I'm quite confident now, just like the automated cotton mill and the automated growth house it's an extremely practical matter. We were into this so deeply that these things were really threshed out. It was not just a week's project these things. In each case they were really whole half-year projects with THE authorities in the subject, and all the conditions were met. This particular frame was the one that we then later on, carried, that the Marine Corps lifted in that first lift at what we call Orphan's Hill in North Carolina in 1954.

Next picture. This is the Wood's Hole Dome, Woods Hole Massachusetts up on a very high point of the land at Wood's Hole. And, this was the one I said we had students from ten different Universities, and the project was led at MIT. We worked on it for months at MIT, the Graduate School of Architecture, and it was done with hyperbolic parabola diamonds. And as you know hyperbolic parabola just get into you get to dealing in straight lines. I want you to just think about, you can make a diamond flat, and it's a parallelogram, make some lines running parallel to one set of the edges. And they come, you can have uniform boundary scale on it, so the parallels are equal distance apart. Now, if you, I'm going to take this same diamond, I'll just draw in some lines on it I'd like you to try this yourself, in fact I think I'll do it up here on the board.

Now with these we say there is uniform angle. Now I am going to have a bending line of your diamond here, and you mark these points: a, and b and c and d and e, f, g, and so forth, i, j, just so you know them and have when you begin to bend this, bend on this line, you get to a point where a would meet a prime and this could be b and c and so forth. And if you bring this over all the way, you'll find that the b, I'll make it a little easier, it's going to be a, b,c,d,e, then coming back again the same letters, d,c,b,a, so that when you bring this thing over, finally this point which when I bend over, this point here will be here. So the distance between b and that point will be that. This point here is going to be here. So the distance between c and c is this. And the distance between I'll reverse that a,b,c,d,e d,c,b,a the difference between c and c I've shown you, so d and d would be like this. You'll find that these lines are all different lengths. They were all the same when you started, but they get very different lengths. So I find, just by bending this on a complete axis all the way over you get these different lines, because here is a b and the distance from b to b is here. We are getting shorter and shorter. When they started they were all the same. So I found then that if you just bring this a little way, the lines are changing in length all the way so there is as you keep bending this a little more, different conditions, the lines vary in length but they are no longer the same, once it is not out out in the flat. Can you understand that? Have I made that clear Janet, darling? Could you feel it ? Yes.

So then, I realized that let's take any geodesic dome and any two each triangle, the edge of a triangle is a cord, and any two geodesic triangles depending on the frequency and the relative diameter, there will be a little different angle between any two triangles. Can you understand that? And we find then, there are a unique set of lengths of lines between points, depending on how much this is, so that I found there was a unique hyperbolic parabola for and all the triangles of the sphere or system, always come out even number, so they can all be paired into diamonds, and they will turn out to be, depending on the frequency how many types of diamonds there are there is a unique for any of those pairs there is a unique set of lengths of lines, so that there is the unique hyperbolic parabola for any sets of hyperbolic parabola for any geodesic dome, of any given size and frequency.

So what we did in this, coming back then to this project at MIT, and bringing in students from many other colleges at Woods Hole was, you see a whole set of diamonds, and those diamonds then they are always made with straight lines, but the lines are different in lengths. So, we then developed the mathematics of that with very great accuracy, made parts in the woodworking shops at MIT and brought them down to Woods Hole. And at Woods Hole we made up jigs for assembling the different styles of diamonds and making things fast.

Then the diamonds, the wood struts in the diamonds, were 1 x 2's. The edges of the diamonds the big diamonds were 1 x 8's. And when you brought 2 l x 8's together, two diamonds coming together, then you've got a 2 inch thick, so you've got really a very strong beam.

Next picture please. You can begin to see that really lovely hyperbolic parabola surfaces those saddles in each of those diamond forms as they came together. The, I said the students lived in the geodesic dome that came from Minnesota, and we covered it with a white skin down there, and I think some of these pictures may show it, and we had the opening at the bottom, we'd roll up the bottom in the morning, and have the ventilator at the top, and very hot summer sun, that summer we had several very hot days and you'd be loathe to go inside the little dome you were going to feel hot, but again, as our chilling machine, it was really really a charming, charming experience.

Next picture. Could you remove my figure from in front now, because I would like you to really try to appreciate it. We finished this dome, and there we were getting up the framework. And when it was done we put up a rope from the top of the middle of it, the Restaurant had to be there was much work to be done, but this is just getting the frame. The concrete block frame had been the foundations were in, and we had now mounted it on that. And my student friends put this beautiful heavy rope from the top with a big knot in the bottom, and they used to get up on the sides, and this rope stretched, and go around like Douglas Fairbanks flying from a mast to one from sail to sail. And we had a lot of fun in there at night with this rope swinging around, and suddenly we found we had company. That a bat came in every night. The light apparently attracted insects, and the bat operated completely by radar, and he felt his way around, and he went around at an enormous speed, so he was often going around with us as we went around on our rope.

Next picture please. This is the restaurant that was developed and we covered the whole dome with a this is the first one to ever be covered with the Mylar when Dupont first brought out Mylar. It was completely transparent, and for those of you who have dealt with Mylar know it is very tough, incredibly tough, so you could walk around on this, and we found ways of stretching it very beautifully over the skin. We had the restaurant at first, and then we had the lighting on the trees on the outside, and so the light just reflected from the trees inside so it was lovely, lovely in there at night. There were many things that happened about it. I discovered then that because this Mylar skin was on there, the whole of Woods Hole was complaining about the music at night that they were having in the restaurant, because apparently the sound goes outwardly not inwardly, it's very important, like radiation goes outwardly, not inwardly and it does radiate. And it got all the diamonds all these little facets of our membrane became diaphragms and they simply broadcast, became an enormous broadcasting station, and so that was one problem, and the other was that the owner of the restaurant was also building a big motel. And he had count he had put up his cash to build the dome, and then expected to go to the Bank once he had finished and get mortgage money on it to go on with the building of the motel, and the banks wouldn't loan him any money. And he said why wouldn't they lend him any money, and they said because they couldn't see any dome there. They said there wasn't anything to it. It didn't have any substance at all, so he, then, covered it opaquely with plastic and then the banks said, "That is just great," and so I am sorry to say it has lost a lot of the really beauty it had, and it is still there.

Now it went through, this happened to go through Hurricane Carol of 1953, the year that the Radomes I told you about their being tested on when the physicists were told that they would only take 14 mile an hour winds and that was the same storm. And this one bent trees around, their branches broke over and pierced the skin, but even with pierced holes and so forth nothing happened to it. Many buildings around there did actually get destroyed.

Next picture. Now this one is a paperboard dome on the roof of the Architectural Department at Yale at New Haven. And that was a really beautiful project, and that was in 1951 also. And the same students that worked on this then worked on what I spoke to you about, the fog gun tests and so forth. That was an unusually good class at Yale that year, and I've seen a lot of its students as years have gone on, and they have gone on and done some very responsible things. But, they were deeply convinced of the that this really was the way of carrying on in society. This is the paperboard units that they made, they were lovely. We had a big paperboard manufacturing industry then going up in the drafting rooms of Yale Architectural School, it didn't look like many architectural schools, but everybody loved it. And it was at that school that the, where they had I used to come up in the evening, and there would be United Dome Workers of the World, and so forth. There were four members of the class who were all singers the glee club, and they were doing a lot of singing while they were manufacturing the dome, so I wrote a song for them, and I think I'll sing it to you right now. You may know it.

There (Bucky does a lot of vocalizing to get the right key, and everybody laughs)There there there there theeerrree-

There once was a square,
With a romantic flair,
Pure Bosan, McKim, Meed and White .
In the mood that ensued
He went factory nude,
Miscropi, Korbusi and Wright.
Roam home to a dome,
Where Georgian and Gothic once stood.
Now chemical bonds,
Alone guard our blonds
And even the plumbing looks good.
Let architects sing
Of esthetics that bring
Rich clients and hordes to their knees
Just give me a home,
In a great circle dome
Where the stresses and strains are at ease.
Roam home to a dome
On the crest of a neighboring hill
Where the chores are all done
Before they're begun
And eclectic nonsense is nil.
Let modern folks dream
Of glass boxes with steam
Out along super-burbia way
Split level, split loans
Split bread-winner homes
No down money lifetime to pay
Roam home to a dome
No banker would back with a dime
No mortgage to show
No payments to go
Where you dream well and spend your own time.
(Applause)
I'm sorry about the voice-but (laughter)

At any rate, this was a lovely dome up there and it went on very well for quite a while. It was hygroscopic, and they got some rain and it got a little wet around the bottom, but again, it is an interesting thing where they had some people other dormitories got excited by it, and it became a target for fire bombs, and it finally was destroyed.

It is very interesting that Nature has a way of wanting to really test things, and keeps at the number of domes I've had that have been destroyed for one reason or another, is amazing.

Now, this one is really not a very impressive dome to talk about. I think that I'll pass that one up.

Next picture. This is a truly exciting one which occurred at the Washington University at St. Louis. A very good architecture department. You'll find that not only do we have the 30 diamonds that I spoke to you about in the icosahedron, but it is possible to find points on those diamonds, and I'll just show you how you go at finding them, where we divide the total surface of the dome into two diamonds, but all the lengths of the edges of the diamonds are the same. Five triangles around each corner, and here we are we go to the centers of gravity of each of the triangles and we get the diamonds. So it goes. Now. It is possible now in relation to the thirty diamonds you're just seeing here, to find another diamond where there is a point that is equidistant from, you're going along this line, to where there is a point that is equidistant from these two points. Do you see that? So this makes an isosceles and I go along then, each one of these where I want to get that same (Bucky is drawing on the board now) no question about that now. It keeps breaking into what I call the "fat diamonds" and the "thin diamonds" but all the lengths of the edges are exactly the same. That was interesting to find. This is the largest number of facets where I can get equal length edge. That was a problem we wanted to address at that time, because we were looking for economy. So you get not only the, the, see how many lines you actually have in those diamonds? You have 1 you've got 1,2,3,4,5,6 of these in the face for every one of the 20 triangles it has 6 so 120 of those lines here, and it gives you also, there were 30 of these, there are 60, they break into two different ones, so there are 60 and 120 there are 180 identical length pieces make the dome. And really quite a lovely dome.

And then we made those those diamonds were made by taking boards and putting a spreader, fastening the ends together, and putting a spreader, making a little truss form. It was very powerful very elegant and beautiful unit.

Next picture. May I have that picture back of the Washington Dome? And so you'll see those boys making those trusses for them, and we have we were not making a whole sphere so we didn't have to make 180, we made the number necessary for this particular one, so those diamonds then could be hyperbolic parabola surfaced, and this particular dome,

Next picture, we went on and finally made this into what you call the "flying seed pod" with the fat and thin domes. Here is the flying seed pod coming out. These are magnesium tubes, and we made very beautiful joints for them.

Next picture please. We made hydraulic we made pneumatic guns where we made a mast come popping up. The boys spread it out, and

Next picture. Then they jump out of the way because this dome opens itself in 30 seconds. There were these struts coming outwardly from the vertexes are pneumatically so we have a gas tank in there. The piston just goes out like that is released and takes this shape. Pulls the cables because the cables cross each other from adjacent masts. So we saw all these things come out in parallel, a minimum form, therefore you had a dome that you really could shoot, as in a rocket, and have itself open itself. But that dome is still out at we moved it from Washington University and got it down gradually to Southern Illinois University. We had it up in the yard but they never put it into operating pop-open condition again. And I'm told recently that one of the professors has it out at his house, so it still exists and could be rehabilitated. it was made out of magnesium. Very, very light. Extraordinarily light.

Next picture. This is one at Tulane in New Orleans, where we began to get into the paperboard. And paperboard is extraordinarily attractive as a matter of economy because of, I said to you, no way that man makes materials and surfaces in such velocities he does, where they're coming out of rollers, as steel or paper, and being a roller, then, a roller is a printing press so you can print beautiful mathematical information and have things fold on the right lines. So this was just such a project in New Orleans at Tulane, but we found then we could paint the fiberglass with polyester and it made it extraordinarily strong, incredibly strong, and good lasting.

Incidentally I've gone into a great deal of paperboard study and, first at MIT, and then I went out to the Paper Institute in Wisconsin, supported by all the big paper companies, and then to the Forest Product Laboratories in Wisconsin where we have all the art and science of making paper. And it is a perfect, I'm going to call your attention just structurally because I have talked to you about tension and compression.