1938 Video of Woman 'Talking on Phone' Explained: Early Wireless Test, Not Time Travel
A 1938 black-and-white video showing a woman holding her hand to her ear sparked time travel theories online. A YouTube user revealed it was his great-grandmother testing experimental wireless phones for DuPont.
A 1938 video has gone viral, showing a young woman walking through a crowd with her hand to her ear as if talking on a phone. The footage ignited conspiracy theories about time travelers, but a YouTube user named “Planetcheck” provided a mundane explanation.
According to the user, the woman is his great-grandmother Gertrude Jones, then 17 years old. She worked at a U.S. chemical giant DuPont’s factory, which had a secret development department. Employees tested early wireless phones, and Gertrude was one of six women given the experimental devices for a week. In the video, she is speaking with another scientist holding a similar device just to her right.
Thus, the clip captures one of the world’s first wireless communication trials, not a time traveler. Similar debates have arisen over a 1936 photo from Brooklyn showing a man with a rectangular object to his ear, and a 1670 painting by Dutch artist Pieter de Hooch depicting a man holding a flat object resembling a modern smartphone — art historians say it is actually a letter.
