from: retrospace
TV for the traveler is the brainchild of John W. Rich, 56, of Salt Lake City. Inventor of the well-known "water bumper" used on buses and taxicabs, Rich has put together Tel-A-Chair, a large, comfortable chair with a TV set mounted on the left arm and the speaker unit imbedded in the headrest.
The chairs are already in use in waiting rooms at Greyhound bus stations throughout the west (Los Angeles, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Fresno, Stockton) and at several western airports (Sacramento, Denver, and Salt Lake City). It's just a matter of time before they become standard fare in waiting rooms throughout the world.
Rich has formed a corporation, Midwest International in Salt Lake City, and is turning out ten chairs a day to add to the 400 already on location.
"It costs us $350 to manufacture a chair," he explains. "And we give the airports and bus stations 35 percent of the revenue for the location. We've had requests from dozens of airports, rail-roads, bus stations, and beauty parlors. Wherever people wait, the Tel-A-Chair is a natural."
No sleeping, please
Since the Tel-A-Chair is far more comfortable than any public seat in any public waiting room, isn't there a danger that people will plop themselves down in the chair and merely go to sleep with¬out dropping a dime or quarter into the coin slot?
"That's not too much of a problem," Rich points out, "because each chair comes, equipped with a sign which says in several languages that the chair's for TV watching. And most people are hon¬est and obedient.
"Our biggest problem is children and young people removing knobs and bolts and screws from the machine. But a few days ago we discovered a marvelous new glue and now we've got that problem licked."
According to Rich, "It took us about seven months to iron out all the kinks in the chair. First, my sons and I thought of putting together a chair with a color TV set. But now color TV sets emit too much radiation at that distance, so we eliminated that idea. Then, we had to perfect a special indoor aerial inside the chair. Anyway, it's now perfected and ready to go. The only thing that can possibly hold us back is the financing. The more money we raise, the faster we can fill the demand."
How he got the idea
A tall, sturdy, jovial white-haired engineer of sorts who has spent most of his life inventing various devices, Rich says the idea for the Tel-A-Chair came to him about a year ago "when I and my comptroller got stuck in the Los Angeles airport for three hours.
"You can only eat so much pie and ice cream so we wandered all over the airport, looked at everything, and still had an hour to kill."
On the way back to Sacramento where he was then living, Rich gave the problem of entertaining "stuck" travelers some thought. He and his two sons decided that a chair with a mounted TV set was the answer.
"I went out," he recalls, "and bought the best armchair from a furniture store that I could buy. I equipped it with a TV set and invited the people from the Sacramento airport to look at it. They thought the idea was tremendous, but they sure didn't like the chair. They said the public would ruin the beautiful tufted fabric in about five minutes flat. They told us that they wanted a tough, durable chair, extremely comfortable, but very hard-wearing. And that's what we've come up with, and it's patented.
"We've signed a five-year contract with Greyhound Bus. Lots of hospitals want the chair installed for their patients. Beauty parlors, service clubs— they're all after us. For a while Jake Harmon, who's president of our company, thought we'd franchise the business out. We've had people contact us from airports in Tokyo, Honolulu, and England. But now we're not so sure.
"We can see the day not far off when these Tel-A-Chairs are used in classrooms throughout the world for teaching. So you can see that what we've come up with is more than a time-killer for travelers."
TV for the traveler is the brainchild of John W. Rich, 56, of Salt Lake City. Inventor of the well-known "water bumper" used on buses and taxicabs, Rich has put together Tel-A-Chair, a large, comfortable chair with a TV set mounted on the left arm and the speaker unit imbedded in the headrest.
The chairs are already in use in waiting rooms at Greyhound bus stations throughout the west (Los Angeles, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Fresno, Stockton) and at several western airports (Sacramento, Denver, and Salt Lake City). It's just a matter of time before they become standard fare in waiting rooms throughout the world.
Rich has formed a corporation, Midwest International in Salt Lake City, and is turning out ten chairs a day to add to the 400 already on location.
"It costs us $350 to manufacture a chair," he explains. "And we give the airports and bus stations 35 percent of the revenue for the location. We've had requests from dozens of airports, rail-roads, bus stations, and beauty parlors. Wherever people wait, the Tel-A-Chair is a natural."
No sleeping, please
Since the Tel-A-Chair is far more comfortable than any public seat in any public waiting room, isn't there a danger that people will plop themselves down in the chair and merely go to sleep with¬out dropping a dime or quarter into the coin slot?
"That's not too much of a problem," Rich points out, "because each chair comes, equipped with a sign which says in several languages that the chair's for TV watching. And most people are hon¬est and obedient.
"Our biggest problem is children and young people removing knobs and bolts and screws from the machine. But a few days ago we discovered a marvelous new glue and now we've got that problem licked."
According to Rich, "It took us about seven months to iron out all the kinks in the chair. First, my sons and I thought of putting together a chair with a color TV set. But now color TV sets emit too much radiation at that distance, so we eliminated that idea. Then, we had to perfect a special indoor aerial inside the chair. Anyway, it's now perfected and ready to go. The only thing that can possibly hold us back is the financing. The more money we raise, the faster we can fill the demand."
How he got the idea
A tall, sturdy, jovial white-haired engineer of sorts who has spent most of his life inventing various devices, Rich says the idea for the Tel-A-Chair came to him about a year ago "when I and my comptroller got stuck in the Los Angeles airport for three hours.
"You can only eat so much pie and ice cream so we wandered all over the airport, looked at everything, and still had an hour to kill."
On the way back to Sacramento where he was then living, Rich gave the problem of entertaining "stuck" travelers some thought. He and his two sons decided that a chair with a mounted TV set was the answer.
"I went out," he recalls, "and bought the best armchair from a furniture store that I could buy. I equipped it with a TV set and invited the people from the Sacramento airport to look at it. They thought the idea was tremendous, but they sure didn't like the chair. They said the public would ruin the beautiful tufted fabric in about five minutes flat. They told us that they wanted a tough, durable chair, extremely comfortable, but very hard-wearing. And that's what we've come up with, and it's patented.
"We've signed a five-year contract with Greyhound Bus. Lots of hospitals want the chair installed for their patients. Beauty parlors, service clubs— they're all after us. For a while Jake Harmon, who's president of our company, thought we'd franchise the business out. We've had people contact us from airports in Tokyo, Honolulu, and England. But now we're not so sure.
"We can see the day not far off when these Tel-A-Chairs are used in classrooms throughout the world for teaching. So you can see that what we've come up with is more than a time-killer for travelers."
