#Dymaxion car

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The Dymaxion car was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and featured prominently at Chicago's 1933/1934 World's Fair. Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Starling Burgess – using donated money as well as a family inheritance – to explore not an automobile per se, but the 'ground-taxiing phase' of a vehicle that might one day be designed to fly, land and drive – an "Omni-Medium Transport". Fuller associated the word Dymaxion with much of his work, a portmanteau of the words dynamic, maximum, and tension, to summarize his goal to do more with less.

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A Tadpole on Wheels

Above: British architect Norman Foster's 2010 recreation of R. Buckminster Fuller's 1933 Dymaxion car. (Wikipedia) Despite the limitations of 1930s technology, a few architects and designers were hell-bent on building a streamlined future that until then was mostly the stuff of movies and science fiction magazines. May 5, 1934 cover by Rea Irvin. One of them was R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983),…

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A variant of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion car from 1933. (This one has a bigger fin than the original.)

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Dymaxion Car under construction in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1933

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Alternative Sleep Schedules

Polyphasic sleep refers to sleeping in more than two segments per day. Following a polyphasic sleep pattern doesn't necessarily reduce the total number of hours you sleep, but many people adopt polyphasic sleep as a way to reduce their overall sleep time and maximize their wakeful hours.

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Studies have shown that a polyphasic sleep pattern can fight the negative effects of sleep deprivation by allowing for short naps throughout the day. These naps replenish lost nighttime sleep as well as boost brain function. Polyphasic sleep has also been found to increase alertness.

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To understand polyphasic sleep, it's important to understand our culture's current ideal for optimum rejuvenation. The traditional eight hours of shuteye we hear about most often today is referred to as monophasic sleep - just one sleep session and then you're awake for the day.

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Conversely, polyphasic sleep is about segmenting your slumber into multiple phases. Different sleep schedules such as Biphasic, Dymaxion, Everyman, and Uberman each consist of several naps and/or core sleep sessions (deep sleep and REM) a day.

Biphasic: Consists of a split sleep schedule with two sessions. Often a five to six hour "core sleep" and then a one and a half hour nap.

Dymaxion: Commonly consists of four 30-minute naps during the day. Two hours of sleep total.

Uberman: Usually consists of six to eight 20-minute naps during the day. Generally, two hours of sleep total.

Everyman: Commonly consists of four sleep sessions. Often a three to four hour core sleep followed by three naps throughout the day.

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Historical Sleep Patterns

Now labeled as an "alternative" sleep schedule, polyphasic sleep was once the norm.

The dominant pattern of sleep, arguably since time immemorial, was biphasic... Humans slept in two four-hour blocks, which were separated by a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night.

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These weren't brief phases either. Many times people would actually get up and take on their daily (or in some cases nightly) tasks, visit with neighbors, talk with their family, etc. Sleep schedules changed drastically as the Industrial Revolution brought forth an artificial sense of extended daylight with the advent of the light bulb. Too much bright light stops our bodies from releasing melatonin, a hormone responsible for regulating sleep.

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Some famous advocates of polyphasic sleep, were Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla. Both da Vinci and Tesla followed the extreme polyphasic Uberman method, requiring only 2 hours of sleep a day, segmented into 20-minute naps.

Salvador Dali, had his own sleep method. He would sit with a key in one hand, poised above a metal plate placed on the floor, and let sleep take him. As soon as he began to slumber in earnest, the key would slip from his fingers and clang against the plate – waking him immediately. Dali felt as though sleep was a waste of time.

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Around 85% of mammalian species are polyphasic sleepers.

Ultimately, the vast majority of people are not built to sleep in patterns other than monophasic or biphasic sleep schedules. Biphasic sleep, which deviates the least from the contemporary eight-hour model, has been shown to have some significant benefits. Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that biphasic sleep can actually maximize creativity and alertness in highly innovative individuals. It is now suspected that the creative genius of historical figures such as Tesla or da Vinci, who were said to have ascribed to the "Uberman" model, actually may have been caused by mania or insomnia.

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Possible Dangers of Polyphasic Sleep

Significant hormone imbalance (especially in young adult males)

Lower cognitive functioning

Trouble operating cars or heavy machinery

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Naps are Still Good

If you take a nap during the day, don't worry. Naps are safe, healthy, and sometimes all you need to stave off your sluggishness. A study on sleepy military pilots and astronauts found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34% and alertness 100%. In addition to performance, a short session of shuteye can help with:

Alertness

Relaxation

Physical rejuvenation

Stress

Tension

Depression

Research found that only 5% of the population can get by on just six hours of sleep. Regardless of which sleep schedule you choose, the importance of good sleep cannot be underestimated.

[texasthrillbilly]

This streamlined Dymaxion car was designed by the American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and was featured prominently at the Chicago worlds fair in 1933-1934.

Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Starling Burgess using donated money as well as an inheritance.

Not as an automobile, per say, but as a vehicle that one day might be designed to fly, land, and drive.

[terriwriting]

The Dymaxion was a delicate woodland creature

That would rip your throat out if you actually tried to drive it

Fuller noted severe limitations in its handling, especially at high speed or in high wind, due to its rear-wheel steering (highly unsuitable for anything but low speeds) and the limited understanding of the effects of lift and turbulence on automobile bodies in that era – allowing only trained staff to drive the car and saying it "was an invention that could not be made available to the general public without considerable improvements."[9] Shortly after its launch, a prototype crashed and killed the Dymaxion's driver.

Morning comrades who wants to see some wacky art deco vehicles

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buckminster fuller - dymaxion car (1933)

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Dymaxion Car

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Is that a Dymaxion model I've never seen, or did someone else do three-wheel cars as well?

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Dymaxion

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1938 Dymaxion designed by Buckminster Fuller

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Dymaxion car in front of Dymaxion house by Buckminster Fuller, 1934