I don’t mean BETTER. That’s a different conversation. I mean cooler.
An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.
If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.
That’s just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.
How did it generate that sound without batteries? Was it literally the audio from the clicking of the buttons? Genuine questions.
edit: Thanks for the several answers. They all seem prone to interference, but it is nice that they worked without power.
Tuning forks!!! The Zenith clicker The buttons would work strikers that would hit tuned rods. A different one doing a different function.
Zenith Space Command remote.
Ah, so more like the bell on a bicycle
Except there’s another bell that vibrates in response to trigger a switch!
It’s like auditory entanglement.
Spooky action across the room!
The button pressed a spring-loaded thing that struck a piece of metal, almost like a wind chime, emitting an ultrasonic note. I discovered by accident that I could make my parents’ stereo change channels by clinking coins together.
Buttons and springs would make it click loudly at a predicable frequency.
It’s why remotes are often referred to as “clickers”.
It’s not a circle, it’s a spiral!