There was once a visionary called Geoffrey Dummer. Four years before the invention of the IC he described one and how it might be made and, one year before the IC's invention, a non-working model of an IC based on Dummer's concept was fabricated by Plessey and demonstrated at the 1957 International Symposium on Components in Malvern, Worcestershire.
In 1958 Jack Kilby and Bob Noyce invented their different versions of the IC and these were patented in 1959. Kilby won the Nobel Prize. Noyce would have shared it had he lived. The two men are now part of history.
MORAL: The Glory Goes To The Guy Who Gets The Thing To Work
For the record, this year is the centenary of Geoffrey Dummer's birth.
Thanks for flagging that Michael, it's a noteworthy occasion. He was a very great man, best wishes, David