At the end of the 19th century, the progressive industrial engineer/designer explored, reformed and redefined the built environment’s various scales and networks through building techniques, communication technologies, utilitarian objects and machines. Industrialists promoted an optimism based on the perfect harmonization of design with production. Even as this federation of science with manufacturing and technology reformed building culture and was being challenged by proponents of traditional crafts, industrialists argued for technology driven cross-disciplinary exploration to improve living conditions for all. Best known for his invention of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, embodied industrial optimism exploring kites and flying machines as devices for advancing flight and its potential for communication, transportation as well as military or civilian uses.
The box kite was commonly used in the military. Bell’s schemes envisioned a resilient kite structure for carrying large and heavy loads (people and things) built with a minimal amount of material reducing the airborne dead load of the kite itself. Bell’s maximum structural effect with minimal mass was developed though the critical analysis of box kites in flight. Box kites are formed as their name implies from the materialization of a rectangular prism’s edges and faces. Bell noted increased bending and decreased agility as the size of the boxes increased. He applied a network of diagonals to brace the structures while trying not to proportionately increase weight. The lightweight structure’s network of straight members could be easily applied to different kit sizes as they were based on the repetitive juxtaposition of regular polyhedrons.
A tetrahedron, also known as a regular triangular pyramid, is shaped by starting with a basic stable symmetrical polygon, the equilateral triangle and aligning it with three others along its edges. All edges are inherently braced and stiffened providing a formidable building block for structures. The triangular solid could be bonded with other tetrahedra to fill or bound space infinitely for large spanning wings for kites or any structures. Bell’s large kites were towed and flown behind ships and could carry large loads. Landing however, was another issue as many broke up on impact. The tetrahedron’s use for flight may have been short-lived but its application in architecture and building inspired space frame design and foreshadowed exploration and well-known work by both Konrad Wachsmann and R. Buckminster Fuller.
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| One of Bell's experiments in kite flying from Popular Science, December 1903 |
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