Equipment Analysis: The Remote Control - Text 3
Thousands of units were purchased by mail, but store sales proved difficult, in part because most newspapers and television networks refused to accept advertisements for the product.
This reticence disappeared when, three years later, businesses – and no longer individuals – began to offer for sale, for one hundred dollars, remote controls capable of silencing commercials. The Flash-Matic stood out for the way it centralized the functions ON/OFF, channel changing and mute, which until then had required several different accessories. Its greatest innovation, however, was to get rid of the cumbersome cables running across people’s living rooms, the cause of numerous falls. Designed in 1955 by Eugene Polley, an engineer with Zenith Electronics, the Flash-Matic looked like a pistol, which one pointed at one of the sensors placed in the four corners of the television set. These sensors reacted to the beam, described as a “beam of magic light,” emitted by the remote control unit.
