The night I invented 3D printing

Call him Charlie, Charles, Chuck, whatever you want. It's all okay with him.

Beaming a warm smile from beneath his push-broom mustache, the softly spoken 74-year-old doesn't strike you as a pioneering innovator -- the man responsible for a breakthrough that's now driving forward the world of manufacturing.

But Chuck Hull -- "in this kind of environment, it's usually 'Chuck'," he says, as he sits down with CNN in Frankfurt, Germany -- is executive vice president and chief technology officer of 3D systems, a company built on his creation: the 3D printer.

In 1983, Hull was working for a small business that made tough coatings for tables using ultraviolet lamps. When he suggested a new way to use the UV technology -- to quickly turn computer designs into working prototypes -- Hull was given a little lab to play around in during his evenings and weekends.

Hull experimented for months, on his own with a plastic-y gloop -- then one night, something emerged...