Posted: May 14, 2008

May 12, 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of Nathan Stubblefield, an American inventor,  receiving a U.S. patent for his “Wireless Telephone” device. His device did not work by radio waves, as modern phones do, but through induction.  There were no ringtones, or text-messaging,  rather he created the phone for “securing telephonic communications between moving vehicles and way stations”. The “moving vehicles” included trains, boats, wagons, and even cars, thus also making him the inventor of the car phone.

While his invention did not directly lead to the creation of the modern cell phone, it is still impressive that anything even remotely resembling cellular technology was conceived of, and even put into practice, so long ago.

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