Charles E. Alden (Inventor of Pocket Phone)

I ran across this YouTube video last night on accident. I was looking at the video of the Charlie Chaplin "Time Traveler" and happened to see this on the side. I clicked it and watched. I honestly don't know what to make of this. It was pretty late last night and I was tired...but here is the video.

Does anyone know anything about this or know anything about Mr. Charles Alden? I know some of you are great at searching so I thought to throw it out here since I couldn't find anything on ATS about it.

It seems there isn't much of anything on the net (or at least that Google brings up).



This is what the uploader of the video said in the description:

This is an article that appeared in the New York World, April 29, 1906. I found it while researching my book on James E. Kelly (Tell Me of Lincoln).Kelly was friends with Inventor Charles E. Alden who invented the "Vest Pocket Telephone." He envisioned the modern Cell Phone in 1906

Some comments found under the video...

There is also another article about Alden in the NO Times Picayune and his later efforts to invent an antenna/umbrella--for his "vest pocket telephone." There is a sketch of it in the paper.

More research needs to be done on Charles E. Alden. When did he die?

a hundred years ago wireless referred to wireless telegraph which used radio waves, from the wireless telegraph came what we now know as AM radio. this early inventor would surely have been trying to use radio waves for one-to-one voice communication, in other words what we would call walkie-talkie or CB radio ... completely different than wireless cell phone technology

This is what Charles E Alden was talking about in the article. Rotary-spark transmitter and first two-way transatlantic transmission. It took place January 1906. There are no patents under his name. I think he tried to claim fame over something he did not do. There were many attention seekers back then to just get an article in New York Times. What he envisioned was not cellphone but 2 way transistor radios. Which would be considered a wireless phone in 1906.

Here is a brief mentioning online that I did run across....there isn't much...

Charles E. Alden, inventor of the “Wireless Pocket Telephone” appeared in the April 29, 1906 edition of the NEW YORK WORLD. See my other youtube video and you’ll see the actual article.The problem with Alden’s invention was distance, and the following year (1907) he invented an umbrella which served as a wireless antenna. An article entitled: “Ingenious Yankee Invents Simple Telephone System” appeared in the May 24, 1907 edition of L’ABEILLE DE LA NOUVELLE-ORLEANS–a New Orleans newspaper.

www.writingmastery.com...

So as you can see, I haven't found much of anything and haven't been able to verify what others have mentioned about him.

Ok, so the guy invented the cell phone a century ago, invented a wireless antenna (I'm really on the fence here, since the purpose of antennas is to be WIRELESS), never claimed a patent, never wanted fame...

And the explanation for this is... time travel!?

Seriously? Come on... I mean, from ALL the other pretty simple explanations you could find to this guy and this situation, you chose TIME TRAVEL.

So when the milk disappears, and you have cats... it must have been ALIENS!

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni
Ok, so the guy invented the cell phone a century ago, invented a wireless antenna (I'm really on the fence here, since the purpose of antennas is to be WIRELESS), never claimed a patent, never wanted fame...

And the explanation for this is... time travel!?

Seriously? Come on... I mean, from ALL the other pretty simple explanations you could find to this guy and this situation, you chose TIME TRAVEL.

So when the milk disappears, and you have cats... it must have been ALIENS!

Woah, woah!! I NEVER said I thought time travel had anything to do with this! I just wondered if there was any truth to the fact that he may have invented the two way radio! How did you get anything out of my post about me believing time travel???

Thanks very much for a rude response that was uncalled for.

its not rude.

You associated that video with charlie chaplin time traveler... you did not say that, but implied something around those lines.

Simple association.

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni
its not rude.

You associated that video with charlie chaplin time traveler... you did not say that, but implied something around those lines.

Simple association.

I did not associate the content of the video with Charlie Chaplin. I simply stated the process to which I came across the video.

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni
its not rude.

You associated that video with charlie chaplin time traveler... you did not say that, but implied something around those lines.

Simple association.

What the OP meant to say was that he came across the info about Charles E Alden when reading through the Charlie Chaplin time travel thread which has been going for a year now. Considering the video about Mr Charles E Alden, I find this to be pretty interesting and would like to know more about him. For the time that he was alive it seems like pretty forward thinking to me...........

I know that this may not matter or whatever, but I heard about Charles E Alden, so I decided to go and translate what parts of his name mean backwards and forwards.
I got this:

Nedla (backwards for alden)- in Norweigan- means 'Downloads'

e - and?

rahc (first part of charles) - Indonesian for 'Cell'

Alden- in Basque- 'Distance'

cell and downloads and distance?
I honestly find this extremely weird and suspicious, maybe it;s just a big coincidence, I don't know but I found it interesting.

reply to post by davethebear


Thank you, that was exactly the case.

reply to post by tiffany15


Odd, indeed!