[Jeffhs]

I remember those mechanical Jerrold boxes well. When we first got cable in 1982, the cable operator (Continental Cablevision at the time, now Time Warner) put these converters on both the TV in the living room and on the set in my bedroom. These boxes served the purpose well at the time since, as was noted, most cable systems had no more than 38 channels; the Jerrold box had a three-position switch at the left end of the control panel to select one of three banks of twelve channels each -- position 1 was channel 2 through 13, position 2 was 14 through 26, and position 3 was 27 through 39. The fine tuning control was at the opposite end of the control panel.

I was not aware of when those boxes were phased out; now I know. It makes sense because by the late '80s, nineties and beyond, cable systems were carrying more and more channels (not counting premium channels, which required yet another box alongside the regular cable box), eventually exceeding the capacities of the boxes then in use, so it wasn't long before the 38-channel converters were forced into obsolescence.

As to these boxes eventually becoming paperweights, I believe they already have, since the Jerrold boxes will not work with digital signals; if they work at all on today's cable systems, the chances are better than even that they will only work if the system still carries analog signals, i. e. translators or LPTV stations, producing a blank screen on digital channels. Besides, as was mentioned, today's TV viewers want boxes with remote control, which of course the Jerrold box did not and could not offer because of its design; this box did not even have provisions to turn the TV on and off at the unit rather than using the switch on the set itself.

I seem to remember, however, reading years ago in Popular Science magazine (IIRC) about a remote TV tuner that worked only with over-the-air signals, not cable. The tuner was connected to the TV by a multi-conductor cable, which presented the same safety hazard as did the control cable for the Zenith "Lazy Bones" wired remote of the 1950s (a cable running across the room that could all too easily be tripped over). This system was eventually superseded by the ill-fated Zenith Flash-Matic in 1955, and then by the Space Command series from the following year until 1980 or so.