Today, mobile phones are a big part of the way we live – most towns and cities have shops like this Vodafone Tullamore based shop, King Communications where you can easily find the phone and tariff to suit you, and we rely on our mobiles for so much – as well as communicating with people we can do online banking, board a flight and watch movies if we want to.
Modern mobile phones contain incredibly powerful computers, which allow us to do all the things that we take for granted with them. But many people are surprised to learn that this seemingly modern creation was actually first thought of, and patented in Kentucky in 1908.
Nathan Stubblefield was born in 1860 and was one of seven brothers. He grew up and went on to marry and become a farmer, although his passion for science and technology remained. He invented the acoustic telephones in 1886, and although these creations were reasonably successful, the Alexander Graham Bell creations were superior and went on to sell many more.
After this, he wanted to look into something more ambitious – the wireless telephone. After years of research and trying out different techniques, he managed to transmit voice signals to an area around a quarter of a mile away from his home. He conducted this experiment on Christmas eve and therefore the children heard messages coming through from Santa Claus!
He went on to file a patent for this successful invention and from then on became the father of the wireless telephone – or what we know today as a mobile phone!
