The "Charlie Chaplin time traveler" video
Apparently there's a video going around showing a woman (or possibly a man) in some extra footage of a Charlie Chaplin movie from 1928, who appears to be holding a cell phone to her (his?) ear and talking into it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv9f-s0KmOU&feature=related
And everyone's like OMG TIME TRAVELER, SHE HAS A CELL PHONE! There are, however, a few things wrong with that assumption, not the least of which is, if it is a cell phone, it wouldn't work anyway as there were no cell towers back then. Personally I think it's a hearing aid, although I really can't see anything in her hand at all anyway. She might have a toothache and was holding her knuckles against her cheek (I do that sometimes), or she might have been scratching her ear, or trying to keep her hat on. But seriously, people, there is no way it could have been a cell phone.
A few people mentioned she wouldn't have been able to talk to anyone in any case as nobody else would have had a cell phone. I think these people are forgetting--as I admittedly did for a few minutes--that cell phones can call land lines as well, which had definitely been invented by the late '20s, although you would still need a cell tower to get a signal. Still, the woman was not holding a cell phone--if she was holding anything at all. When the video changes scenes and fades and the woman starts to turn toward the camera, you can just barely see her starting to take her hand down, and she opens her fingers just slightly and there is nothing in her hand that I can see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv9f-s0KmOU&feature=related
And everyone's like OMG TIME TRAVELER, SHE HAS A CELL PHONE! There are, however, a few things wrong with that assumption, not the least of which is, if it is a cell phone, it wouldn't work anyway as there were no cell towers back then. Personally I think it's a hearing aid, although I really can't see anything in her hand at all anyway. She might have a toothache and was holding her knuckles against her cheek (I do that sometimes), or she might have been scratching her ear, or trying to keep her hat on. But seriously, people, there is no way it could have been a cell phone.
A few people mentioned she wouldn't have been able to talk to anyone in any case as nobody else would have had a cell phone. I think these people are forgetting--as I admittedly did for a few minutes--that cell phones can call land lines as well, which had definitely been invented by the late '20s, although you would still need a cell tower to get a signal. Still, the woman was not holding a cell phone--if she was holding anything at all. When the video changes scenes and fades and the woman starts to turn toward the camera, you can just barely see her starting to take her hand down, and she opens her fingers just slightly and there is nothing in her hand that I can see.