07 September 2023 , 09:45
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Eagle eyed social media users are convinced that a time traveller has turned up in a 1940s beach shot.
The man in a scruffy brown suit can clearly be seen in the middle of the wartime photo peering into what appears to be a mobile phone. Around him are dozens of sun-loving beachgoers soaking up the last of the summer rays in September 1943. The image was taken on Towan Beach, Cornwall, and posted online by Stuart Humphrys, who initially didn’t spot the decade dodger.
He tweeted: “British war workers escape to the seaside - this Cornish beach was photographed in September 1943. (It would be lovely if one of you were able to identify which beach!)” But whenhe posted the seaside shot, Twitter users pointed out that it had a very unusual scene among the rolled up trousers, panama hats and deckchairs.
The man in the middle of the wartime photo is seen peering into what looks like a mobile phone (Popperfoto Creative)Getting the date wrong, South London History replied: “Er...is it just me or is this guy checking his phone…..in the 1950s?” Dr Kevin Purcell added: “Good catch. It’s clearly the man in the shot is a time travelling tourist checking his mobile device. Finally the evidence we need that time travel is real. We now see things in old photos that we missed before but now we know they’re phones now that we have them.”
Gerald Jackson added: “Shows how much beachwear has changed! Jacket, tie and hat? Mind they did that when I was a kid in the 50s.” But Mr Humphrys wasn’t convinced, saying: “I think that chap is rolling a cigarette!” It’s not the first time eagle-eyed photo buffs have spotted creepily modern devices in grainy old snaps and film footage.
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In 2010 a cell phone user was caught on an old Charlie Chaplin film and was dubbed a time traveller by those who watched it. George Clarke, a Belfast filmmaker, saw the eerie sight and posted the clip to YouTube. It shows a short clip from DVD extras included with Chaplin’s 1928 silent film The Circus. But looking closely, it appears a woman walks past nattering into a phone glued to her ear.
Others later claimed it was a portable hearing aid, although that seems unlikely. More than 80 years ago Umberto Romano painted ‘Mr Pynchon and the Setting of Springfield’, which shows a 17th century meeting between native Americans and English settlers in Massachusetts. But it also seems to show a man naked from the waist up holding a flip phone.
And Apple CEO Tim Cook once admitted to seeing an iPhone in a 347-year-old work by Pieter de Hooch called "Man Hands a Letter to a Woman in a Hall." Cook saw the Dutch master's piece at a museum in Amsterdam and was shocked. He said in an interview, "I always thought I knew when the iPhone was invented, but now I'm not so sure anymore."