A science project that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs built for his 8th grade science fair has sold at auction for $34,375.
Jobs was studying at Cupertino Jr. High when he conceived the project titled “What is SCR?” The set includes a plywood display board with three explanatory panels and a 10-page report with the same title.
The left panel features a wooden model of a “typical silicon-controlled rectifier with its four alternating layers of P- and N-type semiconductor materials,” while the central test circuitry demonstrates the basic principles and characteristics of the silicon-controlled rectifier, as well as how it is most widely used. The right panel shows a schematic and description of a 25 amp silicon controlled rectifier.
The project is named after Jobs and the accompanying report is titled “What is the Silicon Controlled Rectifier by Steve Jobs, Science, Ms. Yakel, February 29, 1968.”
A note included in the draft asks judges to plug in the II circuit and oscilloscope to see it working, and asks them to “please unplug!” » the device after testing it.
Jobs’ science fair project came from John Chovanec, Jobs’ half-brother. Chovanec’s mother, Marilyn, married Paul Jobs in 1990 and continued to live in the Jobs family home in Los Altos. After Paul Jobs’ death in 1993, Steve Jobs refused to take back some of his personal belongings left in the house. Chovanec apparently asked Jobs to collect the items multiple times and at one point said he would keep them himself. “Fine, but I don’t want to worry about it anymore,” Jobs reportedly responded.
Chovanec previously sold other items from Jobs’ early years, including posters, magazines, bow ties, a desk, and more. A 1977 Apple Computer poster sold for $659,900, while an Apple-1 Byte Shop wooden crate owned by Jobs sold for $254,375. The bow ties sold for $113,580.
