As the iPhone 5 is released... How the first 'mobile phone' was launched in 1922 - and it even had a rudimentary form of iTunes

By Eddie Wrenn for MailOnline

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If you are excited by today's launch of the iPhone, imagine how people felt in 1922 when the first 'mobile phone' was released.

For, as this black-and-white film from the archives of the newsreel company British Pathé shows, Eve's Wireless was the first portable phone that allowed people to stroll down the street while making a call.

There are some caveats of course: The antenna was so big it needed to be wired into an umbrella, and you needed to ground the phone to a fire hydrant to earth the charge. Phone conversations were only one way, and of course, it didn't support Flash.

Still, it pushes back the traditional history of mobile phones by 51 years, when Motorola and Bell Labs were in a race to build the first mobile, and - Apple fans - it even had a rudimentary form of iTunes.

Early days: In the British Pathé newsreel from 1922, two women try out the 'original iPhone'

Early days: In the British Pathé newsreel from 1922, two women try out the 'original iPhone'

Entitled 'Eve’s Wireless', the silent footage shows a hand-held device being wired up to an umbrella and attached to a fire hydrant in order to earth its electrical charge.

Technologically, the device is more akin to a walkie talkie, as you had to 'push to talk', rather than having a true two-way conversation.

A caption explains: 'It’s Eve’s portable 'phone - and won’t hubby have a time when he has to carry one!'

The film shows the women communicating with a telephone exchange, which ‘downloads’ music to them over the airwaves via a gramaphone.

Experts say the technology in the film is real. It is believed to make use of a small 'Cat’s Whisker' HF radio.

It doesn't run Flash, there's no Angry Birds, and battery life is awful ... but you could make phone calls 50 years before the first real mobile

It doesn't run Flash, there's no Angry Birds, and battery life is awful ... but you could make phone calls 50 years before the first real mobile

The footage is now available on YouTube, where a note from by British Pathe states: 'This clip from 1922 shows that 90 years ago, mobile phone technology and music on the move was not only being thought of, but being trialled.'

Modern web users seem equally impressed. One viewer joked: 'Hey, I’m gonna replace my iPhone for this right now!'

Advertising campaign: An early advert for the device

Advertising campaign: An early advert for the device

Others viewers commented on how glamorous looking the women in the clip are.

A spokesman for British Pathe added 'Eve's Wireless stunned the tech world when we discovered it in our archive a few months ago.

'What you see in the video is essentially a fire hydrant connected to a long wire aerial that wraps around an umbrella.

'We think the video’s success has a lot to do with the two glamorous women who are demonstrating the phone.

'British Pathi made a whole series of videos to engage women in the early twentieth century and Eve was the name of the central character.

'There is no doubt that these women would have been actresses exhibiting the product. Still - it’s lovely to see an all-female cast for such a pioneering technology video.'

A 'first look' by the Electrical Experimenter magazine had a reporter who tested the 'wireless telephone' by getting into a car and speaking to someone 500 yards away.

It read: 'A man with a box slung over his shoulder and holding in one hand three pieces of stove pipe placed side by side on a board climbed into an automobile on East Country Road, Elkins Park.'

'As he settled in the machine he picked up a telephone transmitter, set on a short handle, and said: 'We are going to run down the road. Can you hear me?''

'Other passengers in the automobile, all wearing telephone receivers, heard a woman’s voice answering: 'Yes, perfectly. Where are you?''

How iTunes REALLY works: An operator can pipe a song from a gramophone to the receiver

How iTunes REALLY works: An operator can pipe a song from a gramophone to the receiver

'By this time the machine was several hundred yards down the road and the voice in the garage was distinctly heard.'

If you are in the market for a better phone, Apple’s new iPhone 5 boasts a larger touch screen then previous versions and also contains a host of improved features.

Apple says pre-orders for the device have topped two million, double the number of pre-orders of the iPhone 4S.


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