Early Apple 1 Computer Fetches $905,000 At Auction

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The machine was “one of the 50 computers made by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) founder and big boss Steve Jobs in his garage in 1976.” While Jobs may have been responsible for the construction it was Steve Wozniak who designed the Apple 1 in 1975 and it had the distinction of being the “first” time that someone typed on a keyboard and immediately saw the keystroke on a monitor.

Apple 1 Computer: Well above anticipated sale price

The computer in hammer came down at $750,000 (but the commission pushed it to $905,000) in an auction that was held in New York at Bonham’s in a sale titled “History of Science” which also saw a Charles Darwin’s letter to a colleague, a vintage electrical keyboard, a 1905 Helmholtz sound synthesizer and other items sold yesterday.

And the lucky buyer? The Henry Ford organization, which plans to display the computer in its museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

It has actually been on our collecting plan for many, many years,” Patricia Mooradian, president of The Henry Ford, told reporters. “To have this Apple-1 is very important because our collection focuses on innovation, ingenuity, and resourcefulness, which are great American traditions.”

Apple 1 Computer: Mint condition and working

Not only is the machine in perfect condition but has of September its was also a functioning “computer.” The machine is believed to be part of the first batch of 50 units assembled in Jobs’ family garage. It contains a circuit board with four rows and 18 columns, a keyboard interface, 8K bytes of RAM and comes with a keyboard and a monitor.

“What we love about it is that it’s still operational, which is really rare,” said Mooradian. “We really feel like we got a great artifact for our collection.”

“This is a great representation of our culture’s introduction into personal computing,” she added.

Mike Willegas who runs the Apple-1 registry, there are only three Apple 1s in the world and only 15 have been operated in the last 15 years.

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