What is Digg?51 Comments
- Teratogen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Bucky created geodesic domes, he did not discover buckminsterfullerine. Bucky balls, or buckminsterfullerene, was named in his honor by the scientists who discovered it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Agreed. If I ever have a child, I'm going to name him Chuck Buckminster Norris.
- ZennZero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Upon further research, Bucky, himself, didn't *discover* the buckyball. It was merely named after him as he popularized the geodesic dome in his industrial designs and architecture work. Interesting stuff.
- kellyschrock, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Rear-steer cars will never be very popular. To see why, do the following:
. Get a forklift that can go 40-50mph
. Get your affairs in order
. Drive the forklift at top speed on a curvy road
You will know terror. - jkramlich, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I remember seeing this awhile back and getting furiated at the current state of the auto industry. The ford model T got 25 MPG.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Simpsons did it!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Buckminster is an awesome name.
- phuchead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5if you are in Michigan area, stop by The Henry Ford in Dearborn, they have the dymaxion house which is also very easy build, light to ship, power efficient, inexpensive, and space efficient also. very very cool, i don't have a link to a picture, but it is one of the only ones that are in working condition. http://www.hfmgv.org/ this is the museum website found the site http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion/faq/faq8.html i love this house. it is only supported by ONE metal pole in the center of the house, so no foundation is needed.
-phuc - morgdx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Videos of the dymaxion working at:
http://shl.stanford.edu/Bucky/dymaxion/movies.htm#
(The link from damninteresting is broken) - apocalizer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I would drive it BECAUSE it looks like a submarine.
It would certainly spring a leak in the water though... just like a Canadian sub. (Or catch fire, whatever.) - phuchead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3***** not he main site for dymaxion house this is it http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion/contents.html
sorry for the other link, but that is good for going directly to the FAQ about the house.
-phuc - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ ClubberLang
I'd heard the Art Kleiner claims before but more recent investigations have called it into question. Fuller always thought of his dymaxion car as a prototype for a folding winged, flying version -- his intent was never to market the car itself.
Fuller was an amazing engineer but I think his lasting legacy was his commitment to improving the human condition and enlighting people about conservation. He spoke of our planet as a spaceship (coining the term "Spaceship Earth") in an effort to get people to consider that our craft has limited resources. We should remember that everyone has to rely on each other for survival and that we should spend these resources wisely. To that end, he founded "The World Game" (www.worldgame.org) which is still going on today. - josegutz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Reminds one of the Weinermobile...
- allaboutdatiki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Dymaxion is one of the coolest vehicles at the National Auto Museum in Reno (outside of the Tucker and Big Daddy Ed Roth cars and carts). The Dymaxion's interior is not restored and blocked from view, as I recall.
http://www.automuseum.org/NAM_collections_dymaxion2.shtml - JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The main problem was it was too light... a strong cross wind could knock you off the road. If you got in an accident, it would crumple like tissue, putting everyone at a risk unacceptable by modern automobile safety standards.
You could make it out of titanium or carbon fiber today for better structural integrity, put in passenger airbags, and also keep it light. You could probably compensate for the cross wind issue with computer aided design. But the thing would be way too expensive for most Americans.
So this really never was "the car of tomorrow", just an interesting project by a man with genius-level creativity, but mediocre engineering skills... - allaboutdatiki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Might sound crazy, but he engine in an inexpensive John Deere lawn tractor puts out roughly the same amount of horsepower as the engine in a Model T.
- Aidenag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ive seen this when i was on a gambling trip. It is even wierder in person... unique though ill give it that.
- Blisshead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I would drive one, even though it looks like a submarine.
- gorkish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Couple this with the problems of having to do counter-intuitive things to correct the car in crosswinds or during a skid and you have a disaster. There are enough accidents that stem from driver's not knowing how to control a rear wheel vs front wheel drive car as it is.
Imagine a crosswind coming from the driver's left in the Dymaxion. The driver has to turn the wheel to the right (pushing the rear of the car left into the wind) to correct for this. - pcmacman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm pretty sure that this car was featured in a Popular Mechanics/Science VHS tape of interesting things from the 30s & 40s. Those set of tapes had a lot of cool stuff in them.
- willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Rear steering, try pushing a grocery cart backwards
- rushiku, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2w/ kellyschrock
To maximize your terror, ensure your forklift has the following properties:
- three wheels
- high center of gravity
- 20 feet long
- lightweight
While the Dymaxion may have been an interesting idea, in practice it was nothing short of a death trap. - drogers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3No no no, Homer didn't *build* the Canyonero, he built the Homer -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vehicles_in_The_Simpsons#The_Homer - umdigger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This car was regarded as a really cool design and could definitely cruise the strip, but the one MAJOR problem with it was when you turned to sharply it would tip over. Not exactly what most called safe.
To do that these days, you need to buy a Kia Sportage.... - zubi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2well said
- dhenderson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2In `35 Stout came out with a similar looking vehicle, (http://www.ohtm.org/edu_col.html - Owls Head has some nice collections - if you are on the Maine coast it's worth an afternoon), that used some of the same ideas. Aerodynamic and light. Only nine of these were made. They are impressively ugly as well.
- raid517, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It was a second hand sub, bought off a down market car lot to be exact.
- YourTechSupport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1buckminsterfullerene, say that a few times fast.
- peasonmyheadd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this was on the discovery channel with like 3 other cars they tried to market, one that turns into an airplane with foldout wings, one that turns into a boat, and some other crap like the handheld nuke launcher.
- ratzfatz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fuller was way ahaead of his time! Sadly - this concept car #4
http://www.washedashore.com/projects/dymax/dworld/e52.jpg
was never built. It shows that he turned away from back steering wheels. His last concept car has been built in some way later by ISO, Italy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta
and got pretty famous later as a product from the "Bavarian Motor Works" (BMW) in the early 50s. They are still around here in Germany in good shape for a reasonable price. They are possible the fanciest BMW you can buy. - ryan1938, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can see a video of the Dymaxion here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=351 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1" Later, in a book called The Age of Heretics, author Art Kleiner asserted that the real reason for the demise of the Dymaxion was that Chrysler was forced by its bankers to abandon the project; purportedly the bankers threatened to recall their loans because they felt the car would overtake the automobile market, and destroy sales for vehicles already in the distribution channels. We'll probably never know for sure."
- tjblaze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fuller was one of my heros when I was growing up.
A couple of years ago I decided to purchase some of his books so that my daughter could read them. I was shocked to find that they were out of print and that the area megabookstores had nothing he had written. Even the library holdings were abyssmal. I ended up ordering "Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth" and "Utopia or Oblivion" from used booksellers online.
Fuller always use to attribute his creative design capabilities to being born crosseyed. He couldn't see detail - only large patterns. - shopsinc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Don't forget Fuller's Dymaxion House:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/05/31/houses-that-hang-from-poles/ - MicrowavedH2o, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1DuggMirror?
...and the stanford site is rather slow ...
cool car nonetheless. - diecastbeatdown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i love the word extraordinary. everytime i see or hear it, it makes me laugh a little inside. think about it, extra ordinary?
- shotgunefx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For tight manuevering or even plain fun, rear steering is awesome, but at higher speeds, it get's much harder to control. I think of my warehouse days, driving a forklift. Sometimes I'd have to take it on the street and drive it to another location, granted the top speed was not that great, but it becomes much harder to drive.
You'd definitely need some sort of speed proportional control in the steering for something like that to be driven by the average joe. - bloqmon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@h00paj00
Negative Ghostrider. - ozziegt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How much power did it make? Lets see you drive a model T every day.
- basselope, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Another example of why I have a hard time getting excited about "Amazing new technology...","...will revolutionize...","... for just pennies..."
We hear this sort of thing every day. Kudos to the folks working their lives away to make things better for the rest of us, but I spit the boneheads that keep getting our hopes up with implied (if not out-right stated) promises of "Ultra-Mega-Stupendous-Quantum Technology removes pet odors before they even begin!!!!! WOWIE!!!!!!"
Just tell me straight-up. - lwatcdr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0People really don't seem to understand that modern engines are amazing. They produce much more power, burn less fuel, and are much cleaner then they where 10 years ago.
Think about it. If this car really was this good wouldn't Honda, Toyota, or even GM build one today?
I doubt that it is crash worthy by our standards. - Cybermynd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hey! It was a British Sub. We were just stupid enough to buy it!
- procdaddy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Didn't Homer Simpson build one of these?
- StuPC, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Hey, get back to Russia with your damn fuel economy, Buckminster!
- ZennZero, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5Bucky also discovered the carbon 60 allotrope “buckminsterfullerene" -- more popularly known as the "buckyball." You have probably heard about them in nanotech articles. I had no idea he was also involved in the auto industry.
- Jakyll, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1I think you are referring to the "Canyonero."
"...12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!..."
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/thesimpsons/canyonero.htm - gorkish, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2The EV1 died because it sucked; why people can't get over this I have no idea.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Aren't cars supposed to "Stop on a dime" not "Turn on a dime"?
- techisFun, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4Yeah... I think I saw one of these at a gay parade...
- CraigB12, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2This is the guy that discovered bucky balls. I'm surprised he wasted his time constructing an obsurd car when he could have been experimenting with his vast knowledge of chemistry and physics.
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