My aunt and uncle had one of those - a "Zenith Space Command":
The best part wasn't the metallic thunking sound, but the way the TV channel dial was turned by an electric motor and a gear. Like activating a small automobile starter, wirelessly.
Posted on 05/22/2012 11:44:26 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
CHICAGO (AP) -- Couch potatoes everywhere can pause and thank Eugene Polley for hours of feet-up channel surfing. His invention, the first wireless TV remote, began as a luxury, but with the introduction of hundreds of channels and viewing technologies it has become a necessity.
Just ask anyone who's lost a remote.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Next to Edison our greatest inventor!!!!
I here-by deem my clicker “Eugene” in honor of a great un-sung hero and great American. If I can only find it.... -Wb
“A greater man never lived. He should lie in state in the capitol rotunda.”
Along with the inventors of what I consider the two greatest inventions of the last 30 years-the minivan and cargo pants/shorts.
This invention is an act that would normally lead to sainthood and prayers from true-believers.
The sound made by the plug on the end of an antenna cable when it (gently) hit the glass screen of the TV could also make the remote sensor do things, at the TV shop where I had a summer job before I went to college.
The first ultrasonic remote I knew of was a pneumatic Space Command. It emitted brief ultrasonic whistles when one of two buttons were pushed, which built up air pressure in an internal bellows then released it into a tiny whistle tube. This later gave way to a less bulky system that struck tuned metal rods with hammers.
We have a winner!
Barack Obama has discovered a way to beat the remote control channel changers. He arranges to be on every channel at once.
That looks like an set-top control for an external antenna rotor.
I remember kludging up a system for channel changing in a city where all local channels were UHF and where VHF could not be received without a raised outside antenna. So with suitable small capacitors (a few picofarads) I linked the power line input to the VHF antenna terminals, and then sat an old fashioned plug in tube-type UHF converter by my dad’s bedside with its output similarly linked to the power line. Voila, there were channels 18, 27, 45, and 62. He still had to get up to turn the set on and off and vary the volume. But on our budget at the time it was luxury.
Never has one man done so much to help his fellow man do so little.
Before him we had to change the channels with our bare hands:(
Well, he’s on ‘mute’, now.
My aunt and uncle had one of those - a "Zenith Space Command":
The best part wasn't the metallic thunking sound, but the way the TV channel dial was turned by an electric motor and a gear. Like activating a small automobile starter, wirelessly.
That’s what we had as a kid. My dad bought it used from a guy that he built a house for.
It was a big Zenith in the wood console, and the clicker had three buttons that would tap the three rods setting them to vibrate. IIRC the bottons were on/off, volume (would go up in steps and keep clicking and it would “go back around” to low volume again. And the third was the channels, each click would increase the channel and when you got to the highest channel it would go back to the lowest and start over again. Of course with only four(?) channels and the local (and fuzzy) UHF(?) channel it was no big deal.
And out in New Jersey even in the 80’s people had the antenna rotators to be able to change between NY and Philadelphia stations. For the news it was NY if you wanted to hear about violence, and Philadelphia if you wanted to hear about fires!
THERE IT IS! And 4 buttons! (Did they make a 3 button - but my memory in my previous post is probably wrong). I was going to mention the wire mesh on the front - very distinctive. As well as the bronze and silver color.
A great man has passed. RIP.
Ha ha ha!
I think that’s the “Stun” setting. ;-)
Yes, a web image search turned up a 3-button variant. The only one I'd ever seen was a four-button version, though. It lingered around my aunt's house long after the old TV was gone. I guess it became a conversation piece, like the gray plastic donkey that dispensed cigarettes from its rump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.