EOTC: The invention of cell phones
The creation of the cell phone was done by Martin Cooper, an engineer in the communications industry who worked for the company “Motorola’ at the time. Between the years of 1972-1973 he successfully created the first working cell phone called the “prototype DynaTAC.” In the year 1984 the DynaTAC was officially launched at a price of 3,995 and if we take inflation into account it would be 11,716 dollars today. Affectionately nicknamed “the brick” most Americans weren’t able to get their hands on a DynaTAC as they were too expensive. It wasn’t until Motorola launched the “international 3200” in 1992 (which was the first digital mobile phone and was way cheaper than the DynaTAC) that Americans were finally able to enjoy the luxury of a cell phone. Now that we know a little history about the launch of cell phones, let's learn a little more about what led up to its creation and how Martin Cooper and his colleagues made history.
At Bell labs in the United states researchers began to experiment with networks and brain stormed the concept of a cellular network. Their original idea was to cover the country in hexagonal plates that would each have a base and these bases would receive messages through radio frequencies sent by each other. Then these radio bases or stations would connect themselves to telecommunication networks. Their hypothesis proved to be correct and by 1970 “The Bells labs advance mobile system (AMP)” was up and running. But there was one small problem; there were no phones to connect to; how could they use these stations if there weren't any phones to connect to and transmit messages. This is where Martin Cooper comes in; An engineer and graduate from “Illinois institute of technology” Martin was a fan of star trek and took some inspiration from their space communicators. While working at Motorola the company feared that AT&T would have a monopoly on cell phones so the company made him the lead on their last minute project.
Initially mobile phones were in cars but Martin didn’t want phones to be chained to a vehicle and instead believed that they should be mobile and in the span of a year he created the “DynaTac”. It was 23 cm (9 inches), weighed 1.1 kg or 2.5 pounds and had a battery life of 35 minutes. And in the year 1973 during a New York city press conference the phone was announced publicly and Martin made a phone call to Joel Engel, the head of AT&T’s cell phone project and gloated about Motorola’s triumph over their competitor. The creation of the cell phone is definitely one of the greatest triumphs in the last 60 years. It allowed for humans to communicate with people regardless of their town, city, state, or nation. What made cell phones better than all other forms of communication was that it was instantaneous, emailing or faxing a person could take hours, first you had to get on the computer and send them and during that time you were lucky to even have one. A phone lets you call someone instantly and it doesn't matter where you are; without the cell phone modern technology wouldn’t be where it is now; the cell phone truly was the foundation for all communication and social technologies of the future.
History of cell phones: 4 minutes
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