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From Samuel Morris to Martin Cooper – The History of the Cell Phone

Guest post by: Nicolas DAlleva

Article Overview: Every modern phone communication can be traced back to Samuel Morris's first telegraph signal transmission.

From Samuel Morris to Martin Cooper – The History of the Cell Phone

On October 18 in 1842, Samuel Morse successfully sent telegraph signals through the water between Governor's Island and Castle Garden, New York, approximately one mile apart. Remarkably, Morse's signals were passed through the water itself, as a ship passing by mistakenly pulled up Morse's cable line. Although this experiment intended to send the signals by wire, it was still viewed as a success. Morse is widely recognized as being the first to use a device to send messages by electricity while not using a wire. As a result, many view him as a pioneer in wireless communication as well as wired.

Development of Cell Phone Technology has a Long History

With Morse's great success in this landmark transmission, other researchers followed his lead and started experimenting with wireless transmissions. In 1843, Michael Faraday performed extensive research on space conducting electricity, contributing to the principles of telegraphy. Later, in 1864, James Clark Maxwell wrote his thesis on the "Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field." His research concluded that light, electricity and magnetism worked together and traveled in waves. These concepts form many of the underlying concepts of wireless technology used today.

From 1866 to 1873, a dentist named Mahlon Loomis used kites with copper wires linked to the ground to transmit and receive messages between the Virginian mountaintops of Cohocton and Beorse Deer, which are 18 miles apart. For 30 years to follow, most inventors focused on wire line telegraphy, which incorporated hanging wire lines between telephone poles. However, a good understanding of wireless by induction had been established by the earlier researchers. They had concurred that electromagnetic messages could positively be sent through the air.

Martin Cooper, Motorola, and the First Cell Phone

In 1954, the Motorola Company made an outstanding move by hiring Martin Cooper to work on developing portable products. Cooper was successful with his development of the first handheld portable radio. It was used by the Chicago Police Department in 1967. Cooper then moved on to research cellular products. He and the Motorola Company became competitors with Bell Laboratories to produce the first portable cellular device. Cooper beat Bell Labs to the punch with his "Motorola Dyna-Tac," the first prototype of a cellular phone.

The "Motorola Dyna-Tac" weighed 2.5 pounds and was 9 by 5 by 1.75 inches in size. You could talk for 35 minutes on it, and it took ten hours to recharge. Cooper then began a ten-year process to bring Motorola's "Dyna-Tac" to market. In 1983 when it was first offered, it cost $3500 and weighed a full pound. It took seven years before the "Dyna-Tac" had a million subscribers in the United States. This is remarkable considering that today a cell phone can weigh as little as three ounces and cost nothing when purchased with a contract. Even more remarkably, currently the world has more cellular subscribers than telephone landline subscribers.

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Article Tags: cell phone, communication, history, telecommunication



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