Tech History Made on January 16, 1906

On this day in 1906 Christian Hülsmeyer received a patent for making machines respond only to a certain transmitter... or what we today call a remote control. He arrived at this invention from his initial work for radar detection for ships. A friend had been killed in a shipping accident that could have been prevented had the boats known of each other's presence.

After demonstrating his radar to the German Navy and shipping merchants no one was interested in his machine. One major problem was that if many ships close to each other were using the machine, the signals would get confused. This lead to his specification of each machine only responded to its own signal.

In his patent Hülsmeyer even ventured to give uses as a remote control, "for actuating mechanism placed at a distance, for instance closing circuits and releasing clockworks [and] for the purpose of turning on and off all kinds of lights". Despite the vast possibilities for his device it didn't catch on. The Center for the Study of Science and Technology made this speculation, " how history might have been different if radar had been around decades earlier, in time for the Titanic, and in time for World War I." Hülsmeyer's patent was filed and approved six years before the sinking of the Titanic, and eight years before World War I even began.