Somebody's Uncle Art and Me

- jim Young

"To him that will, ways are not wanting. (Or Where there's a will, there's a way. - from Jacula Prudentum by George Herbert, 1640.

I don't know who Kenneth Simon is, nor do I know his Uncle Art. However, Kenneth recently posted this photo on Facebook with the following caption.

"My Great Uncle Art in 1957, proudly showing off his invention: the TV remote. A pole with something on the end that fit around the dial and changed the channel. Life was good!"

This was a good hack that Uncle Art created in the early days of TV; however it had its weaknesses. While Uncle Art could now change channels from the comfort of his arm chair he still had no remote control for the on/off switch or volume.

I never really considered not being able to turn the television off or on from my spot on the couch a hardship. I figured it was just as easy for me to turn the tv ON before I sat down and then simply turn it OFF as I walked past the tv on my way to bed.

Having a remote for that just seemed lazy.

But aside from being a generation apart, Uncle Art and I should have joined forces as I was able to master the volume control without the use of a remote control. This would have complemented Uncle Art’s handy dandy channel changer nicely.

The thing is however, I didn’t really need a channel changer. This was the 70s and while I was no longer walking to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways, I was still only getting one channel which, thanks to the marvel of modern science, was at least now in colour.

As a young lad I had to walk to school barefoot in the winter - uphill - both ways - with a TV strapped to my back that only got ONE channel. In black and white!

By this time remote volume controls actually were available for many TV sets. However the old TV that we had, was not so equipped. It was a good little TV that worked well, so the Scots in me wouldn’t justify the expense of a new TV just for the convenience of acquiring a remote control.

Anyway, for the most part, my children acted as my remote control for which they were well compensated with the privilege of sitting on my lap to watch whatever was on. But they had an early bedtime, so I needed more.

Not only did our television not come with a remote control, it was equipped with a single internal 5” speaker that didn’t provide great sound, nor was it equipped with any audio outputs. 

Much to the chagrin of my wife, I took the TV apart, (the warranty had long expired anyway) drilled a small hole in the panel and ran speaker wire inside. I soldered the ends of the speaker wire to the contacts of the speaker. Then I ran the speaker wire along the baseboard to the stereo which I had conveniently set up beside my spot on the couch. 

By attaching an RCA male plug to that end of the speaker wire, I was able to plug it into one of the auxiliary inputs in the stereo, switch the stereo to mono and bob’s your uncle. I immediately had better television sound running through my stereo AND I could control the volume from my spot on the couch without keeping my children up late on a school night. 

It wasn’t exactly surround sound, but it was impressive for its time.

Yes, my friends… Those were the days.

- 30 -

 

Do you have some pictures or memories of the proverbial “good old days” that you would like to share? If so, please send them by clicking on this link, Those Were The Days, My Friend.