Geoffrey W.A. Dummer


Geoffrey William Arnold Dummer, MBE (1945), C.Eng., IEE Premium Award, FIEEE, MIEE, USA Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm (25 February 1909 – 9 September 2002) was a British electronics engineer and consultant who is credited as being the first person to conceptualise and build a prototype of the integrated circuit, commonly called the microchip, in the late-1940s and early 1950s. Dummer passed the first radar trainers and became a pioneer of reliability engineering at the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Malvern in the 1940s.

Born in Hull, Dummer studied electrical engineering at Manchester College of Technology starting in the early 1930s. By the early 1940s he was working at the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Malvern (later to become the Royal Radar Establishment).

His work with colleagues at TRE led him to the belief that it would be possible to fabricate multiple circuit elements on and into a substance like silicon. In 1952 he presented his work at a conference in Washington, DC, some six years before Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments was awarded a patent for essentially the same idea. As a result he has been called "The Prophet of the Integrated Circuit"

Dummer was admitted to a Nursing home in Malvern in 2000 due to a stroke and died in September 2002, aged 93.

G.W.A. Dummer was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England, 25 February 1909, and educated at Sale High School and Manchester College of Technology. His first job was with Mullard Radio Valve Company in 1931 examining defective valves returned by customers to establish the cause of failure, the company’s aim being to attribute the cause to rough handling to avoid having to supply free replacements. Technicians were expected to process up to 1000 valves per day.

Geoffrey William Arnold Dummer was born 25 February 1909 at Kingston upon Hull, England, the son of Arthur Robert William Dummer, a caretaker, and Daisy Maria King. Geoffrey married Dorothy Whitelegg in 1934, the marriage being registered at Bucklow. Their only son, Stephen John, was born in 1945 at Bearsted, Kent.

Published Books

  • Fixed Capacitors (Pitman 1956).
  • Fixed Resistors (Pitman 1956).
  • Variable Resistors and Potentiometers (Pitman 1956)
  • Variable Capacitors and Trimmers (Pitman 1957)
  • Electronic Equipment Reliability (with N. Griffin) (Pitman/Wiley 1960 )
  • Fixed & Variable Capacitors (with H. M. Nordenburg) (McGraw-Hill 1960)
  • Microminiaturization: Proceedings of the AGARD Conference 1961 (Pergamon 1961)
  • Miniature & Microminiature Electronics (with J.Wiley Granville) (Pitman 1961)
  • Electronic Equipment Design & Construction (with Cledo Brunetti & Low K. Lee) (McGraw-Hill 1961)
  • Wires & R.F. Cables (with W.T. Blackband) (Pitman 1961)
  • Environmental Testing Techniques for Electronics & Materials (Pergamon 1962)
  • British Transistor Diode & Semiconductor Devices Annual 1962-63 (with J. Mackenzie-Robertson) (Pergamon 1962)
  • Electronic Components, Tubes and Transistors (Pergamon 1963)
  • World Lists of Electronic & Component Specifications (1963 & later) (with J. Mackenzie-Robertson)
  • Solid Circuits & Miniaturization - Proceedings of the Conference held at West Ham College of Technology June 1963 (Macmillan/Pergamon 1964)
  • Proceedings of the First Microelectronics Lecture Course (United Trade, London 1965)
  • Electronics Reliability – Calculations & Design (Commonwealth & International Library 1966)
  • Modern Electronic Components (NY Philosophical Lib. 1959, Pitman 1966)
  • Japanese Miniature Electronic Components Data 1966-67 (Pergamon 1966)
  • Connectors, Relays & Switches (with N. E. Hyde) (Pitman 1966)
  • Medical Electronics Equipment 1966-67 (with J. Mackenzie-Robertson) (eds) (also later editions)
  • Educational Electronics Equipment 1966-67 (Pergamon 1967)
  • Fluidic Components & Equipment 1968-69 (Pergamon 1968)
  • Anglo-American Microelectronics Data (1968) (with J. Mackenzie-Robertson)
  • German Miniature Electronic Components & Assemblies Data (1968)
  • Electronic Connections, Techniques and Equipment (Pergamon 1969) (with J. Mackenzie-Robertson)
  • Materials for Conductive and Resistive Functions (Hayden 1970)
  • Automobile Electronic Equipment 1970-71 (Pergamon)
  • Banking Automation (1971)
  • Electronic Inventions 1745 -1976 (Elsevier 1976, Pergamon 1977)
  • Semiconductor & Microprocessor Technology – Selected Papers Presented at the SEMINEX Technical Seminar (Elsevier 1978)
  • Electronic Inventions and Discoveries: Electronics from Its Earliest Beginnings to the present Day (Ifac Proceedings Series) (Pergamon 1983)
  • The Timetable of Technology (ed) (Hearst 1982)
  • An Elementary Guide to Reliability (Butterworth-Heinemann 1997) (later editions with R.C. Winton and Michael H. Tooley).
  • Newnes Dictionary of Electronics (Newnes 1999) (with S.W. Amos & Roger Amos)
  • The Electronics Book List (with J. Mackenzie-Robertson)