Equipment Analysis: The Remote Control - Text 1
May 1898. Nikola Tesla presents a new invention at Madison Square Garden called the “Tele Automaton.” This was an apparatus which made it possible to control a device from a distance, in this case a miniature boat guided from shore using a control unit which sent commands by electromagnetic waves.
Tesla’s invention would later be put to military use, serving to guide explosive devices remotely, such as underwater explosive charges, during the First World War. Initially limited to the armaments industry, use of the wireless transmission system gradually diversified, as various products were developed with a view to marketing them to the general public.
And so the remote control entered the domestic sphere in the 1930s in the form of a garage door opener. This protean object quickly conquered North American households by offering them a multitude of possibilities, among them guiding toys such as scale-model airplanes or changing radio stations from a distance using, for example, the Philco Mystery Control, which was operated in a manner similar to a rotary telephone dial.
