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comicstrips·Comic Stripsbylawrence

When we all have pocket telephones (a 1919 comic)

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.

View original on lemmy.world
AppaYipYipreply
lemmy.world

Yea I never answer my phone because its always spam. Family will text first.

16

I don't remember ever getting a spam call. When people call, it's usually important.

Maybe get a new number and don't give your number out to everyone

2
lemmy.world

This is alright to a point but it's not always spam.

Like when you've applied for a rental property, or a job, or whatever. At that point the phone calls need to be answered.

Because it isn't always spam. I get calls about work regularly and my phone # is posted online and I get maybe 1 spam call a week. The rest are legit. In my business, we only call people when it's time sensitive, so if the phone rings it needs an answer.

It's just childish to ignore all phone calls. Especially from those in your contact list

-1

I get at least two spam calls a day so, outside of calls from my contact list, I ignore everything. If it's an important and time sensitive thing, they need to leave me a message because cold calls from random strings of numbers don't get returned.

3

Buckaroo, we all lead different lives.

I have to look out for calls from my doctor, and shit like that. But I probably didn't answer a phone call between the ages of 22 and 25.

2
lemmy.world

I genuinely can’t remember what my ringtone is. Haven’t had it on in years.

73
Tandybaumreply
lemmy.world

I feel like with the 90s style having their comeback right now the kids are missing this angle.

4

Surely with the 90s coming back, everyone's phone has to play the doodooloo doodooloo doodooloo tune.

2

I have mine silenced but turned emergency bypass on for my parents/brother

On iOS it's contact card > edit > ringtone > emergency bypass

9
sh.itjust.works

Mines the song "war of borders" from wastleand 2, which is probably the single most agressive ringtone one can have.

3
sh.itjust.works

Interesting that he could imagine pocket telephones, but not a way of silencing them

51
lemmy.world

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

14
JohnDClayreply
sh.itjust.works

I would think you could disconnect the ringing solenoid with a switch. But maybe the comic is taking about forgetting to turn them off?

5

I don't remember an obvious way to turn off a phone's ring back in the days when everyone had a land line. The best you could do is have your answering machine pick up after one ring if it had that option and maybe it would be fast enough to do it in less than one ring.

5

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 :)

29
lemm.ee

Hitler do be gettin into shenanigans with his mobile telephone.

15
Lexamreply
lemmy.ca

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.

10
Orionzareply
lemmy.zip

I think they were going for a Charlie Chaplin style.

6

Damn, I looked it up and never realized that Charlie Chaplin and Hitler were born just 4 days apart. Chaplin lived a lot longer, though!

4
can
sh.itjust.works

I miss the comics from a hundred years ago that were always posted on /r/comicstriphistory

10

It was first published to Facebook in 1919, you don't expect it to hold up all this time do you?

21

I just sent this to my buddy on his mobile. Then i realized that his phone went ting. Ironic.

5

You reached the end