The First Cell Phone, Oh How Far We Have Come

Dyna-Tac



The first cell phone was invented by in 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper. Dr. Martin Cooper worked for Motorola and worked on inventing portable products. Dr. Cooper and his team at Motorola made handheld radios for the Chicago police department. Then ten years later Dr. Cooper and his team made the first mobile phone, which was at the time called a portable phone which made more sense due to its enormous size compared to today's cell phones. There was also another company competing to make the first portable phone this other company was Bell labs. On April 3, 1973 Dr. Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call on a Motorola Dyna-Tac near the Manhattan Hilton Hotel in New York City. The phone call was rumored to be made to his rival Joel Engel who was the leader of the Bell Labs research team. The first cell phone was bulky  it was 2.5 pound, 5 inches wide, 9 inches long and 1.75 inches thick. The phone also had to be charged 10 hours for only talking 35 minutes. The first cell phone and many models after that could not send text messages and didn't even have screens. The cell phone was invented in 1973 but cell phone's didn't become popular until the late 1990 when they weren't bulky and had screens and better battery life.

 

Dr. Martin Cooper (inventor of first cell phone) with first cell phone (Dyna-Tac)



The Dyna-Tac dwarfs modern day cell phones