Fuller regarded the Dymaxion Bathroom as only an interim facility. He attached more importance to what he described as a new method of bathing: the Fog Gun. While he was in the navy he observed that engine-room greases were almost unnoticeably removed on the open deck by the action of wind and fog. So he devised the Fog Gun, which directed a jet of compressed air, atomized water and triggered-in solvents onto the skin. This accelerated surface oxidation and released surface cells and dirt, without the skin-damaging effects associated with high-pressure, "needlepointing" water showers.
The Fog Gun was tested at the Institute of Design in Chicago in 1948, and later on at Yale and other universities. It was found that a one-hour massaging pressure bath with the Fog Gun used only 1 pint of water. As there were no run-off waters, bathing could be done in the bedroom, thus eliminating tons of plumbing (see Ephemeralization). By using the Fog Gun in front of a heat lamp, one could combine the sanitary and muscle-relaxing effects of other types of bathing.
(See Dymaxion World, p.99.)
© Paul Taylor 2001