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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 06/05/2006 : 18:21:10 [Permalink]
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Neat gizmo! That must have been the first home entertainment remote control.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 19:33:27 [Permalink]
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| When I was about eight, I helped my dad install a lamp-cord lightswitch on a 20-foot length of electrical cord which he then spliced into the speaker circuit of my grandparents' living-room TV set. He effectively and cheaply gave my grandparents a remote (though corded) mute button. It was used extensively to silence commercials during many episodes of M*A*S*H. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2006 : 02:12:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
When I was about eight, I helped my dad install a lamp-cord lightswitch on a 20-foot length of electrical cord which he then spliced into the speaker circuit ... was used extensively to silence commercials
Wow! My dad did the same thing, except it was back in the 60s when such shows as Dick Van Dyke and Twilight Zone were first on! He had a cord running from under the (black & white) TV ending in a switch. We'd click off commercials.  |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2006 : 07:42:01 [Permalink]
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Anybody remember the first remote controls, back in the late fifties, early sixties, for high-end console TVs? They had, I think, ON/OFF, and channel cycling functions (maybe, but I think not, volume control, too). Two or three large buttons on 'em. And they communicated with the TV via an audible "plunking" tone. I think the controllers themselves were purely mechanical.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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GeeMack
SFN Regular
USA
1093 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2006 : 10:00:26 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner...
Anybody remember the first remote controls, back in the late fifties, early sixties, for high-end console TVs? They had, I think, ON/OFF, and channel cycling functions (maybe, but I think not, volume control, too). Two or three large buttons on 'em. And they communicated with the TV via an audible "plunking" tone. I think the controllers themselves were purely mechanical.
My grandfather was one of those people who was always "first kid on the block". I'm sure he had a television before anyone in his neighborhood. He certainly had a color TV before anyone else. And yes, I remember that remote control from the 1960s. His television was a Zenith. The remote would turn the TV on or off, and cycle through the channels. I think it also turned the volume up or down in a very few rough stages.
I do recall when changing channels the remote obviously activated a small motor which was attached to the channel selector dial in the TV. Click the remote and hear an audible small motor hum as the channel changer rotates up one notch. Nothing like the solid state, infra-red, modern electronic things we use today.
The remote was probably three inches wide, an inch and a half thick, and over four inches long, huge and heavy by today's standards. Looking at it from the front there was a small metal screen, and behind that there were four (I believe) sort of tube looking things inside. It reminded me of a pitch pipe, the type used when tuning a violin. When a button was pushed, it seemed to trigger a spring of some sort, causing one of those metal tubes to be whacked in such a way that it generated a certain audio frequency signal. It reminded me of a sophisticated version of one of those little cricket clicker noise makers. Cool stuff for a curious eight year old kid to ponder. 
My father wasn't as "state of the art" as my grandfather. He connected the cutoff switch to the television speaker, strung that fifteen feet of wire across the floor, and used that to mute the TV during the commercials. After having seen my grandfather's remote, I recall thinking how simple and crude that speaker switch was.
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| Edited by - GeeMack on 06/06/2006 14:48:48 |
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Stargirl
Skeptic Friend
USA
94 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2006 : 14:03:32 [Permalink]
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Growing up in the fifties and sixties I remember not being allowed to play jacks when our parents were watching TV. That was because sometimes when we threw the jacks on the floor it would cause the TV to change channels or turn off the set. Dropping a set of keys on a hard surface would do the same thing.
Being children there were naturally times we couldn't resist doing it on purpose.  |
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him - Voltaire |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2006 : 18:22:41 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
I remember there was a time when you had one remote for your tv and one for your vcr, instead of the all-in-one remotes they have now. Does that count?
They do? Man, I have to get one of those.... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2006 : 18:51:19 [Permalink]
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Ads? What are these things you speak of?
I almost never watch live TV.... I make extensive use of the DVR so kindly provided by my local cable company for an extra $5/month.
The people who thought it would be a good idea to raise the broadcast volume of commercials are entirely to blame for such devices.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2006 : 02:33:39 [Permalink]
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Not being particularly interested in the toob, my 'home entertainmrnt center' has always been a bit, well, primitive. I never had a remote until the early '80s. That one was on my first VCR, not a VHS, but the other one (mistake on my part -- what can I say; they were selling it cheap). That remote was on a wire some 15 feet or so long. I was, of course, delighted with this technology until I found that no one was making very many tapes to play in it. Within months, the machine crapped out and on the advice of someone who knew something about it, I bought a VHS.
The mute button is truly a wonderful feature.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2006 : 04:42:04 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dude
The people who thought it would be a good idea to raise the broadcast volume of commercials are entirely to blame for such devices.
My wife complains about this all the time, while I hardly notice it.
Note to self: Must get hearing check. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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