"Cell phone" spotted in a 1928 film?

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Charlie Chaplin film The Circus. Is it a cellphone or something else? I think it's something else.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/10/28/ ... l?iref=NS1

I saw that.
If you could take a cell phone back to 1928 it would just tell you that there was no signal.

It could be a hoax. It would be easy enough for a film maker to put someone in an old clip like they showed Forrest Gump shaking hands with president Kennedy.

"there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

if there were no signal.. the cell phone would say nothing...

but...

why should it be a cell phone? it could be a simple device just for communication with the mothership... just like in star trek...

"scotty, beam me up!"

or...

since people assume future advanced technology like time travel... who says they haven't found a way to keep in touch with their own time era, while being back in time?

so if it is time travel (= being able to transport living tissue thru time) ... it shouldn't surprise anyone that the time traveler has a cell-phone-like device to talk with... (= only radio waves transporting thru time... should be rather simple if you accomplished the first part).

Honestly, the fact that this story made CNN and has proliferated on the internet is a testament to the demise of quality news in this country and the "stupidification" of people in general.

The person in the video is using the brim of their hat or collar of their jacket to hide their identity.

Oh not at all - it's not her hat nor collar. It's clearly something held up to her ear and she's clearly talking.

She could be just a nutty old crazy person who was holding a cigarette case up to her ear and talking or something ...

but it's interesting!

Including the Grandfather Paradox.

We cannot conform to our notions of causality and hold that backward time travel is possible at the same time. If you believe that effects follow causes then forget about backward time travel.

I saw that movie clip and the woman was holding a box-like thing to her ear. So what?

Next we will be told that the Wright Brothers traveled back in time and revealed heavier than air flight to Leonardo De Vinci.

ruveyn

As has already been noted, a the phone wouldn't get signal in 1928.

I'm thinking it's some crazy person talking to themselves.

On the basis of Okham's Razor you have won. The simplest explanation is likely to be the right explanation.

ruveyn

I love these kinds of non-news stories. Remember the 1940s photo of a supposed hipster time traveler that caused a minor sensation awhile back? He appears to be wearing Ray Bans, a camera and something looking like a hoodie; all uncharacteristic of that period:



Skeptics have pointed out that, although the man looked odd, many of the things he had on could easily be found in that time period. The "Ray Bans" are actually welding goggles and while that particular kind of camera was rare, they had already been around for a time. The then-unusual but not impossible, pairing of the knitted logo sweater and scruffy sport jacket, just happens to have hipster cache now.

Here's another vintage photo where the subject and treatment thereof, looks modern-looking and fashion-forward purely by accident. This is the mugshot of Lewis Thornton Powell, one of the conspirators behind the Lincoln Assassination. It was taken in 1865:

I read a novel recently that said that if you were looking for Aliens you should look for places where there is a total eclipse of the sun.

In the whole universe we might be the only planet with a huge moon at just the right distance to exactly match the size of the sun when there is an eclipse.

So perhaps Aliens might come to see this wonder of the universe.

I can't believe CNN wasted airtime on this silliness. Some woman holds something square near her ear in 1928 and a time traveling cell phone is the only possible explanation?!?!?!


That vintage mugshot does look it could be found in the pages of this month's GQ magazine.

Through the lens of history topic

When we look at old movies/photos we are looking through the eyes of our own time. My kids often do this when they see old photos I show them. They think an old box in a corner was a TV, in a photo dated circa early 1900s.

If I saw someone texting or using an iPad in an old film I might be suprised. that, or the film has been altered.

...Interesting !

That thing that the old woman is holding up to her ear could be a hearing assistance device. The type of hearing aid that the hard of hearing used in the 1920s.

hearing aids from the 1920s