1928 – Three television sets were installed by GE in homes in Schenectady, New York, in order to demonstrate the first home television receiver. The picture was 1.5 inches long by 1 inch wide and 24 lines at 16 frames per second.
1976 – Raymond Kurzweil and the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind announced the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first text-to-speech machine. Walter Cronkite used it to deliver his signature sign-off, “And that’s the way it was, January 13, 1976.”
2014 – Google announced it would acquire smart appliance maker Nest.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.