Science Book Reviews

Constant Touch

"...in 1910, in a spirit of tinkering, Ericsson built a telephone into his wife Hilda's car, the vehicle connected by wires and poles to the overhead telephone lines that had sprung up even in rural Sweden."

Ask anyone to name something that reminds them of the 1990's and more often than not you'll hear the answer "mobile phones". Indeed it took less than a decade for these handy gadgets to outnumber our population and earn the dubious title of being amongst the most expensive things most people carry about their persons.

But how was the transition from status symbol to ubiquitous gadget of convenience achieved ? How do mobile phones actually work, and how can we pack so many users into an already overcrowded radio spectrum ? Why are they called cell phones and how is it possible for the same phone to work on another network abroad ?

At first glance, the evolution of the mobile phone seems an unlikely topic for a book, that is, until you read it. Author Jon Agar begins by smashing up his old phone to find out how it works. Reassembling its history piece by piece he reconstructs the story of telecommunications including how an enterprising Italian called Marconi pursuaded the Royal Navy to adopt his wireless telegraph system, how a retired engineer called Ericsson built his wife a car phone (in 1910), how the first cellular phones came about in the late 1940s, and how telecoms giants like Vodafone evolved to shape the economic face of Europe today.

This entertaining and novel book will appeal to anyone who is historically and technically minded. I thoroughly enjoyed it.