by Demand:
A video captured in 1938 shows a “time traveler” woman talking on a mobile phone.
Rating:
Since 2013, a black and white video has circulated online, sparking widespread curiosity among social media users. The footage, said to be from 1938, shows a woman who appears to be chatting on a mobile phone-like device, prompting speculation that she may be a “time traveller”.
“Time Traveler in 1938 filmed talking on a cell phone in 1938 coming out of the Dupont Factory in Massachusetts,” one description of the video on YouTube read.
“This was filmed in 1938 at the New York American aluminum plant Massena at the office,” another YouTube channel captioned it. “Sorry John, your information is wrong. This is the Dupont plant in Leominster, MA in October. 1938. The woman has a case of cigarettes,” one user said, to which the original poster of the video replied “it was this is april. a joke video i made a few years ago for massena that got a lot of comments.”
The video and “time traveler” demand also spread to other social media platforms, including Facebook and TikTok.
But while the video itself is clearly authentic – that is, real and unaltered – there are captions on posts that suggest someone was using a mobile phone decades before the technology existed. there.
The film is actually from 1938. It appeared in a video titled, “Leominster 1938 Film Supplemental Footage,” uploaded by the Leominster Access Television YouTube channel in 2017 (the “cell phone” appears around the 00:40 mark):
In the video, a woman briefly appears to be holding a device that looks remarkably like a modern mobile phone to her ear, prompting fanciful theories that she is a “time traveller”. The poor visual quality of the video and the lack of sound make it impossible to determine definitively what the woman was doing or was doing at the time of the film.
Some social media users offered other explanations that did not rely on time travel, even citing the technology available in the 1930s. “It’s a Siemens hearing instrument, patented in 1924 or a Western Electric Model 34A Audiphone Carbon Hearing Aid,” said one YouTube user, for example.
Others used various anachronisms, for example the respondent wrote, “In those days, small portable radios were very common. She is putting it in her ear to hear the program better because they are out in a crowd. You could also see how she is simultaneously in active conversation with the two women on the left (our right) talking about what they are listening to.” In fact, small portable radios did not exist in 1938.
Or the woman in the clip could be holding a small purse or a case of cigarettes, some suggested. Additionally, users pointed out that the lack of necessary cellular infrastructure, such as transceiver relay towers, would have made it impossible to use a cell phone in the 1930s.
A 2013 Daily Mail article with the long title, “Is this the world’s first mobile phone? A 1938 film shows a woman talking on a wireless device … but it’s not ‘time travel’ the family says, which disappoints conspiracy theorists,” he informed readers that a YouTube account called Planetcheck claimed that the woman in the video was Gertrude Jones, the YouTube user’s great-grandmother. Read the article:
But in the last few days a user named ‘planetcheck’ has come forward, claiming to have solved the mystery.
Planetcheck said: ‘The woman you see is my grandmother Gertrude Jones.’
‘She was 17 years old. I asked her about this video and she remembers it clearly. She says Dupont had a telephone communications department in the factory.’
‘They were experimenting with cordless phones. Gertrude and five other women were given these wireless phones to test for a week.’
‘Gertrude is talking to one of the scientists who has another cordless phone behind her as she walks by.’
So far there has been no independent verification of Planetcheck’s posts, but another YouTube user who says he knows someone else who worked at the factory has promised to investigate further.
However, the user behind Planetcheck remained anonymous and did not provide further evidence to support the claim. “Although the claims have been reported by a handful of major news outlets, they have never been 100 percent verified, although Planetcheck’s version of events seems more plausible than time travel,” a UNILAD article on the matter concluded.
We have contacted Dupont via email and will update this article if we receive a response.
We fact-checked some past travel related claims. For example, in December 2022, we investigated viral rumors of a visit from a time traveler from the year 2036 that had been floating online since 2000. Additionally, in April 2016, we checked out a video that allegedly showed time-travelling viewers using a camera. phone to take photos fighting Mike Tyson back in 1995. In February 2015, we debunked a photo from the 1940s that allegedly shows an out-of-place, time-traveling hipster.
Sources:
daily. “Was This The World’s First Mobile Phone? 1938 Film Shows Woman Talking On Wireless Device But This Is Not ‘Time Travel’ Disappoints Conspiracy Theorists.” Email Online31 March 2013, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2301996/Was-worlds-mobile-phone-1938-film-shows-woman-talking-wireless-device-time-travel- family- say-disappointed-conspiracy-theorists.html.
Evan, Dan. “Does a Time Traveling Hipster Take a Photo?” Snopes23 Feb. 2015, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/time-traveling-hipster/ .
—. “Fact Check: Does This Video Capture a Time Traveler Fighting Mike Tyson in 1995?” Snopes30 Apr. 2016, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/mike-tyson-time-traveler/ .
Leominster Access TV. It Happened In Leominster – 1938 Film. 2017. YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8THwylw5XI .
—. Leominster 1938 Film Extra Footage. 2017. YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53lZVcX-JRw .
News Room. https://www.dupont.com/news.html. Accessed 14 May 2024.
Palma, Bethany. “No, this is not a Photograph of John Titor ‘Time Traveller’ in 1941.” Snopes18 Dec. 2022, https://www.snopes.com//articles/464084/time-traveler-john-titor/.
“Woman seen ‘chatting on the phone’ in 1938 video that ‘Proves Time Travel Exists.'” UNILAD2 November 2022, https://www.unilad.com/news/woman-mobile-time-travel-proof-20221102.
