Magazine Buff Scores Big for Having Intel Inside

When the Philips Electronics technical library near London discarded old copies of Electronics magazine in the mid-1970s, engineer David Clark snapped them up for his own collection because he found them “incredibly interesting.”

One of those copies also turned out to be incredibly valuable.

Chip giant Intel Corp. is paying Clark $10,000 for the April 19, 1965, issue of Electronics -- which originally sold for less than a buck -- because it contains the first pronouncement by company co-founder Gordon Moore that semiconductors would double in computing power every couple of years while dropping in price.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the axiom, now known as Moore’s Law, Intel had offered the bounty for a pristine copy that could be framed in its museum. The reward was so rich that librarians at several universities put their copies under lock and key to prevent theft.

Clark, 57, who lives southwest of London and still works as a consulting engineer for Philips, said he had rescued the magazines -- which were stashed under his floorboards -- in part because “they formed a great historical record of that period, which even then I thought was something people would look back on as the start of the electronics industry.”

He added, “I had a sense of history, which other people thought was kind of odd.”

Intel spokesman Manny Vara said the company would not trust the coveted magazine to mail carriers or a delivery service. Instead, it plans to have its employees in Swindon, England, collect the issue from Clark and deliver it by hand to Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.

Clark, a self-described “hoarder” of electronics and other gear, said his wife, Freda, has been, “shall we say, encouraging me” to winnow his holdings. The reward is bittersweet for her, Clark said, because “she thought I’d be more immune to throwing things out.”

But the money will certainly be useful, Clark said, noting that his daughter Bryony plans to get married in August. For him, the main regret has been the weak dollar: $10,000 translates into less than 5,300 pounds.

“Wow, I was disappointed by that, I must say,” Clark said. “I tried to push [Intel] up to 6,000 pounds, but it didn’t work.”