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1928 Time Traveler Caught On Film?

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-hate-time-travel-stories dept.

Many of you have submitted a story about Irish filmmaker George Clarke, who claims to have found a person using a cellphone in the "unused footage" section of the DVD The Circus, a Charlie Chaplin movie filmed in 1928. To me the bigger mystery is how someone who appears to be the offspring of Ram-Man and The Penguin got into a movie in the first place, especially if they were talking to a little metal box on set. Watch the video and decide for yourself.

8 of 685 comments (clear)

  1. Looks like a hearing aid. by Shadmere · · Score: 3, Informative

    Obviously it's not clear what kind of aid it is, specifically, but it looks like an old ear trumpet.

    Like this thing.

  2. Not a cell phone. by davev2.0 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is an early carbonic (electric) hearing aid.

  3. It was a hearing aid by Valiss · · Score: 5, Informative

    This was released in 1924:

    http://hearing.siemens.com/sg/10-about-us/01-our-history/milestones.jsp?year=1924

    Seems like it could easily be that.

    --

    -Valiss
  4. Re:OK, I'll bite. by ELitwin · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you can pretend that the technology for time travel actually exists in the distant future, then can't you pretend that the the technology for a communication device would be vastly different and not need cell-phone towers?

  5. Ancient Hearing Aid by HighOrbit · · Score: 2, Informative

    It looks to be an old lady, so its entirely possible that what he is seeing is something like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ardent_hearing_aid.JPG which is part of this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney_Wireless_Museum also seen here http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display.aspx?id=6713

  6. Re:Simple explanation by Derek+Pomery · · Score: 4, Informative

    FWIW, according to the video, this isn't actually the movie.
    This is a historical piece of the time showing people going into the Hollywood premiere of the film.

    --
    -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
  7. Buy my movies by Sean_Inconsequential · · Score: 3, Informative

    All I got from that video was "I hope this video goes viral so I can use it to advertise my movies."

  8. Re:OK, I'll bite. by beav007 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is most likely a Western Electric Model 34A "Audiphone" Carbon Hearing Aid, which was commercially available from 1925. The lady in question was probably talking into it to adjust the volume, or see if it was still working.

    Hooray for the publicity grab!