Death of the Inventor of the TV Remote
You are looking at the Zenith Space Command Remote Control. Even though I am only 37 years old, I actually have fond memories of this remote control. We inherited a TV from my mom’s friend that was a Zenith. We were so happy, but mostly because it was a color TV that turned on in less than forty-five minutes. Our previous TV had a bit of a problem with its tube.
The inventor of this beautiful piece of machinery died last Thursday. He was ninety-three years old.
Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.
I remember the loud clicking noise that pushing the buttons on that remote made. To this day, I have no idea how it worked. There were no batteries in that remote control. When we received it, it was already 20 years old, but it still worked like a dream. Eventually, the Channel Up button stopped working, but we just pushed Channel Down through the seven stations that we had (we were too d*mn poor to buy the 8-Track tapes… err… cable). I used to wonder if the loud clicking was some sort of magnet that gave the remote power to change the channel.
Our old Zenith was eventually replaced by a “real†TV when my mom got a better job and we felt like we were rolling in money. It had a “real†remote that took batteries. Robert Alder was an inventor and held over 180 patents. Unlike the old Zenith, he was an irreplaceable member of the human race and he will be missed.
For more information about Robert Alder: