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The history of mobile communications is studded with interesting looking devices, as can be seen here with this early attempt at a mobile car system. It worked (if you could get a channel), but was super clunky as you can see in this photo from 1959.
Even earlier than this, Lars Magnus Ericsson’s first installed a telephone in his car and proved to the world that communicate from the road could be done. But, it certainly needed some fine-tuning. The first mobile phone was more of a burden than a convenience.
He’d pull over next to telephone poles, take out two long sticks and hook them over a pair of telephone wires to tap in. But that’s not all, Ericsson would then have to crank a handle on the actual phone to get a signal from the operator to pass through.
It was heavily involved and seems ridiculously primitive now, but for 1910 it was as awe-inspiring as today’s latest tech.