I have always assumed that remote controls were a fairly recent technological development, which is based on me remembering a time when I didn't know that such a thing existed. This is how I tend to date historical events, by the way. Something either started happening since I've been alive (cell phones, home computers, and Justin Beiber) or else something has been around for my entire life (televisions, sweatpants, and microwave ovens). On this criteria, I labeled remote controls as "relatively new" because I distinctly remember seeing one for the first time and I distinctly remember being unimpressed.
The first remote I saw allowed you to change the channel without getting up off the couch, but it also had a wire running between the tv and the remote. This didn't exactly scream "groundbreaking technology" since this was at a time when people would sit through an entire program rather than switching channels at the slightest provocation. Under these circumstances, the remote saved, at best, a few seconds every half hour. Then and now, I don't think that level of convenience makes up for the risk of tripping over a wire every time I get up to use the bathroom or refresh my snack.
As is probably the case more often than I realize, my method of dating historical events based on my own personal experience is not very accurate. For one thing, it only puts things into the two categories of "less than 30 years old" or "more than 30 years old". When something falls into the "less than 30 years old", I can usually refine my estimate by remembering how old I was when something happened. This makes it easy to place New Kids On the Block before The Backstreet Boys, but doesn't do me any good if I'm trying to put Henry VIII in historical perspective. In a more relevant example, I can list all the presidents in order, but only if I start with Jimmy Carter. So while my method makes some refinement in chronology possible, it becomes increasingly inaccurate as the age of something approaches or exceeds 30. In the case of remote controls, I'm way off.
As it turns out, the first patent and demonstration of a remote control didn't require any wires, didn't use AA batteries, and it most certainly didn't occur in my lifetime. It was done by Tesla in 1898. He used radio frequency to control a boat during an exhibition at Madison Square Garden. I would like to think that the event looked like this:
But it was probably more along the lines of this:
I don't know a lot about history, but I did read that the U.S. Patent office was reluctant to recognize Tesla's patent until he had a working model because they were so incredulous about the claims he was making. If even the U.S. patent office couldn't imagine such a thing, how was the working model received by the locals? Perhaps it met with cries of "Witch, witch, burn the witch!" (This was the same time as the Salem witch trials, right? It's hard for me to know since they're both so old.) I'm pretty sure I would have read about Tesla had been burned at the stake though, so I guess everyone was pretty reasonable about the whole thing. They probably sat down over a grande half-caff caramel macchiato and dreamt of a day when people would be free to set off fart sounds remotely and change channels at an alarming speed without even the aid of wires.
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