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World's Smallest Motor Donated to PMH
 Image: William McLellan using a microscope to inspect his tiny motor while holding a model one million times larger, 1960.
In 1959, Dr. Richard Feynman, the famous CalTech physicist, issued a challenge that effectively ushered in the field of nanotechnology. He offered a $1,000 prize to anyone who could make an operating electric motor that was only 1/64th of an inch cubed. Much to Feynman's surprise, a year later, a young Pasadena-based electrical engineer successfully fulfilled the challenge.
William McLellan (1924-2011), a CalTech graduate, spent just two and a half months laboring on the project, using tools such as a toothpick and a watchmaker's lathe. About the size of a speck of sand, it is mounted under a microscope so that you can see the individual parts. Although there is no effective use for the micromotor - McLellan suggested it could be "employed to run the merry-go-round for a flea circus" - the invention is considered a pioneer in the then-novel field of nanotechnology.
The original micromotor, a demonstration copy, and archival material including notes, photographs, and clippings have been donated to PMH by the Estate of William McLellan. Other copies of the micromotor are also in the collections of CalTech, the London Science Museum, and the Smithsonian.
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About the Collections
PMH maintains the area's largest and most comprehensive collection of documents and artifacts relating to the history of Pasadena and neighboring communities.
The ever-expanding collection spans the years 1834 to the present and contains well over one million historic photographs, rare books, manuscripts, maps, architectural records, art, costumes and textiles, and objects.
The Mission of the Museum is to promote an appreciation of history, culture, arts, and sciences relevant to Pasadena and adjoining communities.
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The Collections Quarterly, sent out four times a year, features new acquisitions as well as select items from the Archives, art and artifacts collection, and the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collections.
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Archives Feature
Gus Daniels Collection
Archives volunteer Don Bergmann just finished processing an interesting collection on WWII veteran and firefighter Gus Daniels. Daniels joined the U.S. Navy in 1930 and had served as a second class machinist when he was honorably discharged in 1936. In 1942, he was called back by the Navy after the USS Arizona (on which Daniels had worked as a machinist during his prior service) sunk at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Daniels served at the naval shipyard in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii until the end of the war.
In 1946, Daniels joined the Los Angeles Fire Department and retired as a captain in 1974. He was also an accomplished banjo player - he played with Dixieland groups for the Navy, L.A.F.D., and the Shriners.
If you would like to see a glimpse of the illustrious life of this wonderful fireman and veteran, come come visit the Research Library and Archives. We are open Thursdays through Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. No appointment necessary.
Image: Gus Daniels (second row, third from left) on USS-Arizona with Crew, 1935. (Gus Daniels Collection, Box 1, Folder 5)
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Collections Feature
Sardonic Seashell Postcards 
In 2005, the Museum received a small collection of charming postcards from art historian Nancy Dustin Wall Moure. All of the postcards feature subjects whose heads are painted onto seashells.
Until recently, nothing was known of Bertha J. Fontaine. The postcards' creator was a bit of an enigma to Museum staff. We now know a little information about Bertha's life and her time in Pasadena. She was born in Maine around 1873. We're not sure when she moved out to California, but we do know that she was living in San Francisco in 1915. Her husband, Cassius P. Fontaine, was a sculptor. After moving from San Francisco, the couple lived in Pasadena for approximately two years. The Pasadena city directories list Cassius' occupation as novelty manufacturer. Perhaps Cassius was selling his wife's postcards?
 It is possible that Bertha continued to make her unique postcards after leaving Pasadena. In 1919, she was living (without Cassius) as a cartoonist in Long Beach, and the next year she was living in Los Angeles as a "maker of novelties" for a retail art store. Images: Seashell postcards by Bertha J. Fontaine (1873-?), 1916-17 (L05-07-11). Gift of Nancy Dustin Wall Moure |
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Fenyes Feature
Adalbert Fenyes, M.D. (1863-1937) - Entomologist
This entomology illustration from Adalbert Fenyes' papers depicts a beetle vaguely similar in appearance to the species he named for his wife Eva Scott Fenyes. The postcard illustrates the fun his family and friends enjoyed when they acknowledged his endearing lifelong pursuit of collecting beetle specimens from around the world.
But, for Adalbert Fenyes, beetle collecting was not a mere gentleman's hobby. His study of beetles was serious science, and his contributions were significant. His specimen collection resides today at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and retains contemporary importance. In his day, Adalbert experimented with beetles in his insectorium and applied his findings to agricultural pest control. His advice to local citrus growers regarding the red spider pest was this, "Spraying is foolish. It kills the red spider but it also kills the beetle that feeds on the red spider..." He recommended nurturing a beneficial beetle population by cultivating, between the rows of trees, corn on which the beetles would thrive.
Adalbert's entomology association cards from around the world, as well as a selection of his whimsical beetle postcards, are on display in the Reading Room.
Images: Top:
Glass encapsulated entomology illustration, cropped. Watercolor on paper, 5 x 7 in., n.d. (FCP.11.16); Below:
Postcard (Germany). 1909. (FCP.48.2, p.81b)
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