¶ Balloon
Index Entry
Balloon:
"In the case of the geodesic tensegrity structures, however, no over-crowding of interior gas molecules, imprisoned within a submolecular mesh net, is necessary to thrust the net’s structure outward from its spherical geometric center, because the compressionalm struts, locally islanded, as outward thrusting struts at both their ends, push the spherical net outwardly at every vertexial advance of network convergence. Geodesic tensegrities are then ‘hollowed out’ balloons, discarding their redundantly ‘solid’ air core.
“The geodesic tensegrity is a hollowed out balloon in which those specific molecules of gas which happen to be impinging from within against m the skin at any one moment (thus pushing it outwardly) are replaced by the islanded geodesic struts. It is possible then to sew pockets on the inside surface of a balloon skin corresponding in pattern to the islanded geodesic struts and to insert stiff battens into those pockets which cause the otherwise limp balloon bag to take spherical shape as itwould if filled with a pressured-in gas.”
¶ Citations
- “Tensegrity, Art News Portfolio,” Pp. 124-125. Dec’61
