MULLARD - A PREMONITION, PRESCIENCE OR JUST PLAGIARISM IN 1946
Posted by STEVE M on
I just love this Mullard advertisement from 1946, such prescience to forewarn the advent of a wrist mounted 'electronic teleprinter news receiver'...... or was it just plagiarism?
Could it be that envious eyes scanned events across 'the pond' and hence a 'copy and paste' idea was hatched? Well, in 1946, someone else got a radio wrist watch, yes, it was Dick Tracy. Who, I hear you ask , well Dick Tracy is an American comic strip featuring created by Chester Gould that made its debut n the Detroit Mirror in October 1931. It was to be 15 years later, some time in January 1946 when Dick Tracy got his the two-Way Wrist Radio and it became the most famous comic strip icon. Indeed Dick Tracy's radio wristwatch, inspired Martin Cooper's invention of the mobile phone in 1973.
The two-Way Wrist Radio was upgraded to a two-Way Wrist TV in 1964. This development also led to the introduction of an important supporting character, Diet Smith, an eccentric industrialist who financed the development of this equipment.
But in 1962, Hanna-Barbera's space age family, The Jetsons burst onto our screens.
And guess what, George Jetson had a two way wrist TV too!
Time inexorably rumbled on with everyone wanting one as well, Captain James T Kirk coveted a wrist TV even more than a new toupee and here we see him in the 1979 film Star Trek wearing both.
Not just famous figures but the man in the street wanted a wrist TV as well and later in 1979, World of Wonder magazine showed us the concept of just such a watch though it appeared to be the product of the frenzied coupling between a SInclair black watch and a Casio calculator watch!!!
With appetites firmly whetted, Jony Ive, Chief Designer at Apple wanted to invent a wrist TV. He hired Kevin Lynch of Adobe to lead the project and lo and behold, the first Apple product designed and manufactured without input from Steve Jobs, the Apple Watch was launched in April 2015 - some 70 years after Mullard and Chester Gould thought up such an idea.
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- Tags: 2 way wrist radio, 2 way wrist tv, captain kirk, dick tracy, electronic teleprinter news receive, mullard, smart watch, the jetsons