Geodesic dome Zeiss plant in Jena, Germany. A larger dome, called "The Wonder of Jena", opened to the public in July 1926. Some 20 years later, R. Buckminster Fuller named the dome "geodesic" from field experiments with artist Kenneth Snelson at Black Mountain College in 1948 and 1949. Although Fuller was not the original inventor, he is credited with the U.S. popularization of the idea for which he received U.S. patent 2,682,235 29 June 1954. The geodesic dome appealed to Fuller because it was extremely strong for its weight, its "omnitriangulated" surface provided an inherently stable structure, and because a sphere encloses
Kenneth S. Fagg exhibition of futuristic art singled out Fagg's cover painting for the January 1954 "If", praising its depiction of "a glowing submarine metropolis under interconnected glass domes, painted in a cheerfully colorful, cartoonish style". Kenneth S. Fagg Kenneth S. Fagg (May 29, 1901 – January 7, 1980) was a twentieth-century American commercial artist, perhaps best known as a co-creator of the world's largest geophysical relief globe, exhibited at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Fagg was born in Chicago in 1901. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin. After graduation, he studied art at the Art Students League of New York. By