世界第一部手機亮相 重達3磅似磚頭

The humble mobile phone has transformed our lives beyond recognition over the last 15 years。

小小的移動電話在過去的十五年以來已經讓你我的生活發生了翻天覆地的變化。

So it may come as a surprise to learn that the world's first mobile phone call was made 38 years ago recently。

你也許會驚訝，距離世界上第一支問世的移動電話問世已整整的38年了。

That's right, the first public telephone call made by a man walking down the street took place in 1973 - the same year the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam and Paul McCartney and Wings released Band On The Run。

沒錯，1973年，當一個男子手持電話在大街上“招搖過市”，這宣告着第一支手機的誕生，同年，美國從越南撤軍，前披頭士成員保羅·麥卡特尼與Wings發行了《Band On The Run》專輯。

On April 3 that year Martin Cooper, who was then 44, took a prototype mobile phone for a walk around New York City。

那年的四月三日，當時四十四歲的馬丁·庫伯手裏握着大哥大(手機的雛形)悠然自得的在紐約的街頭散步。

Unsurprisingly, the reaction he received from passers-by was one of complete bewilderment。

不出所料的是，當時與他擦身而過的人是多麼的困惑。

Mr Cooper, now 82, recalled: 'As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call。

現年已經82歲的庫伯如此回憶到當年的情景，“當時我一邊走一邊講電話，時髦的紐約客被這樣一個‘有人移動童話’的情景‘嚇得’目瞪口呆。”

'Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones。

“別忘了那可是在1973年，當時還沒有無繩電話的出現，就更別提移動電話了。”

'I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life.'

“當時我撥打了不少電話，甚有至於還一邊過馬路一邊和紐約廣播電話的新聞播報員通話，這可能是我有生以來做過的最危險的事情。”

At the time Mr Cooper was general manager of Motorola's Communications Systems Division。

當時，庫伯任職於摩托羅拉公司的通信系統部總經理之位。

As he walked around New York that day, his made his first call to Dr Joel S Engel, his rival and head of research at Bell Labs phone company. Mr Cooper called his office landline to break the news that Motorola had beaten Bell in developing the first mobile phone。

他在紐約溜達的那天，他所撥通的第一個電話是給他的行業競爭對手，貝爾電話公司的研究主管Joel S Engel博士，庫伯直接把電話打到了對方的辦公室，迫不及待將摩托羅拉已經成功的擊敗貝爾研製出了世界上第一支手機的事實告訴了對方。

He then let reporters make their own calls to verify that the invention actually worked and that they weren't the victims of an elaborate hoax。

之後，他還讓前來採訪的媒體記者自己撥通了電話，以此證明這項新奇的發明的確有效，而並非是一個精心設下的唬人的騙局。

It had long been Mr Cooper's vision for phones to become portable, in an age when even James Bond dared not dream of making a phone call outside of a vehicle. For that was as portable as phones had become up to that point。

庫伯概念中的形象終於成爲了現實，這經歷了很長的一段時間，在那個時候，哪怕是電影中的特工007也不敢妄想在汽車以外的地方撥打電話。然而便攜式手機卻做到了這一點。

While the wealthy had been able to install a phone in their car for years, the major downside was the need to also install a substantial amount of equipment in the boot for it to work。

儘管那時有錢人已經更夠在汽車內安裝電話很多年了，但是其主要的缺點則是卻不得不在車底裝上大量的設備以使得電話可以工作。

Mr Cooper's device weighed 2.5lbs and would now be considered a 'brick', of course。

庫珀當時的大哥大重2.5磅，並被戲稱爲“磚頭機”。

It would be ten years before Motorola finally introduced the Dyna-TAC, the first commercially available mobile phone, into service in 1983. The device weighed 1lb and cost a staggering $3,500 (？2,170)。

而在那之後的第十年，摩托羅拉才終於在1983年推出了第一支商用的行動電話Dyna-TAC，這款手機重1磅，售價驚人的達到了3500美元。

Mr Cooper went on to found ArrayComm, a wireless technology and systems company, in 1992.

馬丁·庫珀在1992年又成立了ArrayComm無線技術和系統的公司。