The history of the cellular phone is very interesting and shows just how the portable wonder became what it is today.

The history of the cell phone begins with a skilled, analytical chemist named Michael Farady. In 1843 he began exhaustive research to find of space could conduct electricity. He told of his findings, and these advances of 19 th century science and technology have had an immeasurable effect on the development of today's cellular phone.

In 1865 a dentist by the name of Dr. Mahlon Loomis became what is thought to be the first person who was able to communicate wirelessly through the atmosphere. Between the dates of 1866 and 1873 he was able to transmit telegraphic messages 18 miles between the tops of the Cohocton and Beorse Deer Mountains in Virginia.

Loomis developed a way of transmitting and receiving messages by using Earth's atmosphere as a conductor. He launched kites, enclosed with copper screens, that were linked to the ground with copper wires. He was awarded a $50,000 research grant from Congress to continue his studies.

Fast forward to 1973 when Dr. Martin Cooper became who is thought to be the inventor of the first portable handset. A former general manager fro the systems division of Motorola, Dr. Cooper was also the first person to make a call using a portable cell phone.

He set up a base station in New York with the first working prototype of a cell phone, called the Motorola Dyna-Tac. Both he and Motorola took this technology to New York to show the public.

In 1977 cell phone went public and public testing began. Chicago was the home for the first trials with 2,000 people. Later trials appeared in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. It spread to Japan in 1979.

Typical technologies changed in 1988 when the Cellular Technology Industry Association, or CTIA, was formed to lay out practical goals for cell phone providers. Included was research for new applications of development.

In 1991 the Telecommunications Industry Association set a new standard with the creation of the TDMA Interim Standard 54.

The history of the cell phone has had quite a long journey. Even though there was a great demand for cell phones, it took a total of 37 years for them to become commercially accessible in the United States.

It's hard to believe that, since the cell phone has only become popular over the past couple of decades, wireless service was actually invented almost 50 years ago.

According to the CTIA, there are more than 60 million people who own cell phones. Just 25 years ago the cellular business had a $3 million market, while today it has grown to be an industry worth close to $30 billion per year.