Retrobricks

[megleigh]

One of the things I love most about being a writer is the fun things you learn or revisit when researching for a story. Tonight's fun Du Jour is Retrobricks--old style cell phones.

The first call ever made from a cell phone was made back in 1973 when Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola placed a call to his main rival Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of

Comments

[angelabenedetti]

The first person I remember with anything similar was a friend who had a car phone. He couldn't carry it around -- I think it was powered off the car battery or something, and maybe used the car antenna...? [squint] I don't remember. But the entire unit all together was definitely bigger than the brick in your photo up there, and it was only as portable as the car was. This was early- to mid-eighties.

Trivia -- I've worked a lot of conventions and conferences, and through most of the eighties, we used radios by Motorola which were also called "bricks." :) They weren't phones at all -- they were definitely radios -- but they were about that big and probably weighed about the same. I have a feeling that pretty much anything that size, shape and weight which had to be lugged around would've been called the same, heh.

Angie

[megleigh]

Yeah, I saw the "truly portable" car phone in my travels while researching this, too, but my focus was on the 'cell' phone more than the car phone.

I can also remember seeing a guy in the city when I was on my way to work one time in the early-mid eighties carrying something that looked like a brief case, but it had a handset attached. hehe.

Hard to believe they were considered 'portable.'

[angelabenedetti]

Hard to believe they were considered 'portable.'

Well, this was also the era of the "luggable" PC, which basically meant it had a handle on top. :D A far cry from a laptop, much less a tablet.

Angie

[megleigh]

Well, this was also the era of the "luggable" PC, which basically meant it had a handle on top. :D A far cry from a laptop, much less a tablet.

LOL! Indeed!

[kabuldur]

This was very interesting! Thanks for posting.

I, too, knew someone who had a car phone. He had an old Citroen. I think the phone worked, too!