Great Bend, Kansas: Inventor of the Microchip Monument
Texas Instruments engineer Jack Kilby invented the microchip in 1958. The bronze sculpture erected by his hometown in 2012 depicts Kilby offering a microchip to future generations.
- Address:
- 1400 Main St., Great Bend, KS
- Directions:
- Downtown, on the east side of Main St./US Hwy 281, four blocks north of 10th St./US Hwy 56. In front of the Barton County Court House.
- Hours:
- Lit at night.
- Admission:
- Free
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Monument to the Inventor of the Microchip Jack Kilby was an unknown newly-hired engineer at Texas Instruments when he invented the microchip in 1958. He died in 2005, and in 2012 the town of Great Bend, Kansas, erected a statue-monument in his honor (Kilby grew up in Great Bend).
The bronze statue, by local sculptor Chet Cale, shows Kilby as a middle-aged man, bespectacled and bald, his necktie flapping in frozen Kansas breeze. He stands atop a pedestal, leaning forward, his open palm presenting a tiny microchip to a young boy on a lower pedestal. Next to the boy, an even younger girl looks on while she points with one hand toward the stars.
The monument reportedly took 11 years to make. Kilby also invented the pocket calculator.
[RoadsideAmerica.com Team, 05/10/2012]Nearby Offbeat Places
- The Underground, Ellinwood, KS - 10 mi.
- Home of the Largest St. Patrick's Parade, Rush Center, KS - 30 mi.
- Kansas Barbed Wired Museum, Lacrosse, KS - 32 mi.
- In the region: Mini Mount Rushmore, House of Barbies, Lucas, KS - 49 mi.
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