October 29, 2021 by Mark H. Anbinder in 14850 Magazine
This spring, Ed Camacho, a photolithographer at the Cornell University NanoScale Science and Technology Facility, led a team that created a scale model of Cornell’s iconic McGraw Tower that’s just a millimeter tall. Now, just in time for Halloween, he’s followed up that feat with an even smaller model that includes the infamous pumpkin that pranksters placed atop the tower in 1997.
In May, the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) said the “achievement of epic proportions was accomplished using one of CNF’s newest tools: the NanoScribe GT2 Laser Lithography System, a two-photon polymerization volumetric 3D printer.”
A closeup of this spring’s nanoscale McGraw Tower shows windows into the chimes facility and two of the structure’s four clock faces. Images courtesy Ed Camacho, CNF.
Related: Mini McGraw Tower from Cornell NanoScale Facility is just 1mm tall
According to Cornell, “the state-of-the-art NanoScribe GT2 can create 3D nanostructures using a near infrared, femtosecond laser via direct-write onto a photosensitive resin.”
“Fifteen years ago, only a specialist could do this with very specialized equipment,” said Chris Ober, director of CNF and professor of materials engineering in the College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement in May. “Today, with this tool, researchers in the life sciences can make cell scaffolds or microfluidic devices; researchers in photonics can draw 3D waveguides; researchers in robotics can make very small, soft structures for soft robotics — all at this tiny length scale.”
The NanoScribe GT2 has the same basic idea as consumer 3D printers, which hobbyists can use to make figurines or toys, or industrial 3D printers, which might make false teeth, or scale models of cars or ships. On a large scale, 3D printers can even be used to build a house or a bridge.
Back in the spring, Camacho told 14850 Magazine that he planned on “pushing the envelope” of the NanoScribe GT2 on an “even smaller, higher-resolution print with more of McGraw Tower’s fine detail.” The goal of that project was to 3D print a 200-micron-tall clock tower, just a fifth the size of the current nanoscale model.
That’s what the team accomplished this fall, but Camacho decided to add one extra detail to the new model — the mystery pumpkin atop the McGraw Tower spire that caught the world’s attention in 1997.
Related: Cornell staffer revives “PumpkinCam” site, twenty years later
Camacho added a jack-o’-lantern face to his mystery pumpkin.
Camacho says he scaled down the CAD model from the previous project, and added a pumpkin of his own design, creating the pumpkin from scratch after watching a few YouTube videos.
A full-color rendering of the CAD model shows its intricate detail.
The pumpkin appeared atop McGraw Tower on October 8th, 1997, and no one knew why, or how, it had gotten there. “In fact, for a while, no one even knew — for sure — if it was a pumpkin,” says a 2017 NPR article. It ultimately fell from its perch the following March, as campus officials prepared to remove it, but it has remained in Cornell lore.
McGraw Tower is lit with a jack-o’-lantern motif each year for Halloween. 14850 file photo by Mark H. Anbinder.
Camacho says he printed four of the new 200-micron scale models, complete with pumpkin, as shown in the photo above. Each took about 19 minutes on the NanoScribe GT2.
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