Cell phones are now so popular that it is hard to imagine life without them. Yet, they are simply another development in a long line of mobile communications that began when Canadian engineer, Donald Hings, P.Eng. pioneered one of the first Walkie-Talkies. As early as 1930, Mr. Hings was experimenting with aircraft radio. In 1938 he was working for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (now called Cominco), a company that deployed geologists to remote areas of western Canada to locate mineral deposits. However, if there was a crash in the bush, pilots had no way of signalling their location. That year, he developed an effective, portable emergency voice radio. It could float, featured a folding antenna and its signal had a 130-mile range. The British Army was very impressed with these "radios" and as Mr. Hings continued his work to improve his invention, walkie talkies became invaluable war time tools.

The name "walkie talkie" was said to have been coined in 1941 when Mr. Hings was in Toronto giving a demonstration. A reporter saw a soldier walking about with the C-18 version strapped to his uniform. "What does it do?" the soldier was asked. "Well, you can talk with it while you walk with it," was the answer and the name Walkie Talkie was born. The technology was adopted by both Canadian and United States troops during World War II and was essential for their air-to-ground and land-to-sea communications. An originator of 55 patents in Canada and the United States, Mr. Hings was recently awarded the Order of Canada.

If you would like more information, you can visit these web sites:
http://www.privateline.com/Hings/index.html
http://sitka.triumf.ca/morgan/dlhings/