ABSTRACT
Making devices small has long had engineering, scientific, and aesthetic motivations. For example, John Harrison’s quest [1] to make a small (e.g., hand-sized)
chronometer
in the 1700s for nautical navigation was motivated by the desire to have an accurate time-keeping instrument that was insensitive to temperature, humidity, and motion. A small chronometer could meet these objectives and allow for multiple instruments on a ship for redundancy and error averaging. A number of technological firsts came from this work, such as the development of the roller bearing. Driven by the need for portability, the miniaturization of many mechanical devices has advanced over the years.
