Elvis’s TV remote, the ‘Zenith Space Commander Four Hundred’. Early 60’s, Graceland. [1440 x 1052]

    by Smeijerleijer

    6 Comments

    1. i remember when remotes looked like that. we called them “clickers” because they clicked when you pressed a button

    2. >The Space Command is a product of mechanical engineering rather than electrical. By pressing a button on the remote, you set off a spring-loaded hammer that strikes a solid aluminum rod in the device, which then rings out at an ultrasonic frequency. Each button has a different length rod, thus a different high-frequency tone, which triggers a circuit connected to a microphone in the television to finish the command.

      https://www.theverge.com/23810061/zenith-space-command-remote-control-button-of-the-month

    3. My God my grandparents had this. It had four metal rods inside and when you mashed the button (fairly hard actually) it seemed to activate a spring-loaded pin that would strike the rod and I guess send some audible signal to the TV which would make the channel selector rotate in either direction.

    4. I remember those!

      Also, my uncle had a TV with a remote that you could change the channel by cupping your hands around a few coins and shaking them up and down. Something about the sound of the coins hitting each other made the channel change.

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