Martin’s First Jobs

Martin Cooper was born on December 26, 1928. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. Martin's parents were Arthur and Mary. He had one brother. His parents were Jewish immigrants. They were from Ukraine, Russia. He had one younger brother and he is still alive today. Martin started school at Lawson Elementary School in Chicago. He then went to Crane Technical High School. He graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He studied electrical engineering. Martin Cooper got married to Arlene Harris. She was an inventor too.

One of Martin's first jobs was helping when North Korea and South Korea were in a war. He helped North Korea destroy railroad tracks. He was also in the navy as a submarine operator. Martin worked from a company called Teletype. He liked to take the machines apart and put them back together again. He left the Teletype company and got a job at a company called Motorolla. When he was at this job, he got his first patten. This was for a radio signaling device.

Martin invented the cell phone when he was 43. Martin had the idea that everyone could communicate where ever they were. He liked personal communication. He thought everyone could have their own phone number. Martin also talked to the police department. The officer in charge wanted the other officers to talk to each other. At that time, they could only talk to each other if they were on their phone when they were in the car. Martin thought it was a challenge to help the police officers. The first phone cost $3,500. This was a problem because people could not afford to buy it. The battery was also bigger than the phone. The first battery only lasted for 25 minutes and it took 10 hours to fully charge. Developing the cell phone solved the problem of only being able to communicate if you were at your house or in a car that had a phone.

It took 90 days to make the first model of a cell phone. Martin Cooper and the whole team at Motorolla worked on the model. The team made four models before one worked. On April 3, 1973, Martin was in New York. He made the first call on the cell phone and it was a success. His first phone call was to his major competitor at another company. Martin got a patent for his phone on October 27, 1973. It was reported that Martin is worth over 600 million dollars because of his invention. This invention was very unique because before the cell phone no one could make a phone call unless they were at their house or in a car that had a phone.

The first phone that Martin Cooper invented was like a radio. It worked like a radio signal. The phone uses two frequencies. One is used for talking and the other is used for listening. The phone works on a lot of channels. The phone weighed 2 ? pounds. The battery was the heaviest part of the phone. It also had a rubber antena. The cell phone uses the scientific principle of radio frequency. When a call is used, different cells are used to transmit the frequency. This means you don't hear the calls of other people. Using a cell phone needs structural and electrical engineering. There are people that work on making the phone and people that work on building the towers to transmit the signal.

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