- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Bill
- William Howard McLellan was born on December 1, 1924 in Casper, Wyoming, USA. He was married to Patricia Price. He died on September 30, 2011 in Pasadena, California, USA.
- SpousePatricia Price(1945 - ?) (her death, 2 children)
- A pioneer in nanotechnology, he designed and built the world's smallest motor in response to a challenge issued by physicist Richard Feynman in 1959. It was so tiny, it could only be seen with the use of a microscope. It looked like a grain of black grit, but when you squinted down the microscope you could make out a tiny, exquisite assembly of posts, plates and wires. It was an electromagnetic motor, made from magnets and coils of wire, and was less than half a millimetre across. The wires were just 1/80th of a millimetre wide, which is thinner than a human hair.
- Spent much of his life working as an engineer in the Astronomy Department at Caltech.
- In May of 1941, at age 16, he joined the Canadian Army to see the world. He served as a radio tank operator in the Canadian Armoured Corps, and was posted to the Headquarters Company of the Three Rivers Regiment in England.
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