A black-and-white photograph of a crowded beach from the middle of the Second World War has set the internet buzzing for an unexpected reason. Online sleuths think they have spotted a time traveler in the middle of the crowd, apparently staring at a mobile phone decades before such things existed.
The picture shows Towan Beach in Cornwall in September 1943. Dozens of people are enjoying the last of the summer sunshine among deckchairs and panama hats. At the heart of the scene stands a man in a worn brown suit, his head bowed over something small held in his hands.
The photo that nobody noticed
The image was shared on X by Stuart Humphrys, who had no idea anything odd was in it. He captioned it simply that British war workers were escaping to the seaside, and asked which Cornish beach it was.
The replies soon moved on from geography. Users pointed out the man in the brown suit and what he seemed to be holding. One account, South London History, wrote: "Er…is it just me or is this guy checking his phone…..in the 1950s?"
Dr Kevin Purcell joined in with tongue in cheek, calling the man "clearly" a time-travelling tourist. "Finally the evidence we need that time travel is real," he wrote.
Not everyone is convinced
Other commenters preferred a down-to-earth explanation. Gerald Jackson joked about jackets, ties and hats on the sand, then added that people did dress that way when he was a child in the 1950s.
Mr Humphrys himself was not persuaded either. He wrote: "I think that chap is rolling a cigarette!" It is a plausible reading, given the era and the way the man is holding his hands.
Not the first time
The Cornish beach is far from the first place where people have thought they spotted modern gadgets in old images. In 2010, Belfast filmmaker George Clarke noticed what looked like a woman talking into a mobile phone in footage from the DVD extras of Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 silent film The Circus. He shared the clip on YouTube, and viewers called her a time traveler.
A painting has caused similar head-scratching. Umberto Romano’s work Mr Pynchon and the Setting of Springfield shows a 17th century meeting between Native Americans and English settlers in Massachusetts. Look closely, and a shirtless figure appears to be holding something resembling a flip phone.
Even the head of Apple has joined in. Tim Cook once said he had noticed what looked like an iPhone in a painting by Pieter de Hooch, titled Man Hands a Letter to a Woman in a Hall. "I always thought I knew when the iPhone was invented, but now I’m not so sure anymore," he said in an interview.
How things stand
For now, the mystery of the man in the brown suit remains unsolved, and nobody has shown what he was really holding. The photographer, the exact beach and the man himself are all unidentified. What is certain is that the picture has sparked plenty of fun and a good deal of friendly debate, with a cigarette and a smartphone the two leading theories.
Image credit: Popperfoto Creative
Source: The Mirror US
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