otherpeople’s ideas and rules continued as he grew older. One result wasthat he never completed his university studies. He was expelled twotimes from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hethought his time was better spent having fun than studying.
Yet Bucky Fuller was very serious about learning. He proved thiswhen he joined the American navy during World War One.
VOICE TWO:
In the navy, he learned all about navigation, mathematics,mechanics, communications and electronics engineering. He loved thisworld of modern technology. Soon after he joined the navy, hedesigned new rescue equipment. It helped save the lives of somepilots during training. Fuller’s good navy record won him ashort-term appointment to the United States Naval Academy inAnnapolis, Maryland. It was there he first developed two ideas thatwere important for the rest of his life.
While studying warships, Fuller realized that they weighed muchless than buildings, yet were able to do much more. He decidedbetter designs could also help humans do more, using fewermaterials.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-seventeen, Bucky Fuller married Anne Hewlett. Theirdaughter, Alexandra, was born about a year later. Bucky was a veryemotional man, as well as an intellectual one. He loved his littledaughter. She was the wonder of his world. Then Alexandra becamevery sick. The medicine to cure her had not been invented yet. Shedied at the age of four.
Bucky Fuller blamed himself, although he had done everything hecould to save her. His sorrow overcame him. He began to drink toomuch alcohol. Yet he continued to work hard.
Fuller was head of a company that made a light-weight buildingmaterial. He was not a successful businessman, however. And thecompany began to fail. He was dismissed by the owners. It wasnineteen-twenty-seven. His wife had just given birth to another babygirl. They were living in Chicago, Illinois. He had no job and nomoney. He felt he was a complete failure.
VOICE TWO:
Bucky Fuller walked through the streets of Chicago along lakeMichigan. He stood silently on the shore. He considered killinghimself. Then, as he explained later, he realized he did not havethe right to kill himself. He said he had felt something inside himthat day. He called it the Greater Intelligence or God. It told himhe belonged to the universe. So Bucky Fuller decided to live. And hewould live the way he thought best. He promised to spend hisremaining years in search of designs that could make human existenceon Earth easier. This began his great creative period.
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VOICE ONE:
Fuller’s first design was the dymaxion house. It was not built atthe place it would stand. It was built in a factory, then moved. Itdid not cost much to build. And it did not look like a traditionalhouse in America. Its roof hung from a huge stick in the center. Itswalls were made of glass. It contained everything needed for peopleto live. Power came from the sun. Water was cleaned and re-used.
Fuller then designed and built the dymaxion car. It looked alittle like the body of an airplane. It had three wheels instead offour. It could go as fast as one-hundred-eighty kilometers an hour.It carried up to twelve passengers.
Several companies were interested in building and sellingFuller’s house and car. But his designs were so different, soextreme, that banks were not willing to lend money for the projects.So the dymaxion house — which could have provided low-cost housingfor everyone — was never built. And the dymaxion car — which couldhave provided safe, pollution-free transportation using littlegasoline — was never produced.
VOICE TWO:
Bucky Fuller did not give up his idea of doing more with less. Hehad an idea for another building design. It would provide the moststrength with the least amount of material. He began looking for theperfect shape.
Fuller found it in nature. It appeared in the shapes of organiccompounds and metals. The main part of his design is a four-sidedpyramid. To create a building, many pyramids are connected to eachother. The connecting piece has eight sides. Together, these twoshapes create a very strong, light-weight rounded structure. Thestructure can be covered with any kind of material. And it can standwithout any supports inside. Fuller named this structure thegeodesic dome. It covers more space with less material than anyother building ever designed.
VOICE ONE:
After a number of experimental geodesic domes were built,industry began to understand the value of the design. Today, thereare about one-hundred-thousand different large and small geodesicdomes in use around the world. However, no one yet has acted on oneof Fuller’s ideas for the geodesic dome. There are no limits to thesize of a geodesic dome. So Fuller proposed using them over citiesor over areas that had severe weather. A geodesic dome that sizewould make it possible to have complete control over the environmentinside it.
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VOICE TWO:
Most of Bucky Fuller’s inventions did not earn him much money. Alot of what he did earn he spent travelling around the world. Hetold anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on thisplanet. He called the planet “Spaceship Earth.” Humans, he said, areastronauts on Spaceship Earth. They are travellingone-hundred-thousand kilometers an hour around the sun. He said theEarth is like a large mechanical device that will survive only ifpeople living on it know how to operate it correctly.
People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship.They must use their supplies wisely, and re-use them. BuckminsterFuller said humans are able, through planning and wise use ofnatural supplies, to feed and house themselves forever.
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VOICE ONE:
This VOA Special English program, People in America, was writtenby Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Ourstudio was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Peoplein America program on the Voice of America.