1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Give in touch with technology with tech Stuff from houstuffworks 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm 3 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,479 Speaker 1: your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer over at 4 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: house stuff Works. No love all things tech, and today 5 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: I thought I would start the story of a company 6 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: that helped usher in the hype cycle for three D printing. 7 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: That company would be maker Butt. So we're going to 8 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: learn the story of where maker Butt came from and 9 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: what has happened to it throughout its history, which as 10 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: of this recording is still less than a decade in length. 11 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 1: It hasn't even been around for ten years yet. But 12 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:47,920 Speaker 1: for such a young company, it has had a pretty 13 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,480 Speaker 1: big impact. For better and for worse. Maker Butt helped 14 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: bring three D printing into a more mainstream awareness, and 15 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: the story's big enough for it to span two episodes. 16 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 1: I know it's a young company, but there's a lot 17 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: that happened that has important, relevant impact on multiple industries 18 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:12,640 Speaker 1: that relate to tech, and I think there are a 19 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 1: lot of lessons to be learned from the story of 20 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,959 Speaker 1: maker Bot, and so we're gonna take two episodes to 21 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: really look into it, not just the technology, but again 22 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: the story behind the people that formed it. So to 23 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,760 Speaker 1: talk about the company's history, it helps if we first 24 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: talk about the history of three D printing, which is 25 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 1: also known as a type of additive manufacturing. And we 26 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,679 Speaker 1: call it additive because it involves building something up layer 27 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: by layer, rather than by taking say a block of 28 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: material like wood or marble or something, and then carving 29 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 1: away everything that isn't whatever it is you're building. So 30 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: if you're trying to build a sphere, you would end 31 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: up putting down little thin layers of material in a 32 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: pad over and over, with each successive layer overlapping a 33 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: little bit on all the different edges to fill out 34 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: the sphere until you got to the widest part, and 35 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 1: then you would reverse that pattern to get back to 36 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 1: the other end, and you would build it up layer 37 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: by layer, as opposed to taking say a block of 38 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,440 Speaker 1: plastic and then cutting a sphere from that block. An 39 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: early proposal for this approach came from Hideo Kodama, who 40 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 1: worked at the Nagoya the Municipal Industrial Research Institute, and 41 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:32,160 Speaker 1: Kodama wrote a report about a rapid prototyping system that 42 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:35,839 Speaker 1: could build models layer by layer. In nineteen eighty four, 43 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: a guy named Chuck Hull secured a patent for a 44 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: procedure called stereolithography. The story behind that is actually pretty interesting, 45 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 1: but I'm going to leave it for another podcast. Suffice 46 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: it to say he was not the only person who 47 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: had this idea, he was the first person to receive 48 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: a patent for it. In this approach, you could rapidly 49 00:02:55,919 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: build physical models of something by using a photo polymerized resin. 50 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: So that would be a type of material that would 51 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: be in liquid format, and it would go from liquid 52 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:09,679 Speaker 1: to solid after you expose it to a certain kind 53 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,679 Speaker 1: of light, like a very high high powered ultraviolet light, 54 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,120 Speaker 1: and you would use this light to start turning the 55 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 1: liquid into solid stuff. And it worked almost like an 56 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 1: upside down version of today's common three D printers. So 57 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: if you have ever worked with a three D printer, 58 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:30,959 Speaker 1: you know typically there's a platter a printer bed, typically 59 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: heated that the print head lays plastic down on top of. Well, 60 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 1: this approach reverses that. So you've got a platform that 61 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: is touching this liquid this photo polymerizing resin. When you 62 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: shoot UV light right at the part where the platform 63 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: and the liquid meat, it turns solid and that adheres 64 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: to the platform, and you slowly draw the platform up 65 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: as if you're lifting it out of that liquid, and 66 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: you keep adding layers by shooting the light at the 67 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 1: next layer down of this liquid, and you build it 68 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: that way, so it's actually drawing this up out of 69 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: the liquid. It almost looks like you've got a submerged 70 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: object that you're pulling up out of this stuff, but 71 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:21,840 Speaker 1: in fact you're actually converting that stuff into a solid. 72 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: It's actually really cool to look at. But one of 73 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: the really important things that his approach relied upon was 74 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: using digital data to send instructions to the device. So 75 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 1: this idea of creating a file format that could send 76 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,159 Speaker 1: that could contain the actual pattern and software that would 77 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,160 Speaker 1: have the instructions for the equipment to say, based upon 78 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:48,599 Speaker 1: this pattern, this is what you need to draw for 79 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:52,680 Speaker 1: every single layer and build this three dimensional object. That 80 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:56,919 Speaker 1: approach meant that designers could relatively quickly create models of 81 00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:59,800 Speaker 1: various components. You could prototype them in a matter of 82 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: rather than having to go through a very lengthy fabrication process. 83 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,160 Speaker 1: And time is money and so is effort, So bringing 84 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 1: down the time and effort needed to create prototypes would 85 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:16,479 Speaker 1: significantly reduce the cost of developing various stuff, so you 86 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: could very quickly find out which of your ideas were 87 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: viable and which ones you might have to tweak or 88 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: abandon by building out your components this way. But this 89 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: was in a time when such technology was really only 90 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: available to industries and corporations. You couldn't go out and 91 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:33,839 Speaker 1: buy a three D printer back in those early days. 92 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:36,919 Speaker 1: It would cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. It 93 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: was not something the average person would even be aware of, 94 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: let alone be able to access. This also meant that 95 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: if you did have access to one of these devices, 96 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:51,600 Speaker 1: you could print replacement parts for vintage technology. So maybe 97 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,760 Speaker 1: no one's making a particular type of car part. For example, 98 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:58,360 Speaker 1: maybe there's a specific model of car that you own 99 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: and you want to keep it in good repair, but 100 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: that company no longer exists, so you can't just go 101 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: out and buy a replacement part. With the right type 102 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: of additive manufacturing equipment, you could build a replacement part. 103 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,480 Speaker 1: All you would need is the digital plan to do that. 104 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:21,720 Speaker 1: Whether you made that in a computer assist Design CAD program, 105 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:24,960 Speaker 1: or maybe you were able to get hold of that 106 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: design from somebody, or maybe even you were able to 107 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 1: scan an original part and make a digital copy that way. 108 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: Jay Leno reportedly uses this method to maintain his collection 109 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: of vintage cars. And it helps that we can now 110 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:42,839 Speaker 1: print in lots of different materials, not just the plastics 111 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:48,160 Speaker 1: that you typically encounter with consumer brand three D printers. 112 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:53,600 Speaker 1: All right, So that's the basic history of additive manufacturing. 113 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: From its beginning, it was the realm of the manufacturing industry. 114 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:00,720 Speaker 1: It was not something that your average person knew about. 115 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:04,880 Speaker 1: Skip ahead twenty years, hop on over to the UK. 116 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:08,720 Speaker 1: It's lovely there. And in two thousand and four, doctor 117 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: Adrian Bauer of the University of Bath proposed a new 118 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: project that the following year would be called rep rap 119 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:20,880 Speaker 1: our ep r AP that stands for Replicating Rapid prototyper. 120 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 1: The goal of this project was to create a low 121 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,360 Speaker 1: cost three D printer, one that would be capable of 122 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 1: printing most of the parts of a duplicate three D printer. Now, 123 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: this in itself wasn't exactly a new idea. There was 124 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,800 Speaker 1: a mathematician and a total genius named John von Neuman. 125 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 1: I'll have to do a full episode about von Neuman 126 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: in the future. He proposed a concept which he called 127 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:49,640 Speaker 1: the Universal Constructor. This would be a machine that would 128 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:54,960 Speaker 1: be capable of replicating itself, Which is the super simple explanation. 129 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:57,080 Speaker 1: If I do a full episode about him, I'll have 130 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:00,600 Speaker 1: to go into much greater detail, because it's a pretty 131 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: phenomenal concept. Now. Bauyer's proposal was a little more modest 132 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: than what von Neuman was talking about. It would be 133 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:13,280 Speaker 1: able to largely copy itself, piece by piece, but unlike 134 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:16,560 Speaker 1: a true universal constructor, it would not be able to 135 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 1: assemble the new copy. It wouldn't be able to. It 136 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:23,320 Speaker 1: had self copying but not self assembly abilities. You would 137 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:25,800 Speaker 1: still need a person to actually take all those pieces 138 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: and put them together. He envisioned a rapid prototyping machine 139 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:34,360 Speaker 1: that could make most of the components needed to make 140 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:37,040 Speaker 1: a second copy. So in theory, you could make one 141 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:40,439 Speaker 1: of these things. You could then buy the raw materials 142 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 1: you needed, meaning largely the plastic that the printer would 143 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: use as a printing medium and as for its parts. 144 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: Then you could print all the parts for a second one, 145 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:53,559 Speaker 1: and then build the second one and use that one 146 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: to print all the parts for a third one, and 147 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 1: so on and so forth, and you could keep on 148 00:08:57,760 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: printing more and more copies and give them to all 149 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: your friends, and soon everybody has one of these things. 150 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: But he admitted that there were some parts like stepping 151 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:09,319 Speaker 1: motors or metal fasteners that would not really be printable 152 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:11,280 Speaker 1: in this way, so you would have to purchase those 153 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,760 Speaker 1: parts separately and put them together with the parts that 154 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 1: you were able to print. However, these parts were widely 155 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 1: available and more importantly, pretty cheap, so the most it 156 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:28,320 Speaker 1: would require is access to the digital plans to print 157 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: the pieces that you needed. You would need one working 158 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:33,839 Speaker 1: printer to do the printing. Obviously, if you didn't have 159 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,720 Speaker 1: a printer, you couldn't start the process, and you would 160 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,720 Speaker 1: need some know how in the assembly process about how 161 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:44,120 Speaker 1: to wire everything together and actually physically put it together. 162 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: But then you could just make copies. The project would 163 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:51,760 Speaker 1: involve not just the design of the physical printer itself, 164 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: but also the software you would need to access this 165 00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:59,079 Speaker 1: piece of equipment, the file formats you would need to 166 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 1: be able to send to that equipment so that you 167 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: could actually do some meaningful printing. Another very important element 168 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,760 Speaker 1: in RepRap and one that's going to become super important 169 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 1: in our maker bot story, is that this whole idea 170 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: was going to be an open source project and still 171 00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:19,080 Speaker 1: is to this day. It is an open source project. Now. 172 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: That meant none of the designs for rep wrap proper 173 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:27,439 Speaker 1: would be proprietary or hidden from view. It needed to 174 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,719 Speaker 1: be open source for two big reasons. One was that 175 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 1: it would allow these machines to perpetuate across large groups 176 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:37,040 Speaker 1: of people, so you don't want to have any barriers 177 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:40,800 Speaker 1: to keep that from happening. If you had protected intellectual property, 178 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:44,319 Speaker 1: then that's a limitation on how quickly stuff could be 179 00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:49,440 Speaker 1: spread across the entire population. But if you make it 180 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: open source, everyone has access to it, so it removes 181 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: those barriers. The other important bit is that Valuer wanted 182 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:02,160 Speaker 1: people to have the opportunity to change the open source information, 183 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:05,079 Speaker 1: whether it was changes to the design of the hardware 184 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:09,000 Speaker 1: or to the software, and in that way you could 185 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:12,800 Speaker 1: create improvements or alterations, and the design of the rep 186 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:16,320 Speaker 1: rep device would evolve over time. As people joined the 187 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:21,880 Speaker 1: community and added their ideas to the design and implementation 188 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:25,800 Speaker 1: of this printer. People could experiment with different approaches. They 189 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 1: might be able to improve the efficiency or the resolution 190 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: of the print jobs, meaning how smooth is the finished print? 191 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:38,880 Speaker 1: If you can improve on that. That's a benefit to everybody. 192 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:42,880 Speaker 1: And as long as everyone kept everything open source and 193 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: we're sharing it freely, those improvements flow back into the 194 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:49,960 Speaker 1: overall maker community and they perpetuate across it, so everyone 195 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:54,240 Speaker 1: gets to benefit from everyone's ideas. So if you designed 196 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:57,360 Speaker 1: this properly, you could use a rep wrap one point 197 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,320 Speaker 1: zero printer, and then when someone makes an improved movement 198 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 1: that would effectively become rep wrap one point one or whatever, 199 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 1: you could use your old printer to print out the 200 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: new stuff. Alter your old printer, and now you've got 201 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:12,679 Speaker 1: a new printer. You never have to worry about obsolescence. 202 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:18,520 Speaker 1: So instead of having to abandon a technology three or 203 00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 1: four years down the road, you can keep making incremental 204 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:26,080 Speaker 1: improvements to your device by printing stuff with the device itself. 205 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:29,960 Speaker 1: So it almost becomes self improving. Not quite because it 206 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: does require the input of real human beings, but you 207 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: get the idea. So bow your imagine a world where 208 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 1: people could print whatever small parts they needed on demand, 209 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:42,160 Speaker 1: whether it was a replacement for an existing piece of 210 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:45,840 Speaker 1: technology or maybe just something totally new that they wanted. 211 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:48,319 Speaker 1: And he even envisioned a world in which people could 212 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:52,120 Speaker 1: print out their own recycling devices, and those recycling devices 213 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:56,560 Speaker 1: would consume the old, broken or worn out plastic parts. 214 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:00,760 Speaker 1: So instead of just accumulating more and more of these 215 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:04,400 Speaker 1: broken parts, you would actually break that down so that 216 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,080 Speaker 1: you could use it again. You could have a new 217 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:10,480 Speaker 1: supply of plastic that you would use for printing material. 218 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:14,440 Speaker 1: He thought the printers as wealth machines. The cost of 219 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:16,560 Speaker 1: items would be reduced down to the cost of their 220 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:20,280 Speaker 1: raw materials and the labor associated with assembling the stuff 221 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 1: if assembly was required, and Bayer called the whole process 222 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:28,000 Speaker 1: Darwinian Marxism because the means of production would be in 223 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:32,040 Speaker 1: the hands of the proletariat without the pesky requirement of 224 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:35,000 Speaker 1: holding a bloody revolution in order to do it. Two 225 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 1: of the three founders of MakerBot became part of the 226 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:42,240 Speaker 1: rep rap community, and we're working on this goal. In 227 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, Zach Hokin Smith joined the rep 228 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:50,480 Speaker 1: rap project while attending Iowa State University. Smith was quickly 229 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:54,040 Speaker 1: won over to the concept of open source hardware and 230 00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:57,360 Speaker 1: would become an remain a strong advocate for that approach, 231 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: so much so that he is now the executive rector 232 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:04,560 Speaker 1: for RepRap Research Foundation. Then you had Adam Meyer. He 233 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:08,360 Speaker 1: attended Cornell University in the early to mid nineteen nineties 234 00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:11,040 Speaker 1: and earned a degree in computer science. He worked as 235 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 1: a developer for a couple of companies before being invited 236 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: by Smith to work on a new project that would 237 00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: become maker Bot. And the third co founder is the 238 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:23,120 Speaker 1: one who was most closely associated with the maker Bot 239 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 1: in those early years, even though you could argue convincingly 240 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 1: that really Smith was the heart of the project. He 241 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:31,840 Speaker 1: was the reason why it all started in the first place. 242 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:36,240 Speaker 1: But there was a third person who was sort of 243 00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: the face of the company, and this was Brie Pettis. 244 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: More on him in just a moment, but first let's 245 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: take a quick break to thank our sponsor. So I'm 246 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:55,840 Speaker 1: going to spend a little more time talking about Brie 247 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,240 Speaker 1: Petties because his story is the one tied to those 248 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:01,640 Speaker 1: early years. The man Baker bought even more than the 249 00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:04,800 Speaker 1: other two for reasons that will later become clear. So 250 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:08,000 Speaker 1: Brie Petis didn't come to the maker community through being 251 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:12,360 Speaker 1: a computer scientist or an engineer. He had attended college 252 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: in the early nineties and studied subjects like performing arts 253 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,920 Speaker 1: in psychology. After college, he lived in Prague for a while. 254 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 1: He worked on film sets as an assistant cameraman and 255 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:26,160 Speaker 1: in other capacities. He also landed a gig for a 256 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:30,480 Speaker 1: while as an assistant in Jim Henson's creature shop in London, England, 257 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: and he eventually returned to the States, went back to 258 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:38,160 Speaker 1: school to further his studies, and he earned a teaching certificate. 259 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,560 Speaker 1: So from the late nineties to the mid two thousands 260 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,440 Speaker 1: he was a teacher in the Seattle Public school system. 261 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,560 Speaker 1: And as a thirty one year old school teacher, you 262 00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:51,160 Speaker 1: probably wouldn't have looked at Pettis and said, this guy's 263 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:54,600 Speaker 1: going to become the leader of a tech company with 264 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:58,680 Speaker 1: an incredibly disruptive goal of turning manufacturing upside down and 265 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:02,480 Speaker 1: putting that into the hands of the common consumer. He 266 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: was making instructional and educational videos for his students. He 267 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:09,480 Speaker 1: was frequently incorporating puppets and other stuff in these videos, 268 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:11,960 Speaker 1: and he was putting those videos up online and that 269 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:15,760 Speaker 1: caught the attention of a guy named Philip Torone, who 270 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:21,360 Speaker 1: was the senior editor of Make magazine, the diy Maker Journal. 271 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: Tarne offered Petis a job to come out to New 272 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: York City and to work for Make that would involve 273 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: him not just writing articles for make, but also creating videos, 274 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:33,560 Speaker 1: kind of like what he had been doing in his 275 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: teaching gig, and he took Tourne up on the offer 276 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 1: moved out to New York City. Now while he was 277 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:42,680 Speaker 1: in New York, Bree Pettis would meet Zack Smith, and 278 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,400 Speaker 1: the two of them would become two of the founding 279 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:50,680 Speaker 1: members of a hacker collective called NYC Resistor. The group 280 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:53,720 Speaker 1: would hold regular meetings, including some that were open to 281 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:57,600 Speaker 1: the public, and at those meetings people could discuss ideas 282 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:01,520 Speaker 1: they could work on designs for hardware or software. Together, 283 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:04,600 Speaker 1: they could recruit people to work on projects and generally 284 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:07,159 Speaker 1: hacked technology just to figure out how it worked and 285 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:10,080 Speaker 1: how it might work better or maybe work in a 286 00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:14,480 Speaker 1: way different from how the creators had originally intended, kind 287 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:16,919 Speaker 1: of that whole hacker ethos. And it was through this 288 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:21,639 Speaker 1: organization that they also met Adam Mayor. Zach Smith brought 289 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:25,480 Speaker 1: his rep rap stuff to the NYC Resistor space to 290 00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:27,520 Speaker 1: show it off and invite folks to help him work 291 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:30,520 Speaker 1: on the tech. In an effort to realize this RepRap 292 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:33,879 Speaker 1: vision of building machines capable of printing the parts necessary 293 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:37,679 Speaker 1: to make copies of itself. Now, according to Pettis, he 294 00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: and Smith and Mayer got a RepRap machine, really a 295 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:47,719 Speaker 1: repstrap machine up and running briefly before it stopped functioning entirely. 296 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:50,479 Speaker 1: But that brief success inspired them to work on creating 297 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:54,960 Speaker 1: a rep strap kit of their own. So what is repstrap. Well, 298 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,680 Speaker 1: within the rep rap community, it refers to a three 299 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:01,639 Speaker 1: D printer quote cobbled together from whatever parts you can find, 300 00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:04,080 Speaker 1: which will eventually allow you to print the parts for 301 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:08,199 Speaker 1: a rep rap printer end quote. So it's another three 302 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:10,679 Speaker 1: D printer, but this one is with all sorts of 303 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:14,719 Speaker 1: like Frankenstein type parts, and the goal is that ultimately 304 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: you can print all the parts to just build a 305 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: rep rap printer using this kind of Jerry rigged system. 306 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:25,440 Speaker 1: The name comes from a combination of rep rap and bootstrap. 307 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:28,480 Speaker 1: The parts for a rep strap may not all be 308 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,360 Speaker 1: three D printed, Some of them could be constructed through 309 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:35,400 Speaker 1: subtractive means, like cutting materials down with like a laser 310 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:39,200 Speaker 1: cutter or something along those lines. Now, their work led 311 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:41,639 Speaker 1: to the design of a printer they would call the 312 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:46,240 Speaker 1: Cupcake C in c C and C stands for computer 313 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:49,760 Speaker 1: numerical control, which is a concept that applies to a 314 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,640 Speaker 1: whole host of different computer controlled tools, not just three 315 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,679 Speaker 1: D printers, but stuff like drills or lathes. My buddy 316 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:01,000 Speaker 1: Oz used to operate a computer control router with this 317 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:04,800 Speaker 1: kind of system. He would load a design into some software, 318 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:08,280 Speaker 1: use that software to send a command to the routing table, 319 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:13,680 Speaker 1: and the software would translate the design into a set 320 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:17,199 Speaker 1: of instructions that would be sent to this computer controlled 321 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:21,159 Speaker 1: routing table, and a big arm with a very fast 322 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:25,840 Speaker 1: spinning drill bit would descend and start cutting the patterns 323 00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:29,120 Speaker 1: into the material below. Next thing you knew, you had 324 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: yourself a cutlass made out of aluminum, or some etched 325 00:19:32,119 --> 00:19:34,760 Speaker 1: awards that were made out of plexiglass, all sorts of 326 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:38,120 Speaker 1: cool stuff. Well, the cupcake C and C was something 327 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,320 Speaker 1: that the three were able to make in a kit form. 328 00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:45,879 Speaker 1: So the kit would include wires, a micro controller, and 329 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,600 Speaker 1: acrylic build platform upon which your three D printed objects 330 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:53,320 Speaker 1: would sit as the printer was working. It included an 331 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,400 Speaker 1: extruder which would convert the solid plastic into a form 332 00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:58,359 Speaker 1: that could be laid down layer by layer. I'll talk 333 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,240 Speaker 1: more about that later in this episode. In an XYZ 334 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:07,480 Speaker 1: positioning system and more like a balsa case essentially that 335 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:12,119 Speaker 1: you could put together. Based on this quasi success of 336 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:15,560 Speaker 1: them getting this thing briefly running, the three decided that 337 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:17,720 Speaker 1: they would start a company of their own and really 338 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 1: try to bring three D printing to the mass market, 339 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:22,840 Speaker 1: or at least a consumer market filled with makers and 340 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:26,399 Speaker 1: hobbyists who could perhaps support the business long enough for 341 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:29,160 Speaker 1: it to catch on, kind of like how the home 342 00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:33,160 Speaker 1: PC business all started with kits in the nineteen seventies. 343 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: You would send off for a kit, you would get 344 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: the parts, and you would put the computer together at home. 345 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: That eventually led to the birth and then success of 346 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:45,359 Speaker 1: companies like Apple. So the three settled on the maker 347 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:48,560 Speaker 1: bought name pretty quickly. They all thought, well, this would 348 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:51,159 Speaker 1: let you make stuff. It's part of the maker community. 349 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 1: It is more or less kind of a robot because 350 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:57,200 Speaker 1: it will automatically carry out the instructions you send to it. 351 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,400 Speaker 1: And they thought, well, there's no way that name is available. 352 00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: It's too good of a name. But they did some 353 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,440 Speaker 1: research and found that as far as they could tell, 354 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,119 Speaker 1: no one had claimed to it. So they said, excellent, 355 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:09,359 Speaker 1: we're going to go with that. In January two thousand 356 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:12,480 Speaker 1: and nine, the three launched this company with the help 357 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 1: of seventy five thousand dollars of seed money. Twenty five 358 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:19,280 Speaker 1: thousand dollars of that came from Adrian Bauer himself, the 359 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:22,880 Speaker 1: man who proposed the RepRap project five years earlier. And 360 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:25,720 Speaker 1: like I said, their first product was the cupcake C 361 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:29,160 Speaker 1: and C and you would buy that in kit form, 362 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:31,639 Speaker 1: or if you lack the patience but you happen to 363 00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:34,040 Speaker 1: have a whole lot more money, you could buy it 364 00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:36,800 Speaker 1: fully assembled. If you buy it as a kit, it 365 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:39,840 Speaker 1: would set you back seven hundred and fifty dollars, a 366 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,760 Speaker 1: princely sum in its own right. But if you wanted 367 00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:45,639 Speaker 1: someone else to put the thing together and save you 368 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,639 Speaker 1: some time and remove the possibility that maybe you'd wire 369 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,760 Speaker 1: it up incorrectly, then you're looking at twenty five hundred 370 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:56,400 Speaker 1: dollars to buy one fully assembled. So what was up 371 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:59,760 Speaker 1: with the name Cupcake? Well, as Adam Meyer would explain 372 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:02,720 Speaker 1: to Google in two thousand and nine, there's a presentation 373 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,639 Speaker 1: that's up online. You can actually watch the whole thing 374 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:07,320 Speaker 1: if you like. The Cupcake device was meant to be 375 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:10,960 Speaker 1: a three D positioning tool that could do more than 376 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,560 Speaker 1: just act as a three D printer. That was the 377 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:16,359 Speaker 1: first implementation they envisioned for it. But they thought, well, 378 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,360 Speaker 1: this is really a device where you can have two 379 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:23,280 Speaker 1: different components and they quote unquote know where they are 380 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:28,879 Speaker 1: in orientation with relation to each other, including distance and positioning, 381 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:31,080 Speaker 1: and then you could use that for all sorts of stuff, 382 00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:33,840 Speaker 1: not just three D printing. And they created a design, 383 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:38,159 Speaker 1: or propose a design at least that would use frosting 384 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:43,399 Speaker 1: as a stuff to pipe out onto a surface, like 385 00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:46,280 Speaker 1: on a cupcake. So that's where they got the name 386 00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: cupcake C and C because they thought, well, this could 387 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: really let you create very intricate designs and send them 388 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,000 Speaker 1: to the machine, and then they would carry out the 389 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,680 Speaker 1: designs automatically and your cupcakes would be made with robotic precision, 390 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:03,400 Speaker 1: or at least frosted with robotic precision. While the team 391 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:05,600 Speaker 1: had been working on the design for the cupcake for 392 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,360 Speaker 1: a while, they didn't have an actual first generation cupcake 393 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:13,080 Speaker 1: C and C ready to go working until March of 394 00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:16,320 Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. Brie was scheduled to travel to Austin, 395 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,040 Speaker 1: Texas for south By Southwest with the goal of showing 396 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,520 Speaker 1: off the maker bot to people there. He didn't have 397 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:23,800 Speaker 1: a ticket, he was just going to show them the 398 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:28,520 Speaker 1: printer in bars around Austin, Texas, And from my experience 399 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,000 Speaker 1: the couple times I've been to south By Southwest, that 400 00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:33,879 Speaker 1: seems to be the kind of location where most of 401 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:36,840 Speaker 1: the actual action of south By Southwest really takes place 402 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,480 Speaker 1: in the after hours in the various restaurants and bars 403 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:44,720 Speaker 1: around Austin, Texas. So he shot a quick video of 404 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,400 Speaker 1: the team's early cupcake C and C printing out an 405 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:49,959 Speaker 1: object in March two thousand and nine, then immediately went 406 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,399 Speaker 1: to south By Southwest where he would show off this 407 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:56,120 Speaker 1: printer in bars, and he printed out shot glasses as 408 00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:00,440 Speaker 1: a demonstration. Apparently he had this fascination was shot glasses 409 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,360 Speaker 1: in general, and so that was kind of his go 410 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,840 Speaker 1: to demo. After south By Southwest, the team actually created 411 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:10,119 Speaker 1: an online storefront so people could purchase the printers. This 412 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,200 Speaker 1: was the first time they were actually offering them up 413 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,280 Speaker 1: for sale. They had the idea of seven hundred and 414 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,880 Speaker 1: fifty dollars for a kit. They knew they would charge 415 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 1: twenty five hundred for a fully assembled one, and now 416 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:22,680 Speaker 1: they were finally ready to say, all right, if you 417 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,960 Speaker 1: want one, put in the order. They had put together 418 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,240 Speaker 1: twenty kits and boxed them up so they were ready 419 00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:32,040 Speaker 1: to go, and they thought that it would probably take 420 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 1: a couple of months to sell out of that initial 421 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:38,040 Speaker 1: inventory because the idea was still pretty new, especially outside 422 00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:40,399 Speaker 1: of the type community of makers who were familiar with 423 00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: the RepRap project. But instead, they actually sold out of 424 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,679 Speaker 1: their kits in two weeks. At that point, maker Bot 425 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:51,399 Speaker 1: was taking up space in the office of an entrepreneur 426 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,600 Speaker 1: named Jake Lodwick. Loudwick had co founded the online video 427 00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 1: platform Vimeo. Before that, he had worked as a web 428 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,680 Speaker 1: developer for College Humor and It's early Days. He's another 429 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:03,840 Speaker 1: interesting person in business in tech, and I'll probably have 430 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:05,560 Speaker 1: to do a full episode about him in the future 431 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,520 Speaker 1: as well. But as MakerBot was getting bigger, they were 432 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: taking up more and more space in Loudwick's office, and 433 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,520 Speaker 1: he eventually told his team that once his lease was up, 434 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:16,520 Speaker 1: he was not planning on renewing. He was going to 435 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 1: give up the space, and that meant the young company 436 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,520 Speaker 1: needed to secure space of their own for realsies, So 437 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,840 Speaker 1: they ended up leasing a five thousand square foot office 438 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:30,000 Speaker 1: space in Brooklyn, New York. They were convinced that this 439 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,760 Speaker 1: would give them plenty of room to grow, but within 440 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,320 Speaker 1: two months they had pretty much filled it up with capacity. 441 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:39,879 Speaker 1: Things were really exciting for the fledgling company at this time, 442 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,840 Speaker 1: and I would have my first experience with maker bot 443 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,320 Speaker 1: not long after this stuff was going on. I'll talk 444 00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:48,960 Speaker 1: more about that in just a second, but first let's 445 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:59,520 Speaker 1: take another quick break to thank our sponsor. Not only 446 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,159 Speaker 1: did the make Bought guys move into a new space, 447 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,600 Speaker 1: they made their first hire to help handle incoming orders. 448 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:09,560 Speaker 1: So now there was the three of them plus an employee. Exciting. 449 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:11,920 Speaker 1: The maker community appeared to be eager to get hold 450 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:13,920 Speaker 1: of the tech that would allow them to actually explore 451 00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,840 Speaker 1: the possibility of making the rep wrap dream a reality, 452 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:20,440 Speaker 1: something where they would be able to print all sorts 453 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:25,400 Speaker 1: of different parts, not just you know, chochkeys, but useful stuff. 454 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,159 Speaker 1: Part of that meant adhering to those principles of the 455 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,520 Speaker 1: open source philosophy. The cupcake was a true piece of 456 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,119 Speaker 1: open source hardware. The software you need to run it 457 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:39,720 Speaker 1: was also open source, so the community could scour over 458 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,480 Speaker 1: the design of both and contribute fixes or improvements. They 459 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,600 Speaker 1: were acting as quality assurance, they were acting as research 460 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:53,240 Speaker 1: and development. This was incredibly valuable for Maker bought. Not 461 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,919 Speaker 1: only was it creating a community of loyal customers, it 462 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 1: was also doing a lot of work that makrobot would 463 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:02,399 Speaker 1: have had to do on its own. If it had 464 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: been proprietary technology from the get go, they would have 465 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:08,479 Speaker 1: had to have their own teams QA stuff make sure 466 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,560 Speaker 1: everything's working properly. If something's not working properly, then they 467 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:13,280 Speaker 1: would have to go through the whole process of trying 468 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,720 Speaker 1: to fix the problem, you know, find a work around 469 00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,639 Speaker 1: or a solution. They would also be looking at their 470 00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:21,199 Speaker 1: own ways to improve the technology, but by releasing it 471 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:25,119 Speaker 1: in this open source format, their users became those people. 472 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,680 Speaker 1: It was almost like the users were an employee by extension, 473 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:33,600 Speaker 1: and an employee of incredible skill because it came with 474 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,720 Speaker 1: all the ideas of all the different people in that community. 475 00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: It was incredibly powerful and apparently it was just really 476 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:45,760 Speaker 1: encouraging to participate in this community. People who bought a cupcake, 477 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,080 Speaker 1: C and C felt like they were part of something 478 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:51,240 Speaker 1: big and they had some sense of ownership there because 479 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,000 Speaker 1: their input was valued. They were all working together to 480 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,280 Speaker 1: change the world. It was kind of this almost utopian 481 00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,640 Speaker 1: sort of perspective. Well, as the orders were coming in 482 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,600 Speaker 1: the company was making plans to take another step into 483 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: the consumer marketplace, and that would involve traveling out to 484 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:12,119 Speaker 1: Las Vegas, Nevada for the twenty ten CEES Trade Show, 485 00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: and that's where I saw a maker bought cupcake C 486 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,040 Speaker 1: and C for the first time as it slowly printed 487 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,880 Speaker 1: out a special plastic coin that I still have somewhere. 488 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,119 Speaker 1: The team also talked about how they hoped to create 489 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,760 Speaker 1: a three D scanner in the future to let people 490 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,800 Speaker 1: convert a three dimensional scan of a physical object into 491 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,720 Speaker 1: the data necessary to print out a replica of that object. 492 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:38,480 Speaker 1: That would be a huge jump forward because it would 493 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:40,640 Speaker 1: mean you wouldn't have to plot out all the points 494 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,080 Speaker 1: yourself in a CAD program or hope that someone else 495 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: could do it. With a good scanner, you could get 496 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,040 Speaker 1: a full three dimensional scan of something like a replacement part, 497 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:51,720 Speaker 1: and then you would have that information forever. So it's 498 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:54,040 Speaker 1: not like you would scan it once and then you 499 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,360 Speaker 1: just print it once. You scan it once and you've 500 00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,520 Speaker 1: got it, and whenever you need another one, you just 501 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,520 Speaker 1: print another one. So it was like you suddenly got 502 00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 1: access to a never ending supply of all these different 503 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:06,760 Speaker 1: parts if you could just scan them in and if 504 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:08,840 Speaker 1: you had the raw materials to print on another one. 505 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:12,400 Speaker 1: So you started to see the possibility of that vision 506 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,320 Speaker 1: coming true. But at this point they didn't have the 507 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:18,040 Speaker 1: scanner that would come later, but they didn't have it 508 00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: at this early station, but they did say that was 509 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: something they were interested in developing. Part of the disruption 510 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:29,280 Speaker 1: that three D printers were all about was a related 511 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,440 Speaker 1: project that Zack Smith had worked on back when the 512 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,360 Speaker 1: three co founders were still getting ready to launch maker 513 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,000 Speaker 1: Bot as a company, so this was late two thousand 514 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,520 Speaker 1: and eight. This was a website called thingaverse, and the 515 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: website is kind of a companion piece to maker Bot. 516 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: It acts as a repository for user generated digital design files. 517 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,360 Speaker 1: So at thingaverse, designers could upload their design files for 518 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,480 Speaker 1: other people to use or even to alter in any 519 00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:58,600 Speaker 1: way that they liked. So if you created a collection 520 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: of files for say three D printed chess pieces, you 521 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,280 Speaker 1: could upload them all as files to thingaverse and someone 522 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,960 Speaker 1: else could download those and print out the chess pieces 523 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: that you designed, and the designs all followed the licensing 524 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:15,520 Speaker 1: strategy of either the New General Public License or the 525 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:19,400 Speaker 1: Creative Commons License, and those agreements typically allow people to 526 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:24,200 Speaker 1: use a piece of intellectual property with very few limitations. 527 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:27,400 Speaker 1: Of course, it all depends upon the specific type of license. 528 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:31,400 Speaker 1: These licenses are not all just one approach. There are 529 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:35,000 Speaker 1: multiple different pathways you can take with them. But with 530 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:38,960 Speaker 1: some of those license you can actually allow folks to 531 00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,560 Speaker 1: not just take your work, but make derivative or altered 532 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,080 Speaker 1: works based off of what you've already done. So that 533 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,400 Speaker 1: means someone could download those chess pieces you designed, for example, 534 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:51,960 Speaker 1: and then they create a customized version of every piece 535 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,240 Speaker 1: that uses your models as a starting point, or then 536 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 1: after that they might upload their own altered designs they 537 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 1: can set right alongside your originals, and someone else could 538 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,200 Speaker 1: download either one or both and make changes to either 539 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,239 Speaker 1: or both. So one of the categories that got a 540 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:12,720 Speaker 1: lot of action on Thingaverse early on had to do 541 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,440 Speaker 1: with the printers themselves, so users were designing parts that 542 00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:20,280 Speaker 1: could upgrade the basic cupcake C and C design, So 543 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: it was possible to go out and buy a cupcake 544 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:25,760 Speaker 1: C and C kit, spend the eighty hours or so 545 00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 1: it would take to put it together, get some plastic 546 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,320 Speaker 1: filament as your printing material, and then print out a 547 00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,080 Speaker 1: printer upgrade using the original version of the printer. Then 548 00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:37,680 Speaker 1: you could take it apart, put the upgrade into your 549 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,880 Speaker 1: new and improved printer, and start up again. And that 550 00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:44,760 Speaker 1: was again one of the most powerful parts of having 551 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: this community was having people who are actively working to 552 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,960 Speaker 1: improve the product. Maker Bot paid attention to those designs 553 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,640 Speaker 1: and would even incorporate some of them in the official 554 00:31:54,880 --> 00:32:00,680 Speaker 1: future machines that would produce, and often it would include attribution, 555 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,520 Speaker 1: so the people who had created the designs would get 556 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:10,239 Speaker 1: an attribution in future versions of the actual products. So 557 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,160 Speaker 1: this was really the honeymoon phase for a maker Bot. 558 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:17,200 Speaker 1: The maker community was enthusiastically embracing the company. Tech news 559 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,320 Speaker 1: outlets were really getting excited about covering it. But there 560 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:23,160 Speaker 1: were some big changes lurking on the horizon and they 561 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:26,320 Speaker 1: would affect everything. So before I end this episode, before 562 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:28,760 Speaker 1: I conclude on this part, I figured it would be 563 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,240 Speaker 1: good to give just kind of a quick high level 564 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,680 Speaker 1: rundown on how these printers work in general, and I'll 565 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,000 Speaker 1: be chatting about some other models in the upcoming episodes, 566 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:41,200 Speaker 1: but they all work on a similar principle in the 567 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,120 Speaker 1: maker Bot family, So essentially, it all begins with that 568 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,680 Speaker 1: digital three D model of whatever it is you're going 569 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:49,960 Speaker 1: to print. That model serves as the set of instructions 570 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:52,960 Speaker 1: for the printer. The printer software takes the model and 571 00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:57,360 Speaker 1: essentially slices it into very thin layers from the bottom up. 572 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: The bottom in this case being the side of the 573 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,960 Speaker 1: object that will be in contact with the building platform. 574 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,280 Speaker 1: It's not necessarily the bottom of the object itself, because 575 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:09,960 Speaker 1: you could print an object on its side or even 576 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,680 Speaker 1: upside down, so top and bottom in this case refer 577 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:18,640 Speaker 1: to whichever side is making contact with the base the 578 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:22,440 Speaker 1: printing platform, that's the bottom. These instructions get sent to 579 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,360 Speaker 1: the printer, which can interpret the instructions as a set 580 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:27,200 Speaker 1: of plot points where it's going to lay down the 581 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:31,040 Speaker 1: plastic in a very thin layer. The type of plastic 582 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,440 Speaker 1: falls into a category called thermoplastic, and, as the name suggests, 583 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,480 Speaker 1: with thermo heat has an important part to play here. 584 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:43,400 Speaker 1: Thermoplastics are materials that soften as they get hotter and 585 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,720 Speaker 1: they harden as they cool down, so if you heat 586 00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 1: them up to a hot enough temperature, they'll actually they'll melt. 587 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,720 Speaker 1: So a real of thermoplastic filament would serve as the 588 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: raw material for the printer. The type of plastic. The 589 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:01,520 Speaker 1: two most common types of thermoplasts that you'll find for 590 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:05,960 Speaker 1: consumer three D printers would be ABS, which is oil 591 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,880 Speaker 1: based and it's the same sort of plastic that lego 592 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,239 Speaker 1: bricks are made out of, and PLA, which is a 593 00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:17,719 Speaker 1: biodegradable organic plastic. It's made from starchy byproducts maker Bot 594 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,840 Speaker 1: it tends to focus on both. They tended to focus 595 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:25,040 Speaker 1: earlier on ABS over PLA, but that would change over 596 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 1: the course of the life of MakerBot as well. ABS 597 00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,280 Speaker 1: tends to make a harder plastic than PLA once it sets, 598 00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:36,960 Speaker 1: but it's also gotten amorphous melting point ABS does. That 599 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,240 Speaker 1: means that you can't be totally certain that which temperature 600 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:41,960 Speaker 1: of the stuff is actually going to melt. It depends 601 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:46,480 Speaker 1: heavily upon the batch of plastic you have, so typically 602 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,239 Speaker 1: three D printers will heat up extruders to around two 603 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,960 Speaker 1: hundred and thirty degrees celsius, but depending upon the filament, 604 00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:56,200 Speaker 1: you might need anything between two hundred and ten degrees 605 00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:58,480 Speaker 1: celsius to two hundred and forty degrees celsius to get 606 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:03,560 Speaker 1: the ideal temperature to get the consistency the melting that 607 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:07,799 Speaker 1: you will need to print properly in addition, ABS can 608 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:10,399 Speaker 1: warp as you print if it happens to cool down 609 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,000 Speaker 1: too much during the printing process. So for that reason, 610 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:16,760 Speaker 1: if you print an ABS, you need a heated bed 611 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: or heated platform to keep the plastic at a high 612 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:22,400 Speaker 1: enough temperature so it holds its shape through the entire 613 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: printing process. But you also don't want the bed to 614 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 1: be so hot that it ends up making the plastic 615 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,239 Speaker 1: guy like it never has a chance to actually cool 616 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:35,080 Speaker 1: enough to start hardening, and it'll warp as the print 617 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,840 Speaker 1: head moves around or as the object becomes too heavy. 618 00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,960 Speaker 1: PLA is in general safer to use than ABS. It 619 00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:46,960 Speaker 1: puts out fewer fumes at any rate. It also has 620 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,120 Speaker 1: a lower melting point, so you don't have to operate 621 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:51,719 Speaker 1: the printer at such a high temperature at the extruders, 622 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 1: and it cools into a glossy, smooth appearance. It's a 623 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:59,400 Speaker 1: little more esthetically pleasing than ABS typically is. After printing 624 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,200 Speaker 1: running bed doesn't necessarily have to be heated, though the 625 00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:06,600 Speaker 1: resources I'm familiar with suggest you should probably still use 626 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:08,719 Speaker 1: a heated print bed. You just don't need it as 627 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 1: hot as you would with ABS, So in other words, 628 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,920 Speaker 1: you might need a heated print bed that's at sixty 629 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:20,239 Speaker 1: degrees celsius for PLA versus eighty degrees celsius for ABS. 630 00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 1: PLA has greater tensile strength than ABS, but ABS typically 631 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:30,000 Speaker 1: withstands wear and tear better and will withstand impact better. 632 00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:33,040 Speaker 1: If you drop something that's been printed in ABS plastic, 633 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:35,560 Speaker 1: it tends to just kind of bounce, and it's typically 634 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,560 Speaker 1: kind of fine. PLA material can be a bit more brittle. 635 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:41,200 Speaker 1: It could actually shatter, depending upon what it is and 636 00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:45,319 Speaker 1: how hard it hits the ground, whether it's PLA or ABS. 637 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,600 Speaker 1: There's a motor that's in a three D printer that 638 00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:56,080 Speaker 1: pulls this filament, this wire like construction of plastic into 639 00:36:56,320 --> 00:37:00,800 Speaker 1: the printer's extruder. The extruder is essentially a super heated nozzle, 640 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,800 Speaker 1: or not superheated, but at least a very hot nozzle. 641 00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:06,520 Speaker 1: It's heated to a precise temperature like that two hundred 642 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,759 Speaker 1: and thirty degrees celsius for APS, for example, and that's 643 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:13,200 Speaker 1: in order to melt this filament, and the extruder prints 644 00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 1: this molten plastic on the heated print bed. The motor 645 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 1: keeps it moving, so the filament keeps adding pressure, thus 646 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:24,360 Speaker 1: pushing the liquid plastic through the end of the nozzle, 647 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,719 Speaker 1: and the process continues until you finish the print job. 648 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,360 Speaker 1: Either the extruder will move around the print bed or 649 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: the print bed will move underneath the extruder. It depends 650 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:36,919 Speaker 1: upon the design of the printer. In either case, these 651 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,520 Speaker 1: movements correspond with the digital three D model for the 652 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:42,040 Speaker 1: object that you're sending to the printer in the first place, 653 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:45,120 Speaker 1: and the printer lays down the first of many layers 654 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:49,200 Speaker 1: of molten plastic. The printer repeats that process layer by layer, 655 00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:52,399 Speaker 1: laying down molten plastic to sit on top of and 656 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,640 Speaker 1: bind to the lower layer of plastic. The printer is 657 00:37:56,719 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 1: essentially creating multiple two dimensional images, just stacks of two 658 00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:05,279 Speaker 1: dimensional images, over and over again until they add up 659 00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:09,320 Speaker 1: to a full three dimensional printed object. The Cupcake CNC 660 00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,880 Speaker 1: could print an object up to one hundred millimeters long, 661 00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:16,839 Speaker 1: one hundred millimeters wide, and one hundred and thirty millimeters tall, 662 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:19,919 Speaker 1: so that translates to four inches by four inches by 663 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,160 Speaker 1: five inches more or less. But the Cupcake C and 664 00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,920 Speaker 1: C was just the beginning, and while this company was 665 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:32,320 Speaker 1: rapidly gaining fans in the maker community, things were bound 666 00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,960 Speaker 1: to change pretty dramatically in the next couple of years. 667 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:39,000 Speaker 1: I'll explain more in part two of this episode, but 668 00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:42,239 Speaker 1: that concludes this part. So I hope you guys are 669 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,600 Speaker 1: enjoying the story of makerbots so far. Our next episode 670 00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,640 Speaker 1: will have a lot of controversy and tragedy in it, 671 00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:51,439 Speaker 1: at least from a kind of a high level view, 672 00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,360 Speaker 1: very interesting stuff. If you guys have suggestions for future 673 00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,400 Speaker 1: episodes of tech Stuff, tell you what, go to our website, 674 00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:01,520 Speaker 1: it's tech Stuff podcast dot com. You can check out 675 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:03,600 Speaker 1: the links there, you can get in contact with me, 676 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,919 Speaker 1: let me know what you would like me to cover 677 00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,120 Speaker 1: in future episodes. You can also pop on over to 678 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,280 Speaker 1: our store over at tepublic dot com slash tech stuff 679 00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,040 Speaker 1: and look at the merchandise there and not just look 680 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:17,399 Speaker 1: at it, you know, buy something if you like it. 681 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:19,759 Speaker 1: Every purchase you make goes to help the show. We 682 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:22,879 Speaker 1: greatly appreciate it. Then We've got some fun designs on there, 683 00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:24,719 Speaker 1: and we've got new ones coming all the time. So 684 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:28,040 Speaker 1: go check it out and I'll talk to you again 685 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:37,640 Speaker 1: really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics. 686 00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:48,960 Speaker 1: Because it HowStuffWorks. Dot Com