[HN Gopher] Attempting to Make the Smallest* Electric Motor [video]
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       Attempting to Make the Smallest* Electric Motor [video]
        
       Author : surprisetalk
       Score  : 82 points
       Date   : 2025-06-14 14:55 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | blutack wrote:
       | They also made a manual expresso machine, although I don't know
       | if they continued production after the initial kickstarter run.
       | 
       | https://www.chronova-engineering.co.uk/epoch
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | Their "Fulcrum" design looks quite similar to a Flair espresso.
         | I mean, it isn't a complicated concept (just a press), but the
         | resemblance is noticeable.
        
           | gabrielhidasy wrote:
           | And the "Helix" design looks just like the Aram espresso, a
           | bit less obvious concept (a screw), but very similar.
        
       | kens wrote:
       | There's some interesting history behind the world's smallest
       | motor. In 1959, Feynman gave a talk, "There's Plenty of Room at
       | the Bottom", which kind of invented the field of nanotechnology.
       | He discussed how you could use tools to build smaller tools, and
       | then smaller tools, until you could manipulate matter on the
       | atomic scale.
       | 
       | To motivate the development of micro-tools, Feynman offered a
       | $1000 prize (more than $10,000 in current dollars), to anyone who
       | could build a motor smaller than 1/64" on a side. Less than a
       | year later, a Caltech grad won the prize, creating the motor with
       | "a watchmaker's lathe, a microscope, and sharp toothpicks."
       | Although the motor won the prize, it was a disappointment because
       | it didn't use any new technologies or make any advances toward
       | nanotechnology.
       | 
       | It wasn't until 1985 that Feynman's second challenge was won:
       | scaling down a page of text by a linear factor of 25,000. A
       | Stanford grad student reduced a page from A Tale of Two Cities to
       | a 5.9um square.
       | 
       | Links: https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/3479/1/Tale.pdf
       | https://books.google.com/books?id=iXcmTROdA1EC&pg=RA2-PA10
       | https://archive.org/details/noordinarygenius00feyn/page/174/...
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_th...
        
         | pikminguy wrote:
         | A funny detail about this is that Feynman hadn't bothered to
         | budget the $1000 for the prize. He thought someone would have
         | to invent new tech to build the motor which would take years.
         | If he had just gone a little smaller, say 1/100th of an inch
         | instead of 1/64th, he might have gotten his wish.
         | 
         | Despite his disappointment he did keep his word and pay the
         | prize. His wife was not happy.
        
       | chaosprint wrote:
       | Very impressive.
       | 
       | Btw does anyone know if there are any larger, mass-producible
       | micromotors on the market that can be used to make products
       | similar to the smartknob?
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q76dMggUH1M&t=100s
        
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