Is needed
Or just desired
the providiNg of shelter
the Availability
of eNergy
wherever it is neeDed
we hAve
these pRoblems in common
we can solve Them all best
withOut thinking
of the diVision
of thE
woRld
into 153 seParate
natiOns
their seParate powers
mortally destrUctive
r. buckminster fuLler
cAlled
iT
kIllingry
as Opposed to
liviNgry
fuller is deAd
but his spirit is Now more than ever
the spirit the worlD needs
it is Alive we have it in
his woRk
his wriTings
let us nOt forget
we are now haVing to
continuE
his woRk music the absence of conductor score
and barline sPaceship earth
human needs and wOrld resources
the two kePt in balance
finding changing solUtions
for changing probLems
excerpt from “Over population and Art” by John Cage

“the Purifying Of water”

I am offering two trim tab solutions. I have been working quite consciously in the regenerative landscape to make the world work for 100% of humanity since the mid-eighties. I read the operating manual in the late sixties and have studied Bucky’s work intensely ever since. In 1971, I quit trying to earn a living. We converted a school bus into a traveling shelter, loaded it with bulk grains, some tools, and water, and set out to establish a modern tribal identity for ourselves. We traveled for five years throughout the united states, or as we prefer to call it, the territory of the six nations. We met many indigenous people. We met people from all over the planet. With Bucky’s help we learned to see ourselves as crossbreeding world humans whose allegiance was to 100% of humanity as well as to the rest of the natural world.

In 1976, in Michigan, my extended family group called itself the Food and Shelter Cooperative. Our focus then was subsistence farming, community gardening, tofu manufacturing, food co-ops, and geodesic shelters. In 1986, we heard news of a trim tab machine called SuperStill. It was seen off the coast of New Guinea turning ocean water into medical grade pure water at the energy cost of one half cent per gallon. Two sailors who saw this machine in action were my wife’s sister and her husband. They came to Michigan looking for partners in a water purification business. I saw this as a chance to put myself on a team that could do something about humanity’s pure water problems.

To honor Buckey’s vision of the fair distribution of the world’s resources, we called our new company The Fuller Life Water Company. We bought a SuperStill in 1987 for $18,000, and started the distribution of pure water in the Detroit area. We have 2 stills running 24 hrs a day 7days a week and are ready to purchase a new one soon. Our original still has run almost continuously for 20 years and looks to run much longer. We have avoided the small sports bottles because their use is not ecologically sensible. We encourage our customers to take bulk water deliveries, and to share with relatives and neighbors. We are so confident in SuperStill’s reliability that we are convinced this machine could be the heart of a pure water distribution system in every neighborhood on Earth. After 20 years of development, this company is poised for mass production. It does not need financial assistance.

Fuller Life Water Co. is a prototype pure water distribution system. Many of our water customers have plastic or stainless steel storage drums at home. We use compressed nitrogen or gravity to fill these storage units with ozonated medical grade water. Repeated filling with ozonated water keeps microorganisms from growing in these storage vessels. In 24 hours the ozone changes back into ordinary oxygen leaving only pure water.

More information on our company can be found at http://www.fullerlifewater.com/.

SuperStill’s Design
SuperStill has achieved high efficiency in its vapor compression distillers by using thin sheet material to provide large surface areas for transferring heat. In the boiler-condenser units, heat exchange plates are stacked vertically. The spaces between the plates form alternate chambers for boiling and condensing. The boiling water is confined to every alternate space. The compressor draws steam from the boiling chambers and injects it into the condensing chambers. Heat from the condensing steam flows through the plates into the boiling water.

SuperStill’s design philosophy centers on energy efficiency. The key to energy efficiency is to compress the steam only minimally – just enough to move the steam from the boiler to the condenser, where the pressure is slightly higher. The design offers several significant advantages compared to conventional vapor compression distillers:
• Operating expenses are low because so little electrical energy is required to compress the steam.
• The plates that transfer heat are very thin – 0.01 inches in the current models. These thin plates conduct heat better, cost less, and are much easier to fabricate.
• Less expensive, lower pressure, and hence more durable compressors may be used.
• Temperature differences are low. The steam condenses at a temperature that is only 2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the boiling water. Since the plates remain just slightly warmer than the boiling water, the water boils gently and stays in close contact with the plates, contributing to optimum heat transfer.
• The plates can be stacked closely together. This close stacking ensures that the boiler and condenser are intimately connected for heat transfer.
SuperStill’s operating conditions closely resemble the ideal model of classical thermodynamics. Of every 100 units of heat energy entering the boiler, 99 are continuously recycled.
Excerpt from page 21, SuperStill Technology, Inc. Business Plan, 1986-1990.

“the providiNg of shelter”
The artifact I am offering is an all- purpose tensegrity structuring technique based on Bucky’s octa spinner. My version of Bucky’s invention produces a stainless steel tension net by cutting and bending 300 series stainless steel tig welding wire. This stainless web is stiffened by three mutually perpendicular threaded rods to produce a remarkably strong octahedral building unit which, when fastened to similar building units, will comprise a free standing structural grid of any shape you choose.

For the purposes of answering the Fuller challenge I will use my octa spinner to produce The Pure Water Shed. This artifact incorporates a tensegrity structuring technique to produce shelter and energy for a stand alone water purification plant. The weather break and energy sink functions supported by our stainless grid should be sufficient to run the equipment inside. Geographically, considerations based on climate and weather related factors will be needed to “personalize” the structure.

Within the regenerative landscape much design science work has already been done. With SuperStill we have a twenty-five year proven technology which reliably supplies medical grade really good tasting pure water with minimum energy cost and minimum maintenance by persons with ordinary skills. The Pure Water Shed solves one human problem, the need for pure water. It also encourages empowerment at the local level. The pure water distribution system is organized from the center of the neighborhood out and is available to everyone. Some will choose to carry water for others and thereby gain economic benefit. The pure water shed will be an excellent example of tensegrity structuring. This system will be viable for both habitable and non habitable enclosures. What we introduce as an artistically crafted shed can be turned quite easily into a full fledged dwelling machine. By placing these artifacts in peoples’ way we are increasing the availability of life support on this planet.

Our design science initiative is to answer the world wide shortage of pure water and shelter by merging two proven systems; the SuperStill and the octa spinner. The union of these two trim tab solutions has the following benefit:
1. Increased health advantage from drinking pure water.
2. Increased self employment by empowering more people to build more efficient shelters.
3. Increased self employment of people near the water shed who are willing to carry water for others.
4. To help people escape the mortgage issues of the day.
5. Benefits accrue directly to local neighbor hoods and do not trickle down from above.
6. Income from the water shed can be used to develop shelter building in areas around the water shed, and income from shelter building can be used to further develop water distribution.
The regenerative landscape exists to be employed by crew members of space ship Earth to better serve 100% of humanity and to carry on building that last chain to the Moon.