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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