August 16, 2022 at 12:22 am

A Comic Strip From the 1920s Predicted the Inconvenience of “Pocket Telephones”

by Matthew Gilligan

A cartoonist named W.K. Haselden seemed to be WAY ahead of his time when he created a comic for the Daily Mirror from either 1919 or 1923 (sources vary) about people having telephones in their pockets in the future.

Haselden’s comic is called “When We All Have Pocket Telephones” and he illustrated how these phones of the future would always be with us AND they would ring in inconvenient times.

Screen Shot 2022 07 20 at 6.58.02 PM A Comic Strip From the 1920s Predicted the Inconvenience of “Pocket Telephones”

Photo Credit: Laughing Squid

Screen Shot 2022 07 20 at 6.58.12 PM A Comic Strip From the 1920s Predicted the Inconvenience of “Pocket Telephones”

Photo Credit: Laughing Squid

Oh no, not when you’re getting married!

Haselden ended this comic by saying “We shall certainly be “rung up” at the most awkward moments in our daily lives!”

Screen Shot 2022 07 20 at 6.58.20 PM A Comic Strip From the 1920s Predicted the Inconvenience of “Pocket Telephones”

Photo Credit: Laughing Squid

I think he was on to something, don’t you…?

But even more surprising is the fact that all the way back in 1906, a man named Charles E. Alden claimed to have invented a wireless phone that could be carried in a person’s pocket.

Take a look at an article from the time period below.