The “Most Thrilling Invention Since the Radio Itself!”: The Evolution of the Radio Remote Control in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

This article examines the early history of the media remote control, focusing on the technical development of radio remotes in the 1920s and 1930s. Using a co-evolutionary model of technical change, it considers the technical and social conditions that served as the foundation for the first radio remotes. Drawing on patent records, it then examines the development, firstly, of wired radio remotes and, secondly, of wireless radio remotes, offering evidence of a direct patent-based link between the latter and the earliest successful wireless television remote of the 1950s.

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Patrick Parsons

Patrick Parsons (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1984) is the Don Davis Professor of Ethics and Professor of Communications in the College of Communications at Penn State University. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of media technology and social change, telecommunications history, and media ethics and responsibility.