So this is pretty weird!

[tripathy]

I'm married now! In the end it all went very well on the day, pretty much as well as I could have hoped. I'll post about the wedding (and some pics...just ones from friends, since we don't have our official ones yet and probably won't for a while) a bit later.

I just wanted to post this weird story: Cell phone mystery in 1928 Chaplin film

What do you think? Hoax? Some other explanation?

Comments

[silverjackal]

Congratulations! I hope everything went smoothly after all that work! I also look forward to seeing pictures. :)

In re: the clip you posted, I don't have time to watch the entire appended video just now (time to go to work alas), but I thought I'd weigh in with something that was abundantly clear to me watching the introduction for the first 0:56. The gentleman doing the introduction is lying, and *knows* he's lying, and is trying to convey conviction that what he says is the truth. Amusing. I'll look forward to watching all of it later this evening.

[nightdog_barks]

Mrs. Tripathy!

*g* Mazel tov, sweetie!

I saw the clip last night, but the version I saw didn't have an intro to it. By itself, the Chaplin clip is ... interesting. The woman seems to be holding something up to her ear, but I think we've become so conditioned to think "Hand to ear, lips moving = talking on a cell phone" that that's the conclusion we automatically jump to. I will say that I don't think the clip itself is a hoax, just that what we think we see isn't always the right answer.

Besides, if the woman in the clip IS a time traveler, I'm pretty sure whatever communication device she had wouldn't need a cell phone tower. :-D

[tripathy]

Thanks! ^_^

Yeah, I don't really think that it's a hoax either, but there is definitely another explanation. I was hoping to hear theories. ^_~

[nightdog_barks]

Ah! Sorry! *g*

I've read three theories -- that it's a hearing aid (for real -- apparently they were invented WAY earlier than I thought), that it's a cigarette case, and that she's just shielding her face from either the sun or the camera. Here's where I first read about it.

ETA that the story has made it to Boingboing. :-D

[silverjackal]

Heh. I just saw the BoingBoing article now. I'm gratified that others (who aren't elaborating on the Time Traveller theme) agree with my thoughts in re: device to aid hearing, whether it was vacuum tube (likely because it looks flat) or a delicate ear horn.

Honestly, how would a Time Traveller be using a cellular phone? There are no satellites or towers for service! (I say this with grim amusement, often being unable to use my own phone due to the terrain and service limitations.) And if they really were a Time Traveller, surely they would have a more discrete communication device!

[nightdog_barks]

Mr. N and I were talking about it at dinner tonight -- I do think it's kind of a fun thing to speculate on. *g*

And if they really were a Time Traveller, surely they would have a more discrete communication device!

Yes, this! Some kind of implanted device, or perhaps even some way of making themselves essentially telepathic. Whatever it might be, it's entirely possible we wouldn't understand it at all. As Arthur C. Clarke said -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

:-)

[silverjackal]

Perhaps it's the way my mind works, but I don't even see particular need to question in this case. What I observed when I watched the clip -- an older man walking in front, talking, followed by an older woman holding her hand to her face. As the older man passes out of the picture the woman pauses, re-orients, and is talking. I therefore concluded that she as (1) talking to the man in front of her because she was clearly focused on him and (2) holding something to her ear. Older person, holding something to ear? Immediate conclusion: the lady has difficulty hearing and is using a device to assist her. From there it's pondering the technology involved -- my first thought was an ear trumpet, but then I recalled that vacuum transistors were certainly in use by this time. Ergo, vacuum hearing aid? One quick Google of historical hearing aids, and what pops up (appropriate to the time period) but a small, flat device rather like a large cigarette case. Mystery solved. *shrugs*

Possibly my fundamental assumptions weren't swayed towards making the scene mysterious by the introductory dialogue. I looked at the film clip for what was in front of me, not for what others thought they saw. (Leaving the logic of causes completely aside. I wasn't basing it on the fundamental impossibility of a cellular phone at the time, or the possibility of a hoax, I was just looking at the scene as though I was seeing it for the first time.)

(Edited to add that I just saw your icon in your previous comment. :D Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn! That's what I get for just reading the text and ignoring pictures!)

[nightdog_barks]

LOL! Isn't that a wonderful icon? It's one of my favorites. ;-D

I actually still haven't watched the introductory bit of the video, HOWEVER ... when I first saw the story, it was introduced in the headline as "ZOMG TIME TRAVELER!!!!", so one could say my mind was influenced in that direction.

It's still fun, though (to me) to say "what if?" and run with it. *g*

[silverjackal]

I have an album with this holiday music to play in the office when the seasonal glurge gets too much. You should see people's faces when they focus and realize what they're hearing. I can pick the sympatico ones because they've read Lovecraft and start badgering me for where to get copies of their own.

[silverjackal]

O.K., watched the video. The explanation isn't difficult. She's using an vacuum tube hearing aid, and speaking to the man walking in front of her. Either that, or she's using even older technology and using an ear tube. The only mystery is that people love a mystery and will make them where there are none. Bloke who made the clip doesn't believe his sensationalist explanation, either.