Subj : Today in History - 1973
To   : All
From : Dave Drum
Date : Mon Apr 03 2023 05:07:00

03 April 1973 - FIRST PUBLIC MOBILE PHONE CALL IS MADE: Motorola
engineer Martin Cooper stands on a sidewalk in midtown Manhattan and
uses a prototype handheld mobile phone to call his team's main
competitor in the field, Bell Labs' Joel Engel. The first handheld cell
phone is nicknamed 'the brick.'

The company had invested millions of dollars in the project, hoping to
beat out Bell System, a behemoth that dominated US telecoms for more
than a century from its inception in 1877.

Bell's engineers had floated the idea of a cellular phone system just
after World War II, and by the late 1960s had taken it as far as putting
phones in cars - partially because of the huge battery they needed.

But for Mr Cooper, that didn't represent real mobility.

At the tail end of 1972, he decided he wanted a device that you could
use anywhere.

So with the entire resources of Motorola at his disposal, he pulled
together experts on semiconductors, transistors, filters and antennae
who worked around the clock for three months.

By the end of March, they had cracked it, unveiling the DynaTAC -
Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage - phone.

"This phone weighed over a kilogram - about two and a half pounds - and
had a battery life of roughly 25 minutes of talking," he said.

"That was not a problem. This phone was so heavy, you couldn't hold it
up for 25 minutes."

That very first phone call didn't have to be long. It just had to work.

And who better for Mr Cooper to call than his rival?

"So here I am standing on Sixth Avenue (in New York) And it occurred to
me I had to call my counterpart at the The Bell System... Dr Joel Engel

"And I said, 'Joel, this is Martin Cooper... I'm talking to you on a
handheld cell phone. But a real cell phone, personal, portable,
handheld.'

"There was silence on the other end of the line. I think he was gritting
his teeth."

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Cell Phone Cake
 Categories: Desserts, Cakes, Candies
      Yield: 15 Servings
 
      1    Box Betty Crocker SuperMoist
           - white cake mix
           Tray or cardboard; 18" x 16"
           - covered
  1 1/2    Containers (1 lb ea) Betty
           - Crocker® Rich & Creamy
           - white frosting
           Pink paste or gel food color
           Decorating bag with tips
     12    White candy-coated chewing
           - gum squares (Chiclets)
 3 3/16 oz Pkg marshmallow flowers
      3    Oval licorice candies
      1    Candy straw
 
  Heat oven to 350ºF/175ºC (325ºF for dark or nonstick
  pan). Spray bottom only of 13" x 9" pan with baking
  spray with flour.
  
  Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 13" x
  9" pan, using water, oil and egg whites. Cool 10
  minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack.
  
  Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
  
  Cut 1 1/4" strip from each long side of cake. Trim
  each corner of cake to round off, making cell phone
  shape. (Discard pieces trimmed from cake or reserve
  for another use.) On tray, place cake. Freeze 1 hour.
  
  Divide 1 container of white frosting in half (about
  3/4 cup each). Stir food color into half of frosting
  to tint pink.
  
  Spread pink frosting over bottom half of cake. Spread
  white frosting over top half of cake.
  
  From 1/2 container of frosting, reserve about 2 tb
  white frosting. Tint about 1/4 cup of the frosting
  pink.
  
  Onto center of white-frosted half of cake, spread some
  of the pink frosting in square shape for message screen.
  Place remaining pink frosting in decorating bag with
  writing tip.
  
  Pipe pink frosting along edge of white-frosted cake.
  Arrange gum on cake for number buttons; pipe on numbers
  with pink frosting.
  
  With reserved white frosting, pipe desired message on
  message screen. Add marshmallow flowers and licorice
  candies. Add candy straw for antenna.
  
  High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Follow High Altitude
  directions on cake mix box for 13" x 9" pan.
  
  Kitchen Tips: Look for paste or gel food color in cake
  decorating departments of craft stores.
  
  Instead of using a decorating bag and tip, place the
  frosting in a resealable food-storage plastic bag, cut
  a tiny hole in one corner and use to pipe the frosting.
  Use different bags for different colors.
  
  From: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes
  
  Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives
 
MMMMM

.... The abnormal fear of giants is Fee-fie-fo-bia
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