| The Television Remote Control |
Page 1 of 2  The television remote control is one of the top four challenges I hear wives have with the man they love. You may be surprised to learn that remote control technology was first developed for military use. On second thought, this may not be a surprise. Wives you can take heart that because I will share a funny solution that a wife in Denver, Colorado shared with me that saved her marriage, in spite of the remote control. History It was in June of 1956 that the practical television remote controller first entered the American home. However, as far back as 1893, a remote control for television was described by Nikola Tesla in U.S. Patent 613809. The Germans used remote control motorboats during WWI. In the late 1940's the first non-military uses for remote controls appeared for example, automatic garage door openers. Lazy Bone The Zenith Radio Corporation created the very first television remote control in 1950 called "Lazy Bone." The Lazy Bone could turn a television on and off, and change channels. However, it was not a wireless remote control. The Lazy Bone remote control was attached to the television by a bulky cable. It turned out that consumers did not like the cable because it caused frequent tripping. Flash-matic - Eugene Polley Zenith engineer, Eugene Polley created the "Flash-matic" the first wireless TV remote in 1955. The Flash-matic operated by means of four photocells, one in each corner of the TV screen. The viewer used a directional flashlight to activate the four control functions, which turned the picture and sound on and off, and turned the channel tuner dial clockwise and counter-clockwise. However, the Flash-matic had problems working well on sunny days, when the sunlight sometimes changed channels at random. (I would have loved to see this happen from a distance.) Zenith Space Command - Robert Adler The improved "Zenith Space Command" remote control went into commercial production in 1956. Zenith engineer, Doctor Robert Adler designed the Space Command based on ultrasonics. Ultrasonic remote controls remained the dominant design for the next twenty-five years. The Space Command transmitter used no batteries; inside the transmitter were four lightweight aluminum rods that emitted high-frequency sounds when struck at one end. Each rod was a different length to create a different sound that controlled a receiver unit built into the television. The first Space Command units were expansive due to the necessary use of six vacuum tubes in the receiver units that raised the price of a television by thirty percent. In the early 1960s, after the invention of the transistor, remote controls came down in price, and in size, as did all electronics. Zenith modified the Space Command remote control with the benefits of transistor technology creating small hand-held and battery-operated remote controls. Over nine million ultrasonic remote controls were sold.
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