Neelu and the Phenomenal Printer

Neelu and the Phenomenal

Printer

Author: Riddhi Dastidar

Illustrator: Anupam Arunachalam

Miru Mashi is visiting Neelu in
Kolkata.
Neelu is thrilled.
Miru Mashi always has the
strangest stories to tell.

2/18

Like that time when she almost got
snapped up by a crocodile, or that
other time she lost her little finger
to sneaky piranhas!

Miru Mashi is a wildlife
conservationist, and works
with two-toed sloths in the
Amazon rainforest.

3/18

The next day, Miru Mashi takes Neelu to explore the city. At
the Maidan, they notice a lot of horse-drawn carriages. The
horses look skinny and tired.

“Miru Mashi, are these horses sick?” Neelu asks.
He notices one limping, barely able to pull the carriage.

4/18

“These horses pull carriages for hours, and
don’t always get enough water or food.
Many have injuries on their limbs because of
the heavy load they pull.They don’t get
weekends off like us,” Miru Mashi says.
"But what happens when a horse is severely
injured?” Neelu asks.

5/18

Miru Mashi says that an injury often leads to an infection. This could lead
to the limb being amputated, which means it is removed.

“After amputation, it’s hard for a big animal like a horse to survive on only
three limbs. This is where prosthetics can help,” she says. “What is
prosthetics?” Neelu asks.

Miru Mashi tells him that prosthetics is a branch of surgery concerned with
making and fitting artificial body parts.

6/18

Miru Mashi tells Neelu that these days artificial limbs can
be created using three-dimensional printing.
In India, this technology has only been used to help
humans so far, but in Australia and the USA exciting work
is happening with 3D-printed animal prosthetics.
Neelu has read about this technology online and is curious
to see how it works.

7/18

Miru Mashi takes him to meet Arzoo and Salil, designers who work with a 3D printer.
“A 3D printer doesn’t print on paper. It can print and create objects using different
materials,” says Arzoo. “Think of something,” says Salil, “and we can print it!”

8/18

Arzoo points to a small yellow
cup on a screen.
“If you print that, what you get is
a photo of a cup on paper.
It’s flat, and it only has two
dimensions, the length of the
page and the height. With
3D printing, you add a third
dimension–depth.”

9/18

Neelu looks inside the printer
and sees little spools that look
like strings.

“This is what our cup will be
made of,” says Arzoo. “This is
bioplastic, but you can use
other material. Metals, wood,
nylon, even food or human
cells! You have to be able to
melt it so it can take the shape
you want.”

10/18

Miru Mashi says 3D printing can create almost anything.
“Like the shape of a bird’s beak or a dolphin’s tail or...”
“A horse’s leg?” Neelu asks.

11/18

“Yes, maybe for a small horse someday,” Says Miru Mashi.
Neelu is thinking about the horses at the Maidan, and three-legged dogs
he often spots on the streets. He has a lot of questions about how 3D
printing can help injured animals.

12/18

Arzoo tells Neelu that 3D-printed animal prostheticsis going to
be the next big thing.
“There are so many animals who are living betterlives because
of 3D-printed prosthetics.”
She tells him how 3D-printed paws were created fora dog with
disabled front legs to help him run better.

13/18

Salil adds that in Northwestern University, in the
USA, they created 3D-printed ovaries for a mouse,
who then gave birth to baby mice!

14/18

It’s time for Miru Mashi to leave. Neelu has learnt so muchabout animals and
animal rescue from her. He tells her that he wants to be a veterinary surgeon when
he grows up and use 3D printing to recreate limbs for injured animals.
Until then, Neelu is happy spending time withanimals at the shelter,
especially the horses.

15/18

MAGIC LIMBS

Holly the Horse, Australia
After three years of suffering from
laminitis, Holly was about to lose her
ability to walk. To prevent that, she got
3D-printed titanium horseshoes.

16/18

Fred the Red-footed Tortoise, Brazil
Fred lost most of her shell in a forest fire. She
had also suffered from pneumonia and had
nothing to eat for 45 days. She was rescued
by a group of veterinarians and a dental
surgeon, who created a 3D-printed shell for
her.

Grecia the Toucan, Costa Rica
The top part of Grecia’s beak broke off after
a brutal attack by a group of boys. He
couldn’t forage for food, defend himself
from predators, or even sing! Now he has a
3D-printed beak.

17/18

LET'S PRINT IN 3D

3D printing is a process of making three-
dimensional objects from a digital file.

The image is chopped into slices and fed to the
printer. Whichever material is chosen for the 3D-
printed object, the printer will pull it through a tube
at a very high temperature. It comes out of a nozzle
at the end in a very thin strand.
The strands are deposited layer by layer on the
plate and only after all the layers are printed is a
3D-printed object ready.

In the future, 3D printers can help us reduce waste
and pollution, and treat injuries.

18/18

This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative
Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ​‐
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Story Attribution:

This story: Neelu and the Phenomenal Printer is written by Riddhi Dastidar . © Pratham Books , 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0
license.

Other Credits:

'Neelu and the Phenomenal Printer' has been published by Pratham Books. The development of this book has been supported by CISCO.
www.prathambooks.org Guest Art Director: Vidyun Sabhaney

Images Attributions:

Cover page: A woman and a boy looking at a machine, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0
license. Page 2: A boy running towards a woman, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0
license. Page 3: A woman jumping over crocodiles, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0
license. Page 4: People and horses in a park, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 5: A boy and a woman look at a horse, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 6: Two women taking care of a horse, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page
7: A woman talking to a boy, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 8: People in a
room, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 9: A woman and a boy with a
computer, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 10: An excited boy looking at a
machine, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 11: A set of cards with images, by
Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.

Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions The development of this book has been supported by
CISCO. www.prathambooks.org
Some rights reserved. This book is CC​-BY-​ 4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify,
distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking
permission. For full terms of use and attribution,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative
Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ​‐
provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about
this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link.

Images Attributions:
Page 12: A group of people looking at a machine, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0
license. Page 13: A dog running, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 14: A
family of rats, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 15: A man and a woman
imagining something, by Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 16: A pony, by
Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 17: A man and a woman imagining, by
Anupam Arunachalam © Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 18: A 3D printer, by Anupam Arunachalam ©
Pratham Books, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.

Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions The development of this book has been supported by
CISCO. www.prathambooks.org
Some rights reserved. This book is CC​-BY​-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify,
distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking
permission. For full terms of use and attribution,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Neelu and the Neelu loves animals. When he sees an injured horse on the streets
Phenomenal Printer of Kolkata, he wants to help the animal. Neelu is introduced to the
world of 3D printing where whatever you think of can be printed.
(English) Cups, plates, pencils and, in the future, even hooves for a horse!
Can technology help injured animals live a better life?

This is a Level 4 book for children who can read fluently and with confidence.

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