Self-taught Chicago mechanical engineer Eugene Polley invented the first wireless TV remote control in 1955, but his contribution was nearly erased by later innovations.
Zenith introduced Polley's Flash-Matic television remote control in 1955.
American consumer culture exploded after the war — and Zenith was at the forefront of the rapidly growing television market. Eugene Polley invented remote control TV for Zenith in 1955. He filed for the patent on behalf of the company that year and received it in 1959. It included a system of photo cells to receive a signal within the console."Within a week, the commander said he wanted it in production. It sold like hot cakes — they couldn’t keep up with demand.""Commander McDonald loved the concepts proven by Polley’s Flash-Matic," Zenith states in a company history.
The Space Command"was built around aluminum rods that were light in weight and, when struck at one end, emitted distinctive high-frequency sounds … They were very carefully cut to lengths that would generate four slightly different frequencies."It was the first"clicker" remote — the click caused when a small hammer struck the end of one of the aluminum rods.And Adler soon replaced Polley in the eyes of the industry as the inventor of the TV remote.
"I’m reluctant to call him a blue-collar guy," Taylor, the Zenith historian, said."But he was a scrappy mechanical engineer, a scrappy Chicago guy." The breaking point for Polley came when Adler made an appearance on a late-night national talk show and claimed he was the father of the TV remote, said Polley Jr. "Eugene Polley was a scrappy mechanical engineer, a scrappy Chicago guy." — John Taylor
"Today's controllers are much closer to Polley's idea than to Adler's," the Guardian of London noted in its obituary of Polley in 2012.
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