Zenith Flash-Matic remote control

The Zenith Flash-Matic was the world’s first wireless Television remote control. The devices were only in production for a single year in 1955 and approximately 30,000 were produced and they were never sold outside of the USA. The controller worked by means of light sensors set into the corners of the TV set, enabling the user to turn the set on or off and to change channel from across the room. However, the sensors proved to be susceptible to natural light and were sometime set off by ambient light levels in the room. The Flash-Matic instead placed the complexity in the receiver as opposed to the transmitter. It used a directional beam of light to control a television outfitted with four photocells in the corners of the screen. The light signal would activate one of the four control functions, which turned the picture and sound on or off, and turned the channel tuner dial clockwise and anti-clockwise. The bottom receptors received the signal to mute and power on/off, and the upper cells received signals to channel up/down. In order for the various signals to be received by the monitor, the remote control had to be directed towards one of the four photocells. The remote was highly expensive and cost $100 on top of the $400 paid for the television set itself.

This is basically a green coloured flash-light, but it is also a rare piece of TV and social history. The first wire TV remote control was invented by the US company Zenith in 1951 and called the ‘Lazy-bones’. Then in 1955 a designer Eugene Polly working for Zenith produced this the world’s first wireless remote control. By setting light sensors into the corners of the TV set, the user from the comfort of their own chair could turn the set on or off and change the channels. In reality it was a great idea which came with serious glitches, not least because ambient light in the room could also trigger the sensors by mistake. The controller cost $100 ontop of the price of a $400 television so was not cheap. By 1956 the Flash-matic was superseded by the ‘Zenith Space Command’ series of controllers that worked not off light but sound. During the 12 months of production it has been estimated that only 30,000 Flash-matics were produced. There is no certainty as to how many still exist today, but over the years many would have been simply discarded (not least because they can easily be confused with a child’s torch).