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Steve Jobs's personally-built 8th grade science fair project about the silicon controlled rectifier, featuring a display board entitled "What is the SCR?" and a ten-page report under the same title. The display is built from plywood and measures approximately 32.5˝ x 18˝ x 7.5˝, and features three explanatory panels: the left side boasts a wooden model of "a typical silicon-controlled rectified with its four alternate layers of P- and N-Type semiconductor material"; the center features two test circuits, one "designed to demonstrate the basic principals and characteristics of the silicon-controlled rectifier" and one "designed to demonstrate how the silicon-controlled rectifier is used in its most widely accepted application; motor speed control, light dimming, etc."; and the right panel featuring a diagram and description of a typical 25-amp silicon-controlled rectifier. A power cord in the rear is connected to the second circuit. In the lower right, a label reads: "Submitted by Steve Jobs, Cupertino J.H., 8th Grade."
The report is bound in a blue folder, hand-stenciled on the front, "What is the SCR?" The title page reads: "What is the Silicon-Controlled Rectifier by Steve Jobs, Science, Mrs. Yakel, Feb. 29, 1968." It begins: "For my science project I have selected to do research and experiment with the silicon-controlled rectifier. I am making a circuit that demonstrates the basic properties and characteristics of this semiconductor. The silicon-controlled rectifier is the most widely used of a family of four-layer semi-conducter power devices that exhibit regenerative or latching-type switching action. The silicon-controlled rectifier is widely known as the SCR. International standards describe the complete family of semiconducter regenerative switches under the name Thyristors." In the rear, Jobs hand-draws sketches of a "schematic diagram of the circuit used to demonstrate the basic principles of the silicon-controlled rectifier" and "a silicon-controlled rectifier compared to a conventional silicon rectifier.
A note to the science fair judges, apparently detached from the right panel of the exhibit display, reads: "Judges, if you wish to see this operate, please plug in Circuit II and oscilliscope and unplug, please unplug!, after using. The oscillipscope should already be set for two to four stationary cycles, but if necessary, judges, please make proper adjustments."
In overall very good to fine condition.
Provenance: from the personal collection of John Chovanec, stepbrother of Steve Jobs. Chovanec’s mother, Marilyn, married Paul Jobs in 1990, with Steve serving as best man, and she continued to live in the Jobs family home in Los Altos after Paul’s death in 1993. As Steve helped sort through his father’s belongings, he declined to reclaim many personal items preserved in the house, including material from his childhood bedroom and the family garages, telling John to keep the desk and other artifacts that Paul had saved.
The present science fair project remained at the famed ‘Apple Garage’ property for decades. Chovanec recalls that both he and his mother repeatedly encouraged Steve to take back the school project, but Steve consistently declined, telling him to leave it where it was. When Marilyn became concerned about continuing to store it, John told Steve that if he did not want it, he would take it to his own home; Steve replied, “Fine, but I don’t want to be bothered about it again.” Chovanec has carefully preserved the project ever since, safeguarding this rare artifact of Jobs’s early technical curiosity and family history.
Provenance: from the personal collection of John Chovanec, stepbrother of Steve Jobs.
