Click to see Eugene in later years
The advancement of the human race in recent times has not been the slow change of evolution. Rather it has advanced in leaps and bounds due to major breakthroughs by dedicated inventors. Sadly, many of them have not received the recognition they deserve.
Have a look at this list to see how many of the heroes of civilisation you know:
| The printing press: Gutenberg | The steam engine: James Watt |
| Computers: Charles Babbage | The phone: Alexander Graham Bell |
| Penicillin: Alexander Fleming and Howard Walter Florey | The typewriter: Henry Mill |
| The flushing toilet: Thomas Crapper | The light bulb: Thomas Edison |
| Air conditioning: Willis Carrier | Gravity: Isaac Newton |
| The helicopter: Leonardo da Vinci | The internal combustion engine: Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz |
| The Brassiere: Otto Titzling | WD40: Norm Larsen |
But perhaps the greatest unsung hero of them all died today. He is the man who makes modern life bearable; the man we should mention in our prayers every evening; the man who made it possible to do so much from the sitting-room couch:
Yes, the inventor of the TV remote control, Eugene Polley, died today at the age of 96.
Click to enlarge
Notice that if you overlay a graph of life expectancy of western civilisation with a graph of popularity of the remote control you can see a remarkable correlation.
Coincidence? I don’t think so!
That Eugene lived to the age of 96 is testimony to the benefit brought to every one of us by his remarkable invention.
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