clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Here's How Mobile Phones Worked in 1959

What could you do if you had a "Phone in Your Car?" A British newsreel video explores the possibilities.

Peter Kafka covers media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.

What if someone could call you on the telephone — while you were in your car?

That’s the astonishing premise of this 1959 clip from newsreel archive British Pathe. Heads up: Gender politics back then were also comparatively unsophisticated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR4hoSh0Ols

Pathe produced more than 90,000 newsreel clips during the 1900s, and it has now uploaded almost all of them to a YouTube channel.

If you have time to kill there’s amazing stuff there, including other glimpses of early technology (this isn’t technically a “wireless phone” from 1922, but it sure is interesting):

http://youtu.be/ILiLaRXHUr0

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.