Description

One of the earliest examples of remote control devices was invented by Nikola Tesla in 1898. The mechanism was patented and described in Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicle or Vehicles. In 1898, at an electrical exhibition in Madison Square Garden, he showed the public a radio-controlled boat called the “teleautomat”. Tesla tried to sell his idea to the US military as a type of radio-controlled torpedo, but they showed little interest. Remote radio control remained a novelty until World War I and afterward, when a number of countries used it in military programs. Tesla took the opportunity to further demonstrate "Teleautomatics" in an address to a meeting of the Commercial Club in Chicago, while he was travelling to Colorado Springs, on 13 May 1899. Patent attached.