There's Keystone in every Great invention

How One Man Launched a Global Video Revolution

November 29, 2012

Life before video cameras embedded into a smartphone seems far removed as we go about our daily lives. We get instant videos and pictures sent to our phones, posted on Facebook, and even downloaded to our computers. Invention of the CamcorderToday, almost everything about 21st Century daily life is captured for viewing on phones, tablets, computers, and televisions.

If it weren’t for the wonderment and innovative spirit of one man, all of this instant video recording of cute babies unwrapping presents, rambunctious dogs snagging the family turkey off the table, or even the crazy uncle behaving badly after too many swigs of the spiked eggnog might have never made it to the cyber world. This man was the American inventor, Jerome Lemelson. He not only created the concept of the handheld camcorder, but helped to launch a social media revolution that came upon its heels.

Lemelson was born on Staten Island in 1923, served in World War II and earned two master’s degrees in the postwar period (in aeronautical and industrial engineering respectively). With these degrees in hand, Lemelson soon became synonymous with the spirit of American inventiveness and innovation. Everywhere one looks, he seems to have had a hand in developing both high and low technologies: automated production machinery, Old CamcorderVelcro dart board games, word processing, bar code scanners, videotape, and video viewing are just some of the sectors he played a crucial role in.

But Lemelson’s gem was the camcorder. The camcorder revolutionized the way people documented their lives. It was portable, its visual quality was top-notch (for its era), and most importantly – it was cheap: the “man-on-the-street” could easily afford one. No longer do family holidays have to be recorded in scratchy (and costly) Super 8 film. Anyone could suddenly – and quite simply – switch on a camcorder and record whatever was happening. Anyone could now become a journalist and a documentarian, even Dad!

At Keystone, we are champions of inventiveness. We supply many of the critical components that go into the making of camcorders and technologies related to the camcorder – and we’ve been proudly doing so for a long time. Whether it’s LED lens caps, battery clips, contacts or holders, USB jacks and sockets, PCB terminals and test points or washers and grommets that you need for your production line, we’ve got you covered right here in Astoria, New York City – not far up the way from Lemelson’s own Staten Island. Because we know when it comes to quality products, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts" 

 


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