#18: An Early Remote Control

As a kid, a majority of your time might have been spent getting up to change the channel on the TV. It was a task usually reserved for the youngest kids in the house because no one else wanted to do the honors. However, did you know the remote control was invented way back in the 1950s? This Zenith “Lazy Bones” came out in 1950 and was the first commercially successful remote.

The first version of the remote control included a long wire that plugged directly into the TV. Shoppers who could afford such an expensive invention found the wire annoying and cumbersome. It’s funny how some things never change, right? This vintage remote might have been annoying and expensive back in the day, but it inspired our modern-day wireless remotes.