Simon Fraser University, April 9, 2007
The world’s first, nanoscale book was published as a work of fine art,
April 9, 2007 by Robert Chaplin at the Nano Imaging Facility of
Simon FraserUniversity. This book, complete with an International
Standard Book Number (ISBN-978-1-894897-17-4), is entitled
‘Teeny Ted From Turnip Town’. It was written by Malcolm Douglas
Chaplin and is a fable concerning the success of Teeny Ted from Turnip
town and his victory in the Turnip contest at the annual county fair.
It is at present the world’s smallest published book.
The Robert Chaplin - SFU nanobook project was produced using a
focused-gallium-ion beam with the assistance of Dr. Li Yang, and
Dr. Karen L. Kavanagh of Simon Fraser University, located at the
summit of Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby, BC. The gallium beam has a
minimum diameter of 7 nanometers, and was programmed to carve
the space surrounding each letter of a book. The book was typeset in
block letters with a resolution of 40 nanometers, and is made up of
30 microtablets, each carved on a polished piece of single crystalline
silicon. The carving of the letterforms invokes the look of ancient
cuneiform tablets, the undisputed root of publication. The entire
collection of microtablets is contained within an area of 69 x 97 mic-
rons square, with an average size of tablet being 11 x 15 microns square.
The ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ cites two records for very small
books: The new testament of the King James Bible, (5 x 5 mm, MIT, 2001)
and Chekhov’s ‘Chameleon’ (0.9 x 0.9 mm, Palkovic, 2002). ‘Teeny Ted
from Turnip Town’,is much smaller. This original publication
has a total size of less than 0.07 x 0.10 mm.
It is an exquisite work of contemporary art, available in a signature
edition of 100 copies, from Robert Chaplin, via Simon Fraser University,
Nano Imaging Facility.
http://nanoimaging.sfu.ca/
http://robertchaplin.ca/
Simon Fraser University, April 9, 2007 
