Chips with Everything!

No I haven't been having a blowout at the local chippy!

Today I was visiting a museum with my Mum and my Aunt.
It is the Museum of Communications now at Burntisland.

My father was one of the founding members of the Museum through his friendship with Harry Matthews, the Founder, who was a technician in the Electronic and Electrical Engineering department at Edinburgh University, who started the collection of old communication equipment.

This year the Museum's exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the invention of the Silicon Chip by Texas Instruments back in 1958. The exhibition is entitled "Chips with Everything! - 50 Years of the Silicon Chip". You can read more about it here.

The Museum is open to the public Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11am to 5pm until September 13th, at 131 High Street, Burntisland, KY3 9AA. And it's only £3 adult, £1.50 child, £8.50 family.

It was great to see the wide range of electronic equipment on show. They even had my Dad's kitchen radio on display! And I spotted the matchbox-sized Sinclair Micromatic - one of which I tried to construct as a teenager. It didn't work (my mistake!) and I had to buy a factory-made unit. It was not long before I lost it - it was too small. I think Apple are onto a winner with their iPod Shuffle unit. It's even smaller than my old radio and no doubt users will need to replace it frequently!

They had old computers, and new computers too. It was amazing to see a 12" silicon wafer containing 100s of chips all manufactured together.

Sometimes we seem to have come so far from the first transistor radios to today's MP3 players, mobile phones, and laptop PCs.

Yet despite the changes in technology and society of the last 50 years, as people we remain exactly the same as we have always been. Capable of amazing feats of skill, talent, and effort, yet also fragile, vulnerable, and ultimately mortal.

In all our amazement at what we can do, let us remember what life is all about.