![]() ![]() Polley, who had received a $1,000 bonus for his invention, expressed some ambivalence about what it had wrought. His wife of 34 years, Blanche Wiley Polley, died in 1976. Other assignments included work on push-button radios for cars and a forerunner of the DVD. Polley got his first job with the company then known as the Zenith Radio Corp.ĭuring World War II, he worked on government contracts related to radar. In 1935, in an effort to help his mother weather the Depression, Mr. Polley was raised mainly by his mother after his father, a bootlegger, left the family. He took Joseph as his Catholic confirmation name and thereafter used “J.” as his middle initial. The wireless remote control added $100 to the cost of a $500 television set in 1955. Less often was it noted that their devices improved the lives of the disabled and the elderly.Īn ad for the Zenith Flash-Matic, invented by Eugene J. They were sometimes blamed for contributing to obesity and sparking marital spats. In 1999, Sports Illustrated named them its “Men of the Millennium.” In 1997, the men were awarded an Emmy for their innovations. (Modern remote controls use infrared technology.)Īdler, who died in 2007, was often called the “father of the remote control” - a point that caused Mr. It emitted an audible clicking noise, giving rise to the moniker “clicker,” and became the industry standard for a quarter-century. That device used tiny hammers to strike metal rods, sending commands by ultrasonic wave. Polley’s Flash-Matic sold about 30,000 units before it was supplanted in 1956 by the Space Command, a remote control invented by Zenith physicist Robert Adler. The TV receptors sometimes mistook changes in light, including sunsets, for commands. Taylor, a Zenith vice president and unofficial historian. The device was an extravagance, adding $100 to the cost of a television that sold for $500 in 1955, according to John I. “You can even shut off annoying commercials while the picture remains on the screen.” “Absolutely harmless to humans!” Flash-Matic advertisements promised. The top corners received signals to change channels the bottom corners received signals to mute or turn off the set. Polley’s device used a light beam to send signals to four receptors in the corners of the TV set. ![]() The Lazy Bones allowed viewers to change channels and turn the set on and off from their seats, but the cord proved dangerous and inelegant. In 1950, Zenith released the Lazy Bones, a device tethered to the television by a long cord. Polley’s invention was not the first TV remote control. Polley, who invented the first wireless TV remote control, died May 20 at age 96. “Maybe I did something for humanity - like the guy who invented the flush toilet.”Įugene J. “It makes me think maybe my life wasn’t wasted,” Mr. Nearly every set had a remote to go with it. Within decades, a television could be found in practically every home - and in some cases in every room. His most important innovation was the Flash-Matic, a ray-gun remote control first sold in 1955 just as television sets were becoming commonplace in American households. Hired as a stock boy during the Depression, he eventually became an engineer with 18 patents to his credit. Polley lived his entire life in the Chicago area, where he worked for Zenith Electronics for 47 years. Polley, an electronics engineer who revolutionized American leisure by inventing the first wireless TV remote control, a gadget that also featured the first mute function to silence the more obnoxious sounds of television, died May 20 at a hospital in Downers Grove, Ill. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |