Featured Image Credit: BBC Archive / YouTube / Blue Peter
A 1976 video has recently resurfaced on YouTube, showing off the original mobile phone, and it’s blowing people’s minds.
The clip is from a BBC Blue Peter segment, and it’s amazing to see how revolutionary the idea of making calls from outside your house was at the time.
Now, we use our phones for pretty much everything, from streaming YouTube videos to playing high-res games. But back then, just being able to make a call on the go was enough to make your jaw drop.
To demonstrate the technology, the narrator, Peter Purves steps out of the studio near the Blue Peter garden and shows the audience how the phone works.
Advert
He pulls up his aerial, makes sure he 'gets a line' by dialling 0, which is the 'same as picking up a handset,' and rings the number of fellow presenter John Noakes who's back in the studio.
They even show how the phone can receive calls, with John calling Peter back after the connection is made.
Now, it's nothing like an iPhone but the fascinating thing at the time was that the phone needed no cables to operate like a landline would.
"I think we've proved that Mr [Lew] Schnurr's invention actually works but I dare say you're a little confused about how it works when there aren't any cables," Peter said.
"The answer is it does have to have a separate transmitter somewhere."
Another presenter, Lesley Judd showed the transmitter on top of the building.
"If you use your mobile phone anywhere within a seven-mile radius of this equipment, you should actually be able to speak to a friend from all sorts of places," Lesley described.
"Up a mountain, in a boat, in the middle of a lake or in the middle of a field."
She added: "I do think that this development is going to be a great boon to people who are very busy but who need to communicate with people who are at a bit of a distance and haven't got a proper telephone handy."
Viewers across the years have been sharing their surprise in the comments.
"48 years later I'm sat on the bog watching a phone call between Peter Purves and John Noakes on my phone," the first user commented.
Others took a more sarcastic approach: "I can't wait for technology like this to become mainstream. Imagine the possibilities. A phone that you can carry with you everywhere you go."
Another chimed in: "Absolutely incredible device. I can't wait to get one for myself."
One boldly summarised: "British kids show’s in the 1970’s….significantly more sophisticated than anything for adults on Netflix."
