How did the symbol for power (on remotes etc.) get started?

Question

You know the little circle with a line though it? who chose this symbol to mean power? and why?

Answer 1

It was a standard set by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1973.

Answer 2

Basically the line in the middle represents a 1. In binary a 1 means on, and electronic devices can only read 2 stages, on or off. So I'm guessing they just put it on there so they would know what its for by just looking for that symbol. And they don't have an 0 or off, because that would be pointless to put that on the controller when one button can do 2 functions.