Profile: Tackling Tyranny; The Solid-State Century; Scientific American Presents; by Goldstein; 2 Page(s)

"The only useful thing I was doing was thinking," recalls Jack Kilby in his slow midwestern drawl. A lanky man at six feet, six inches, Kilby leans back in his chair with his hands behind his head and describes the summer that would make him an electronics legend.

The oppressive heat had arrived earlier than usual in Dallas in 1958. Kilby, then a 34-year-old electrical engineer, had been left on his own in the semiconductor laboratory at Texas Instruments, assigned to solve a problem that was stalling the entire electronics industry.