Blog
Better than Sex….
Written by Jimmy
Eugene Polley, inventor of the wireless remote, died on Sunday, May 20. I will let him speak of his contribution to our lives: “The flush toilet may have been the most civilised invention ever devised, but the remote control is the next most important. It’s almost as important as sex.” Well said, Mr. Polley, well said. As a frequent commentator on the wonders of the flush toilet (See Crisis in Sydney), it is only fitting we give space to the wonders of the remote control.
Polley worked with Zenith, the company that was always at the cutting edge of US TV Sets. The need for the remote was driven by company concerns that viewers would disappear from in front of their TV’s, driven away by too many ads. Their first remote was introduced in 1950, but had a bit of a problem. A cord. So they set about a new solution. Polley found it: The Flash-Matic. Here’s a wonderful tribute to the man: click here. Interestingly, the Flash Matic used light – you beamed light to the TV sensors. The next version, which is the ones my parents bought was the Zenith Space Command. This used sound rather than light to trigger the TV. The down side was a) if you rattled keys or coins the TV channels changed, b) if you’re mom was ironing beyind the TV couch, her ironing spray set off the alarm, c) if you had a stupid dog named Bingo who stood up a lot and shaked all over his collar changed the remote and d) if your old Uncle Johnson sneezed in the right way you set off the remote. We had all of these things happening all the time. Here’s the Zenith Space Command: Each button pressed down on a spring that then was releasaed sending a little rod into a little piece of metal to make a sound. Wow:
Here’s the remote from the outside:
This is the remote from the inside:
Here’s the ad for our first TV Set:
Now things have improved a lot since then. I won’t bore you with the history, but can I now introduce to you the world’s greatest remote control:
Finally, a rant. Mr Polley made $1,000 for his invention. Mr Zuckerberg made $19 Billion. I want to do a little math for you. Mr Polley created an invention that has transformed the TV, music and computer industries. An average American home as four remotes. Let’s run a couple numbers. Assume that there are about 400 million remotes in use (200 million in US and another 200 million for rest of world, which seems wildly conservative. Mr Polley was paid $2.50 for each 1 million users of a remote. These folks paid for the remote and the TV that was associated with the remote. And he got $2.50 to bring a million on board. There are 900 million facebook users. No one pays anything for it and I’m not sure there is any proven revenue model. Mr Z got paid: $21.11 for each user. Wait, let’s go through that again. Mr P got $2.50 for each million users. Mr Z. got $21.11 for each user. Mr P helped create an industry that is still vibrant today. Mr Z? Watch this space.
By my calculations, Mr P’s family is owed: $8.44 billion. Minus the $1,000 we paid him. Seems fair given the guy invented something better than sex.
Jimmy