On March 5, 1919, cartoonist W.K. Haselden published a comic in the British newspaper The Mirror, illustrating what the world would be like if telephones were portable.
Jokes on them, no one uses cell phones for calling people anymore.
Interesting that he could imagine pocket telephones, but not a way of silencing them
Well, a physical bell made them ring, it’s not like the phones of the time had the ability to silence them. One novel concept at a time lmao
I would think you could disconnect the ringing solenoid with a switch. But maybe the comic is taking about forgetting to turn them off?
I genuinely can’t remember what my ringtone is. Haven’t had it on in years.
Must be the same as mine - bzzz bzzz bzzz
I miss the comics from a hundred years ago that were always posted on /r/comicstriphistory
mf really said your doohickey is frightening this here mite
Hitler do be gettin into shenanigans with his mobile telephone.
Hitler is the reason that style is no longer worn. Some say it is his second greatest achievement, only being overshadowed by his greatest achievement killing Hitler.
Yeah, but he also killed the guy that killed Hitler.
I got to wondering what sort of social proliferation the telephone managed to achieve in England by 1919. Nothing exhaustive, but this is what I’ve found:
By the 1930s, it was common for affluent homes in the UK to have their own telephones, with networks spreading far enough for calls to be made across several cities. The majority of callers continued to use local phone boxes or pay phones until the 1950s and 60s, when improvements in home phone technology made systems cheaper and more easily available.
Ref: https://www.italktelecom.co.uk/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-home-telephone
1918
Leeds automatic telephone exchange was opened on 18 May in Basinghall Street - a Strowger-type manufactured and installed by the Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company. It was the largest of its kind in Europe, equipped for 6,800 lines with an ultimate capacity of 15,000, and the first exchange in this country capable of being extended to give service to 100,000 subscribers. It was also the first in which the caller was required to dial five figures for every local call.
Ref: https://www.britishtelephones.com/histuk.htm
So for a cartoonist to be able to imagine having a personal phone at all in 1919, let alone a portable one, is pretty interesting. Maybe missed their calling as a sci-fi writer/illustrator :)
