Cell phones in the past (left) were very different from the cell phones we use today (right). In what ways have they changed?
The cell phone turned 40 years old on April 3. On that day in 1973, Marty Cooper made the very first cell phone call. He called Joel Engel from a sidewalk in New York City. Marty and Joel worked at two different companies racing to make a cell phone. Marty called to tell Joel that he had won the race. He had succeeded in making a cell phone!
Before cell phones, people used only landline phones. Alexander Graham Bell invented the first landline phone 137 years ago, in 1876. Landline phones use wires to connect to a telephone network. A cell phone doesn’t use wires. Instead, it sends radio signals through the air. Cell phones are portable, which means you can carry them with you. Some people still use landline phones today, but more use cell phones.
Cell phones have changed a lot in 40 years. The first models were brick-shaped and clunky-looking. They had long rubber antennas and weighed about 2 1/2 pounds. That’s about the weight of three hard-covered books! Those early phones were used mostly to make calls. Today, people use cell phones to take pictures, access the Internet, send text messages, play games, and more.
Cell phones will continue to change. Marty Cooper thinks that in the future, cell phones may be small enough to hang behind your ear. What do you think cell phones will be like 40 years from now?
Image credits—left: ©Bettmann/Corbis; right: ©Isaac Lane Koval/Corbis
Related Links
- Telephones Through the Years
View a photo gallery of landline phones through the years. - A Photographic History of the Cell Phone
View the history of the cell phone through pictures.
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