The first computer released by Apple about 45 years ago was called Apple-1. 200 Apple-1s have been sold. About 80 machines in the first batch had a handwritten serial number on the motherboard in the form “01-00##”, for example “01-0060”.
Currently, several dozen of these are still kept. But “who wrote down the serial numbers on the Apple-1?” This is a question Apple fans have been asking for decades and still have no answer.
Steve Wozniak, the computer’s designer, said he didn’t do that. Steve Jobs and Daniel Kottke, who have assembled and tested several circuit boards, also say that they are not.
All other people involved in the board or Paul Terrell, owner of Byte Shop – which bought the first 50 Apple-1 computers, have denied this.
Achim Baqué, head of the Apple-1 Registry, delivered two Apple-1 computers to PSA, the world’s leading handwriting validation service company, to solve this age-old puzzle.
PSA collected photos and assessed the characteristics of handwritten numbers on Apple-1 computers and many other handwriting samples for skew, seamlessness, pen pressure, and letter size.
After 3 months of research, finally solved the mystery. The person who wrote down those numbers was Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. As for why Steve Jobs wrote these special characters, this will be a secret that will forever remain unsolved.
