dieseltaylor Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Not who you thought! You have to admire the cojones in patenting something that was actually unpatentable. "The geodesic dome 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. However, the original design came from Dr. Walther Bauersfeld. Chapter 3 of Fuller's Book Critical Path states: ... I found a similar situation to be existent in World War II. As head mechanical engineer of the U.S.A. Board of Economic Warfare I had available to me copies of any so-called intercepts I wanted. Those were transcriptions of censor-listened-to intercontinental telephone conversations, along with letters and cables that were opened by the censor and often deciphered, and so forth. As a student of patents I asked for and received all the intercept information relating to strategic patents held by both our enemies and our own big corporations ... An examination of the geodesic design by 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) follows the same methodology as Bauersfeld's design.[26]2 Wikipedia 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magpie_Oz Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Funny, I always thought it was Barnes Wallis but are we distinguishing the dome separate from general geodesic construction? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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