The chip that changed the world: World's first microchip made in 1958 to sell for £455,000

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A prototype of the world's first microchip - now used to power everything from smartphones to spaceships - is set to sell for £455,000 ($600,000) at auction.

Ahead of the 60th anniversary of its invention, the chip will be sold in Dallas, Texas next month alongside a statement chronicling how its inventors made it.

The semiconductor, which is no bigger than a fingernail, comprises a tangle of copper and gold wires connected to geranium, mounted on glass and stored in plastic casing.

Missouri-born electrical engineer Jack Kilby designed the integrated circuit in 1958, but it was built by LA-born Tom Yeargan, who was lead technician for the project.

The microchip paved the way for the creation of smartphones and computers as we know them today, with similar devices now used to power technology including TVs, cars, microwaves and hearing aids.

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A prototype of the world's first microchip (pictured) - now used to power everything from smartphones to spaceships - is set to sell for £455,000 ($600,000) at auction

Now, almost 60 years after it was made, Mr Yeargan's daughter Leslie Yeargan Riggs, 57, is selling it along with a statement written by her late father.

Bidders will battle to own the 'piece of history' when the relic, along with another early prototype, is auctioned by Heritage in November.

Ms Riggs said her father, who worked at industry giants Texas Instruments for 25 years, accomplished many things, but helping build the chip was his 'crowning achievement'.

She said: 'The integrated circuit is by far the most stunning thing he [Mr Yeargan] worked on.

'It was the beginning of the computer age.'

The prototype is the oldest example of a functioning integrated circuit combining multiple electronic functions on a single elemental slab still in private hands.

Mr Leargan, a technician TI, began working on the circuit with Mr Kilby in the summer of 1958, finishing it that September.

In July, 1958, Mr Kilby had not been allowed to go on holiday because he had only recently joined Texas Instruments. 

Ahead of the 60th anniversary of its invention, the chip will be sold in Dallas, Texas next month alongside a statement (pictured) its inventor Tom Yeargan penned chronicling how he made it

The semiconductor - no bigger than a fingernail - comprises a tangle of copper and gold wires connected to geranium, mounted on glass and stored in plastic casing (pictured) with Mr Yeargan's name scrawled across it in pen, as well as co-inventor Jack Kilby's autograph

He used the time to create his ground-breaking design, which tackled the problem of connecting large numbers of electronic components in circuits in a cost-effective way.

The duo were intent on miniaturising the period’s room-sized computers and were ultimately successful with their design, now known as the microchip.

In the 1940s, computers took up whole rooms, but microchip made them millions to billions of times more capable, while occupying a fraction of the space.

THE FIRST MICROCHIPS

When Jack Kilby demonstrated the first working integrated circuit (IC) in Texas in 1958, he could have had no idea how his invention would change the world.

Now, almost 60 years later, microchips are integral to modern-day life in devices as wide-ranging as computers to credit cards, cameras to cookers.

In the 1940s, computers took up whole rooms, but  microchips made them millions to billions of times more capable, while occupying a fraction of the space.

For almost 50 years after the turn of the 20th century, the electronics industry had been dominated by vacuum tube technology, but were fragile, bulky, unreliable, power hungry, and produced considerable heat.

Transistors, invented in 1947 by US firm Bell, were minuscule in comparison, more reliable, longer lasting, produced less heat, and consumed less power.

But hand-soldering thousands of these components to thousands of bits of wire was expensive, time-consuming and unreliable.

In the 1940s, computers took up whole rooms, but microchips made them millions to billions of times more capable, while occupying a fraction of the space. Pictured is an image of the world's first computer ENIAC, invented in 1946

The challenge was to find cost-effective, reliable ways of producing these components and interconnecting them.

Mr Kilby's IC kept manufacturing costs low, because the chips were printed with all their components as a unit.

Recognising the need for a 'demonstration product' to speed widespread use of the IC, Patrick Haggerty, former TI chairman, challenged Mr Kilby to design a calculator as powerful as the large, electromechanical desktop models of the day, but small enough to fit in a coat pocket.

The resulting electronic hand-held calculator, of which Mr Kilby is a co-inventor, successfully commercialised the IC.

He headed teams that built both the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. 

The first circuits contained transistors numbering in their tens, but by the 1970s each chip was able to hold tens of thousands of transistors.

This had mushroomed to hundreds of thousands of transistors by the 1980s and the birth of personal computers.

Today's advanced microchips contain billions.

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The prototype microchip (pictured) paved the way for the creation of smartphones and computers as we know them today, with similar devices now used to power technology including TVs, cars, microwaves and hearing aids

The advancement made at that time would ultimately result in the silicon 'chip' associated today with virtually every aspect of technology, Heritage said.

According to the auction house, the lot contains 'a Germanium wafer complete with leads and wires on the original glass brick'.

It also comprises a second prototype - a silicon circuit featuring metallic leads attached to a plastic 'petri dish'. 

Along with the early chips is a statement from Tom to the patent agency in 1964, which chronicles his role in helping build them.

Ms Riggs said: 'There was another company working on the same thing at about the same time in California, and the two companies had some patent disputes. 

According to the auction house, the lot also comprises a second prototype (pictured) - a silicon circuit featuring metallic leads attached to a plastic 'petri dish'

THE LIFE OF JACK KILBY 

Jack Kilby, the inventor of the microship, was born in 1923 in Missouri

Jack Kilby was born in 1923 in Missouri to Hubert and Vina Freitag Kilby.  

Mr Kilby received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Illinois, and in 1947 received a degree in electrical engineering.

He earned his master of science in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1950, while working at Centralab, a division of Globe-Union corporation in Milwaukee.

It was in a relatively deserted laboratory at Texas Instrument's brand new Semiconductor Building in Dallas, where Mr Kilby first hit on the idea of the integrated circuit in July 1958, shortly after joining the company.

Mr Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial, and commercial applications of microchip technology.

In 1970, he took a leave of absence from TI to work as an independent inventor.

He explored, among other subjects, the use of silicon technology for generating electrical power from sunlight. 

He died of cancer June 20, 2005, at the age of 81, in Dallas, Texas. 

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'My dad had to give a statement to the patent agency about his recollection of the event.'

Leslie and her brother inherited the artefacts from their father when he passed away in 2001.

The year before that, Mr Kilby, who died in 2005, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as credit for the technological breakthrough.

Pictured is the second prototype chip created by Jack Kilby and Tom Yeargan, which will be auctioned alongside the first in Dallas, Texas next month

Along with the early chips is a statement from Tom to the patent agency in 1964, which chronicles his role in helping build them. Pictured is the envelope the patent application was sent in

He mentioned Mr Yeargan in his acceptance speech and paid tribute to his role in building the circuit.

Ms Riggs's older brother attended a reception at TI and met Mr Kilby.

She said: 'My brother put a file label on the case and introduced himself to Mr Kilby, and he autographed it for him.'

Ms Riggs decided to sell that autographed chip after years of storing it in a safety deposit box to raise awareness about the role her father played.

Electrical engineer Jack Kilby built the cutting edge integrated circuit in 1958 along with Tom Yeargan, who was lead technician for the project. Pictured is the patent attorney's response to the duo's application

Now, almost 60 years after his prototype chip was made, Tom Yeargan's (pictured) daughter Leslie Yeargan Riggs, 57, is selling it along with a statement written by her late father

She said: 'We wanted to celebrate our father and get recognition for this amazing thing our father worked for. 

'None of us would have phones in our hands or computers on our desks without the integrated circuit.

'It's just an amazing piece of history.'

In June 2014, the chip failed to sell at auction in New York, despite an estimated worth of £1.2 million ($2 million).

The highest bid was $850,000 (£340,000), which failed to reach the item's undisclosed reserve price.

Before bidding began, auctioneer Christie's called the device 'virtually the birth certificate of the modern computing era.'

Craig Kissick, director of Heritage Auctions' Nature and Science Department, said the chip is likely to sell for between £300,000 ($400,000) and £455,000 ($600,000), which is a conservative estimate.

He said: 'Of the similar prototypes that are out there, they're all in institutions. It's a unique opportunity for someone.'

The chip will be sold by Heritage in Dallas on November 4 as part of the auction house's nature and science auction.

A Triceratops skull, a pair of woolly mammoth tusks and the skeleton of a predator which roamed the earth 100 million years before the dinosaurs - the Dimetrodon - will also be auctioned.

The chip and its patent statement (pictured) will be sold by Heritage in Dallas on November 4 as part of the auction house's nature and science auction

Ms Riggs said her father, who worked at industry giants Texas Instruments for 25 years, accomplished many things, but helping build the chip was his 'crowning achievement'. Pictured is the final page of his patent application