Jack Kilby........A tribute to a great mindThere are not many who contributed more to our modern society than Jack Kilby. If you are unaware, Jack invented the integrated circuit.
Kilby constructed a prototype of the integrated circuit in September, 1958. It was a silver sliver (a chip, you might say) of germanium with wires sticking out of it, glued to a glass slide about the size of a thumbnail.
Kilby died in 2005 in a world where microchips permeate every aspect of our daily life, from the inner space of our bodies to the outer space of the cosmos, at home, at play and on the job, in our cars, in our ears ... indispensable.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jack Kilby at an awards banquet in Dallas a few years before he passed away. My old friend Ray Chapman, Uncle Ray to most that know him, was being honored for his contribution to the EWaste or electronic waste recycling industry. Ray basically invented electronics recycling as we know it today, as far as I know. Anyway, Jack Kilby had made a presentation at the banquet and came off the podium to shake some hands and talk to the folks attending. Ray had a new digital camera, remember we are talking 1992 or thereabouts, so I talked him into letting me use it to get a shot of me shaking the hand of the great man, Kilby.
We got it all cued up for my picture with one of my heroes, and the camera wouldn't work! After a few tries with no success, Mr. Kilby said in his low and slow southern drawl..."prolly neeeeds a baaaattery". Now what do you think was going through the mind of this genius when he came to this simple conclusion?
