Titanic. A beautiful woman. A competition. A frog. How Was The World of Cellular Communication Created?

One would think, what could have in common the greatest tragedy in the history of mankind, a beautiful woman, a frog and a desire to create something new?

Mobile communication has opened up incredible opportunities for humanity that would have seemed like magic a few centuries ago. Today, in just a few seconds, we can learn news from the most remote corners of the world, do several things almost at the same time, work, make acquaintance, communicate and even look for a soul mate using a mobile phone. The smartphone has become our little universe in our pocket.

However, did any of us ask oneself what events, conditions, people, emotions preceded the emergence of modern mobile communications? In this article, you will find out what way the smartphone had to go, so that today we could move freely and use it. As it turned out, it was incredibly long and fun.

• Titanic - the first wireless data transmission
• Hedy Lamarr - the actress who invented confidentiality
• Martin Cooper - the first wireless phone on the street
• Luigi Galvani - invented the battery, not even knowing about this
• Philip Kahn - a camera in the phone for a newborn daughter

Titanic - the First Wireless Data Transmission

The first radiotelegraph station to transmit information using Morse code was created in 1912. It was an incredible breakthrough at that time, because messages could be transmitted from ship to shore or to another ship. But, there's a but! The technology was new and untested. Messages were sent only on one frequency. This means, it was simply impossible to send or receive several messages at the same time. This fact played a critical role in the tragic events and led to a large number of victims of the infamous Titanic.

The events on the Titanic gave an incredible boost to the development and understanding of the potential of using wireless communication. After the shipwreck, people on land began to transmit information to each other about this event, which led to many rumors and confusion. As a result, the US authorities have prohibited radio amateurs from transmitting data over long distances.

This was the motivation for creation of radio relay communications over short distances. This principle of operation is embedded in the modern wireless communication model. The signal goes from one phone to the nearest tower and from there to another mobile phone.

It worked! In fact, this is how we got the basic principle that is embedded in modern cellular communications.

Hedy Lamarr - the Actress Who Invented Confidentiality

Hedy Lamarr is an Austrian-American actress with a talent for inventing. Hedy was not only a famous actress, but was also considered the most beautiful woman at that time. Few people knew about her talent as an inventor and passion for radio communications.

In 1941, Hedy realized that Hitler's plans would only bring collapse and millions of deaths, so she wanted to stop him more than anything. She was well versed in radio communications and understood that the enemy could intercept the coordinates of the target of radio-controlled torpedoes and even change them. To prevent this, it was necessary to transmit the signal so that it could not be drowned out or intercepted. Lamarr found a solution to this problem, and music helped her in this. Yes, the music!

Playing the piano gave her an idea of how to move from frequency to frequency and synchronize these transitions with each other. Frequency hops are like the hammers of a piano that strike a different string each time to create a melody. To synchronize them, the inventor suggested using punched cards.

In 1942, Hedy received a patent for "Secret Communication System". At that time, it was rather difficult to fully evaluate and implement the idea. But, after 20 years, it was this system that was adopted and is used today by the American security services and the police.

This development became the basis for spread spectrum communications and is now used in everything from mobile phones to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

This is how we got confidentiality. After all, today the telephone is a very private thing. Nobody wants to be listened to by others, or for others to read their messages or have access to personal data. Hedy Lamarr helped us get a modern, secure connection.

Martin Cooper - the First Wireless Phone on the Street

Today the name of Martin Cooper is world famous. By the way, his parents are Jewish emigrants from Ukraine, who moved from a village near Kiev to Chicago in 1928.

50 years ago, the US communications market experienced the biggest competition in history - who would be the first to make mobile communications truly mobile?

Back then, Martin clearly understood that if right now he did not come up with something completely new in the cellular communication market, then AT&T would do it and become a monopoly in this area. AT&T is a giant in the world of telecommunication companies that, so to speak, invented and implemented the principle of signal transmission in the form of honey cells.

Cooper came up with the idea of a lightweight wireless phone that you could pick up and talk while walking freely down the street. He and his team had only 90 days to design and develop the miracle handset.

Motorola made a rather risky decision - to postpone all other projects and actively work on the design and filling of the cell phone. The risk paid off.

On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper invited the journalists to meet on the street. He walked out of the office holding the first ever cell phone. "Who should I call?" - He thought. After all, very few people had phones then.

The phone rang in Bell Laboratories.
"Hello" – Joel Engel, head of the research center, answered the phone .
"Guess where I'm calling you from?" - Martin asked. "I'm calling you from a real cell phone!"
His opponent answered with silence.

This is how Martin Cooper demonstrated a mobile phone in the presence of journalists, and opened a new stage in the field of telecommunications.

The first cell phone was called DynaTAC, its dimensions were 22.5x12.5x3.75 cm and it weighed 1.15 kg, and there were 2,000 parts inside. The battery lasted only 20 minutes of talk time.

Only 10 years later, cell phones appeared on sale and became available to everyone who was not afraid of the price of $ 3000 and weight of 800 g.

It would seem that now there is everything: wireless communication, data security, phone that works wirelessly, and you can pick it up, walk down the street and talk.

But no, there was one more factor that stood in the way of complete independence - the battery.

Luigi Galvani - Invented the Battery, Not Even Knowing About This

Galvani went down in history as the founder of experimental electrophysiology. During one of his experiments, he accidentally invented the battery, although he himself did not understand it.

Galvani dissected a frog suspended from a brass hook. He touched it with a scalpel, and the frog's leg moved. Galvani thought that this energy came from the frog itself.

However, Alessandro Volt did not agree with this assumption and believed that the energy came from two different metals, between which a wet intermediary (electrolyte) acted as a conductor. After conducting experiments and confirming his theory, Volt officially published the results. This is how the world's first battery was born. Back then, it was called the Voltaic pile.

Actually, after that there were many more different experiments and attempts to create other types of batteries. Technology has improved over the years. Real batteries for cell phones were created only at the end of the 20th century.

Until now, scientists are racking their brains on how to minimize the weight and volume of the battery, and at the same time increase its power. After all, new technologies are very consuming and every year they require more and more energy.

Philip Kahn - a Camera in the Phone for a Newborn Daughter

Philippe Kahn is a technology innovator and inventor of the first instant photo sharing solution on public networks.

The story of the first photo uploaded from the phone to the network is interesting and emotional.

Philip and his wife were expecting their daughter. It was then that the inventor had the idea to take a photograph of her in the first minutes of her life, and share it with family and friends.

He was haunted by the idea of how to make it possible to upload a photo to the network immediately from the phone, so that all his relatives and friends saw his daughter right after her birth.

The day has come, but Philip did not have a decision. He got into the car and drove his wife to the hospital, and Eureka! He understood what was necessary to implement his plan.

He had a phone, a camera and a laptop with him. But, how could these three devices be combined? A special cable was needed, and his wife suggested where to get it. He went to the car and literally cut the car speaker into pieces. Kahn figured out how to connect three devices and send a photo.

While Kahn was waiting for his daughter to be born, he managed to write a program and create the world's first camera phone. He took a photo of Sophie after birth and sent it to all his acquaintances and friends. Two thousand people received the first digital photo uploaded from the phone.

So in one day two dreams of Philippe Kahn came true at once - the birth of a daughter and a camera phone.

Such interesting events preceded the appearance of the device, without which we cannot imagine our life - the telephone.

The most interesting thing is that the phone does not stop. It continues to grow and develop rapidly. Every day we get new opportunities and solutions that make our life more interesting, safe and convenient with the phone.

Today, scientists are wondering what this device will look like in a hundred years. Will it stay in our pockets? Or it is quite possible that people will already have it integrated in their bodies. Will it convey smells, emotions, sensations in order to bring us closer to the interlocutor? Or maybe a battery will appear that will hold a charge for years or produce energy from our body. Thousands of questions remain unanswered.

However, one statement remains doubtless now: “Everything that you can imagine is real. © Pablo Picasso. "