A History of the Television Remote Control
First introduced in 1950 for the Zenith Radio Corporation of Illinois, the first television remote control was connected to the television by a long cord. The first model even had a name: Lazy Bones. Oddly enough, initial television remotes weren’t sold on their ability to change channels (heck, in 1950 there were only 3 channels anyway: ABC NBC and CBS), no, the ingenious Lazy Bones had a mute button that could kill the audio during those annoying television commercials! If only the television networks knew! Sales of the Lazy Bones went through the roof. Eugene Polley was given a $1000.00 bonus and life was good.
In 1955, a new model was invented by Eugene Polley and introduced by Zenith. Named the “FlashMatic”, it operated as a self-contained unit and wasn’t connected to the TV by a cord. The Flashmatic looked like a cross between a pistol and a flashlight, and in fact emitted a ray of light that reacted off a sensor unit on the exterior of the TV. Quicker than you can say, “30 million sales in one year” Zenith was already hard at work fine-tuning its masterpiece: the problem with the ray-of-light technology was that in a sunny room the remote control wouldn’t work.
The very next year, Robert Adler – an Austrian engineer from Vienna – solved the light problem by developing a remote control that worked with ultrasonic waves. Thus was born the “Space Command” remote control. And for those that are curious THAT was the year (1956) that television remote-controls really came into their own: no cords, no external interference. Just sit, point and continue munching on those chocolate bon-bons. And you wonder why they call Robert Adler “the father of television remote controls”.
Robert Adler is currently 93 years old and has more than been compensated for his contributions to television technology. But for his part he has always maintained that the evolution of the television remote control is the result of more than one individual. Eugene Polley on the other hand never felt he got his due – financially or otherwise – and in fact was eventually let go by Zenith Radio Corporation.
Who the real “father” of the remote-control is an argument for fate to decide. What IS interesting is that the basic technology of the remote control remained unchained all the way until 1982, when infrared technology replaced ultrasound waves and in a sense took a step backwards to Polley’s original design that worked off a ray of light. In fact, remote-control technology has far surpassed simple televisions, being used these days for everything from remote gates to unlocking your car.
But I digress.
Fast-forward to 2006, and in the United States alone there are an estimated 500 million television remote-control units (an average of 4 per household) being used at any given time. That’s about twice the population of the USA. And that’s JUST in the United States. The numbers stagger worldwide.
Those numbers seem about right. In fact I checked around the house and sure enough we have 4 television remotes! Of course, out of those 4 only three work correctly! I want to wish Robert Adler all the best in the world, but there’s nothing more difficult, nothing that is a bigger pain in the butt than trying to program one of those “programmable” television remotes that you can purchase for a few bucks.
Sure we have a few remote control units for our televisions, but for the TV that matters MOST – the one in the bedroom – I still have to roll out of bed at midnight and flip off the set. (And when I say “flip off” the set, that’s exactly what I mean.)
