Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

Jim Stewart wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?


I've heard that story too, doesn't mean it's true. - GWE

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

IIRC, it originated somewhere in fact but doesn't resemble the real story very
much. I don't think you can call it true.

The one my father told me involved the Japanese and a ferruled hair.

GTO(John)

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

True, but your facts are a bit off. It was in a magazine a few months ago
but I forget which one and they mentioned the hole maker's business names
and all if I remember correctly.

The first company sent off a very small drill to some other company bragging
about their hole drilling capability being so small, etc. Company #2 sent
the drill back with a hole drilled in it across the diameter of the shank.

That's much closer to the true story but I'm sure it is missing some details
or has "static" from my brain added.

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
http://www.autodrill.com
http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com

V8013

"Joe AutoDrill" wrote in
message ...
Does anyone know the story and is it true?

True, but your facts are a bit off. It was in a magazine a few months ago
but I forget which one and they mentioned the hole maker's business names
and all if I remember correctly.

The story I heard went like this:

American company boasts that they make the world's smallest drill. Swiss
company buys same and sends it back to American with hole drilled in it,
crosswise. Japanese company buys Swiss drill and sends it back to
Switzerland with hole drilled in it lengthwise.
Now we're heard another one-up on this tale in which (Korean?)
company sends the Japanese drill back to Japan with lengthwise hole drilled
and tapped with a screw inserted. Probably in the next telling the Koreans
will get the tap back from Singapore or someplace with yet a smaller screw
inserted... etc.
Tiny drills aren't usually twist drills. Usually some form of
micro-spade drill. The really tiny holes that I've seen drilled were done
with a very thin wire and abrasives or with an edm setup. With techniques
like that, you can drill holes in the micron range.
The smallest I've ever had to work with were some microscopic
thermistors that had to go into the end of a #28 hypodermic needle. They
arrived in a very small pill box, but I immediately lost them -- before I
saw them. I sneezed or something. The supplier was nice and sent us
replacements because the protective glass cover of the pill box had been
left off. The really hard part of the job was soldering the leads to some
working wire that went up the needle's shaft.
I never had to drill really small holes. The smallest I ever saw
was for a syringe that was used to inject stuff into the nucleus of a cell
or to remove something like an individual chromosome or mitochondria from a
cell. The design was quite simple. An ordinary 1cc tuberculin syringe with
an appropropriate micro-pipete for a tip. About halfway up the barrel of
the syringe, a tiny, tiny hole drilled. Into the hole went a lapped piston
which was in turn attached to the movable anvil of a micrometer. Not only
could one inject a precise quantity, but also remove a precise quantity.
But all that was 40 or so years ago -- by now I'm sure that these
tales of micro-machining have long been surpassed .. either that or the lies
have gotten ever fancier.

Boris

--

-------------------------------------
Boris Beizer Ph.D. Seminars and Consulting
1232 Glenbrook Road on Software Testing and
Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Quality Assurance

TEL: 215-572-5580
FAX: 215-886-0144
Email bsquare "at" sprintmail.com

------------------------------------------

Boris

-------------------------------------
Boris Beizer Ph.D. Seminars and Consulting
1232 Glenbrook Road on Software Testing and
Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Quality Assurance

TEL: 215-572-5580
FAX: 215-886-0144
Email bsquare "at" sprintmail.com

------------------------------------------

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/wire.asp

Joe AutoDrill wrote:

Does anyone know the story and is it true?


True, but your facts are a bit off. It was in a magazine a few months ago
but I forget which one and they mentioned the hole maker's business names
and all if I remember correctly.

The first company sent off a very small drill to some other company bragging
about their hole drilling capability being so small, etc. Company #2 sent
the drill back with a hole drilled in it across the diameter of the shank.

That's much closer to the true story but I'm sure it is missing some details
or has "static" from my brain added.

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
http://www.autodrill.com
http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com

V8013



--
__
Pete Snell
Royal Military College
Kingston Ontario


The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw

My father told me a variation on this some 30 years ago where a US
company boasted of its small tubing to a UK company. A sample was sent
to the UK company who promptly drilled a hole through the US tube and
feed an even smaller tube through the hole then sent it back. My father
and I are british so maybe he had a bias on the story.

Jim Stewart wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

Pete,

Public kudos to you! Should have checked Snopes first of course! I always
tell folks to look there first.

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
http://www.autodrill.com
http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com

V8013

In article . net, Boris Beizer
says...

The smallest I've ever had to work with were some microscopic
thermistors that had to go into the end of a #28 hypodermic needle.

Ouch. I wonder where *those* were going to be injected!

Reminds me of the old joke where the doctor goes to fill out
a prescription, and starts writing with a thermometer.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

Give that story another 10 years and the drill bit will have been
nanomachined into a jet engine.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

Jim Stewart wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?


I think we're all going to have to get better eyeglasses to see the
teensy stuff which may be commonplace technology in the near future.

Google around for MEMS, NEMS, nanotechnology or even nanomotor and
you'll find stuff like this to blow your mind with:

http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/techs/lbnl1939.html

The first link on that page under "FOR MORE INFORMATION" gets you a
drawing of the motor.

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

"Peter Snell" wrote in message
...
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/wire.asp

Joe AutoDrill wrote:

Does anyone know the story and is it true?


True, but your facts are a bit off. It was in a magazine a few months
ago
but I forget which one and they mentioned the hole maker's business
names
and all if I remember correctly.

The first company sent off a very small drill to some other company
bragging
about their hole drilling capability being so small, etc. Company #2
sent
the drill back with a hole drilled in it across the diameter of the
shank.

That's much closer to the true story but I'm sure it is missing some
details
or has "static" from my brain added.

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
http://www.autodrill.com
http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com

That's about the way I heard it, Pete. The original was 0.003" diameter,
allegedly, and it came back with a hole cross-drilled in it.

Supposedly a true story, from the early 1950s. It was told to me in 1977 by
Andy Ashburn, then Chief Editor of American Machinist. And the company that
cross-drilled the hole, the story went, was Swiss.

Ed Huntress

My father, who's 85, had a life-long friend, "Bailey", the same age.
Until he retired, Bailey spent his working lifetime as a machinist with
a large petrochemical plant in Texas.

I am now 55. At LEAST 45 years ago, I remember Bailey telling the
story like this:

An American company creates "the world's smallest drill bit". They
send it off to Germany. The Germans send it back, drilled, threaded,
and capped, with a SET of drill bits inside.

Therefore, the story's been around for at least my lifetime. I'm
pretty sure, without being able to prove this, that it originated
during World War II. I know for a fact that Bailey was an infantryman
in Germany.

As a result of the above, my belief is that the story, in any of its
forms, is not really true. Rather, it is an anecdotal metaphor of
admiration for the engineering prowess of whatever country is being
admired. In Bailey's case this was obviously, Germany.

Anyway, that's my take on it. I.e., it's an urban myth with a purpose.
The purpose is to heap grudging praise on the engineering know-how of
the Germans, the Swiss, the Japanese, or whoever.

Vernon

Jim Stewart wrote:
Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:02:45 -0800, Jim Stewart
wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?
The way I heard this 60 years ago was that the sent the drill as an
example of their capabilities, and it came back drilled through and
bolted to a plaque stating "drill made in USA, mounted in Switzerland"
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

I remember reading a couple of interesting stories many years ago in a book
about Bugatti cars. Apparently, Ettore Bugatti could fit a shaft accurately
into a round hole completely by eye, using a file. Another story concerned
the front axle used on the little Bugatti racing cars, no-one could work out
how he made them.

Leon

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:02:45 -0800, Jim Stewart
wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

The version my father (instrumentation designer/builder
for Dow Chemical) told me (in the late '50s) was:

US company draws fine wire that they are very proud
of. The send it to a Swiss rival who send it back
with a hole drilled through. (I seem to remember my
dad saying lengthways, but when I asked him recently
he said that it was just crossways. This, for me, adds
some credibility to the story.)

His other fine wire story is more related to some
other threads seen here recently: A co-worker came
into the instrumentation lab and asked my dad for
a piece of the smallest wire he had. My dad reached
into his desk drawer, pulled out a corked test tube,
and handed it to him. The guy says, "There's nothing in
there." My dad takes him over to a dissection microscope
and shows that there is indeed a one inch piece of very
fine wire in there. Dad says, "Now, what do you want
to do with this wire?" "Oh, I need to clean out the nozzle
of this can of spray paint." My dad went to the boxes
of music wire on the shelf and selected one from the middle
of the range and snipped him off a piece. So, the lesson is:
specify by real requirements, not by asking for the limits
of possibility.


--
--Pete
"Peter W. Meek"
http://www.msen.com/~pwmeek/

My dad's version:

WWII / SRU (ship repair unit)
made an extremely small drill bit, sent it to a comparable French
ship. Sent back with a bit inside theirs with a threaded cap.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"Gene Kearns" wrote in
message ...
On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:02:45 -0800, Jim Stewart

wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

I think every guy that has spent much time in a shop has heard
this
tale in one iteration or another... 40 years ago I heard it as
the
Germans vs. the Americans....

It appears, though, that variations on this oneupmanship tale
has
existed for at least 2,000 years.

See:
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/wire.asp
--

Homepage
http://myworkshop.idleplay.net/

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 08:03:59 -0000, "Leon Heller"
wrote:

"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

I remember reading a couple of interesting stories many years ago in a book
about Bugatti cars. Apparently, Ettore Bugatti could fit a shaft accurately
into a round hole completely by eye, using a file. Another story concerned
the front axle used on the little Bugatti racing cars, no-one could work out
how he made them.

Leon

Knowing something about Bugatti, and the way Bugatti automobiles were
designed, I can well believe both stories.

--RC


Projects expand to fill the clamps available -- plus 20 percent

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 17:28:12 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:

Jim Stewart wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?


I think we're all going to have to get better eyeglasses to see the
teensy stuff which may be commonplace technology in the near future.

Google around for MEMS, NEMS, nanotechnology or even nanomotor and
you'll find stuff like this to blow your mind with:

http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/techs/lbnl1939.html

The first link on that page under "FOR MORE INFORMATION" gets you a
drawing of the motor.

Happy Holidays,

Jeff
At IMTS2004 there was a japanese company that had a glass display
case with some microscopes set on top. I thought the display case was
empty, as there was what appeared to be just some dust in it. Looking
through the microscopes showed that the "dust" was a collection of
human hairs, and thousands of little gear and pinion sets smaller than
the hairs.

Jim Stewart wrote:


Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?

Sorry to be late to the party, but...

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/wire.asp

BugBear