Interesting Motorola History
 

I was digging thru Motorola's history link on their website and came across an interesting flash media they have. It starts out when they were Galvin and goes thru today. There are some cool little movies to watch in some of the decades... some of them related to radio, tv, the transistor, and also shows a tv advertisement for their first rectangular color sets. Was pretty cool to watch. If you haven't seen this, check it out. I think you will enjoy it!

https://motofuture.motorola.com/flash.html

Another bit of trivia about Motorola is that they made gasoline powered car heaters in the late 1940s. In addition to sounding dangerous,these did not sell well and Paul Galvin, the then CEO of Motorola, said that that was the last time that they would try to sell any item from outside the electronics area.

I used to have an owners manual for one of these car heaters, but gave it to the Motorola Museum. I worked for them for 20+ years until they spun us off last year into Freescale Semiconductor.

As for the need for gasoline powered car heaters, I have heard that heaters were not standard equipment for cars until the 1950s. The one in my grandfathers 1953 Ford looked like an add on with the control panel hanging below the dash. However it was the factory installed heater.

Also wanted to add that the website that Charlie posted is well worth visiting.

I have seen pictures of the Museum and it is worth visiting also. I have not gotten to Chicago to see it yet, but hope to someday.

Cool site! They have an ad (video) for the Golden View TV set! 1947 in the history section .

Car heaters (and radios) were optional on American cars all the way up thru the 60's! Arvin used to make both (and is still in business, electronics and automotive).

My Aunt used to work for Motorola in some military division. Last year I visited Chicago and contacted Motorola seeking a tour of the museum. Never got anywhere with them as my contact person kept passing the buck to someone who never would contact me. The bums.

Anthony