That svelte mobile phone in your pocket has ancestors that go back 100 years today, when a man named Nathan Stubblefield invented the movable telephone.

It had a huge transmitter and needed power, but the idea he came up with echoes in all portable phones today. It was only recently that Stubblefield was recognized as the inventor, so we tip our hats to the man belatedly for helping start what’s become a billion dollar industry. One wonders if he ever thought it was become what it has.