UP CLOSE in the Maldon District: Meet the local man who helped invent the mobile phone, Professor Lew Schnurr

As we enjoy reading news, watching movies, and – occasionally – using our mobile phones to make phone calls, it may be difficult to imagine a time before we had them. But one local man helped change the world thanks to his pioneering work in creating the mobile phone: Professor Lew Schnurr.

Born in Colorado Springs in the United States shortly before the Second World War, Lewis Schnurr first studied at Colorado State University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1961.

But the one degree was not enough for Professor Schnurr, who told Nub News: "It was clear I needed some more letters after my name".

To fund his educational pursuits, Professor Schnurr worked with a commercial company, conducting research into quartz crystal resonators, which are used in watches and clocks. This piqued the attention of a team in Brussels, Belgium, who wanted to buy a device the Professor had built. When the American company refused the sale, the Belgian team offered him a job.

He decided to up sticks and leave the US, landing at Heathrow in 1962, and began work as an academic at the Chelmer Institute in Chelmsford – now known as Anglia Ruskin University - and subsequently became a British national.

Professor Schnurr carried out much of his pioneering telecommunications work in Chelmsford, at what is now known as Anglia Ruskin University. (Photo: ARU)

While the attempt to achieve telephone communications via radio started as far back as the Second World War, previous pilot schemes involved a human controlling the interface between the two parties.

Professor Schnurr recalled: "It was extremely difficult to get automatic processes that always worked.

"Previously, telecommunications were managed by an operator. I carved out an automated method of communications. It required no human intervention and was independent to the effects of all sorts of noises – such as beeps and crackling – that you might find on a radio."

But to create the basic technology for a mobile phone, the professor had to solve two problems. The first challenge was figuring out how to communicate between one device and another without a human being involved. The second was, having communicated, how could you then hang up?

Professor Schnurr added: "It was much easier to make the link than to break it."

The professor took an ordinary two-way radio and added a second channel for data, to manage and control the connections.

He continued: "The embodiment of the whole thing was rather like a normal walkie talkie with a little extra bit added which turned the signal sent or received into two signals – one for voice and another for data."

In a 1976 episode of BBC's Blue Peter, Peter Purves demonstrated Professor Schnurr's 'completely portable telephone'.

At the time, Professor Schnurr was quoted as saying he did not see any reason why "just about everybody could not carry around their own portable communications set" in the future.

While the invention was one big technical innovation, it was made up of between 30 to 40 smaller innovations which made it possible. The construction of a commercial product would need special integrated chips.

"I couldn't possibly manufacture chips at the college in Chelmsford, but companies like Motorola, Sony and Nokia could.

Sony and Motorola were among those working to innovate the telecommunications industry at the time. (Composite: Nub News)

"They were working flat-out, approaching the problem through a brute-force point of view. They pulled all the stops out to build a two-way radio on a chip which you could put in a phone. Along with that came sending information through text and, later, photos.

"Building a dual chip really allowed the tech to take off and become what it is today."

While other companies expanded on Professor Schnurr's original idea, he credits the work that came before.

He said: "The work I did was important so things could move forward, but it's about standing on the shoulders of giants. I was only doing what followed on from things my teachers taught me.

"What was interesting was the fact it had been done – nobody had done that before."

Lewis Schnurr was made a professor by the UK Government's Department of Education. He went on to work with none other than former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government in their work on liberalising telecommunications, as they opened the field up to a free-market approach – as opposed to the strict level of control government previously exercised over the industry.

Professor Schnurr was Honoured Guest Speaker at the Marconi Veterans' Association reunion in 2021. (Photo: Marconi Veterans' Association)

Professor Schnurr argues that by liberalising the telecommunications marketplace and creating competitive pressure, the industry was able to innovate more, with competition spreading to Europe and the rest of the world. This led to the creation of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in 1988, the preeminent standards body which currently collaborates with the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union.

In 2004, Professor Schnurr became a Heybridge Parish Councillor and has served on the council for nearly two decades. However, he has decided to stand down in the upcoming local elections in May, saying "20 years is probably enough".