Film from 1938 shows a woman talking on a wireless device

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The mystery of how a woman could have been filmed while using a modern cell phone back in 1938 seems to have been solved. Black and white footage of a young female chatting into a wireless handset was said to have been filmed at a factory in the United States in the 1930s which has attracted over 300,000 plays on YouTube.

Conspiracy theorists suggested the clip was proof of time travel, citing other instances of old films that appear to show imagery of modern technology years before their invention.

Back to the future? The woman is seen leaving Dupont with a cellular phone next to her ear. The technology was not demonstrated until 1973 and the first cellular was not commercially available until the 1980s

Ahead of her time: The woman is captured talking on the small modern looking device as she walks

A YouTube commenter now claims they can explain the bizarre footage - stating the woman is great-grandmother Gertrude Jones testing wireless communication devices

A YouTube user has come forward to claim the woman in the clip is their great grandmother. The user says the woman is using  a prewar cell-phone-prototype developed by a communications factory in Leominster, Massachusetts.
 The brief clip of the woman, captioned 'Time traveler in 1938 film' shows a young woman dressed in a stylish 30s dress walking alongside a crowd also dressed in clothing from the same period.

She animatedly speaks into a device held to her ear, which she lowers and as she brings her arm down it appears to be the size and shape of a modern cell phone.

It was claimed the footage was shot at a factory owned by US industrial giant Dupont.

Technologically advanced: The footage was shot more than 40 years before the first cell phone - a DynaTAC 8000x, pictured, was commercially available

It was first posted online a year ago and was widely reported on by various blogs around the web but in recent days a user called 'planetcheck' has come forward, claiming to have solved the mystery.

 

Planetcheck said: 'The lady you see is my great grandmother Gertrude Jones.'
'She was 17 years old. I asked her about this video and she remembers it quite clearly. She says Dupont had a telephone communications section in the factory.'
'They were experimenting with wireless telephones. Gertrude and five other women were given these wireless phones to test out for a week.'
'Gertrude is talking to one of the scientists holding another wireless phone who is off to her right as she walks by.'
So far there has been no independent verification of planetcheck's post, but another YouTube user says he knows someone else who worked at the factory has vowed to make further inquiries.

The 1938 clip is the second piece of footage featuring a mobile phone before the devices were invented.

In 2010, a clip from a 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie surfaced and appeared to show a woman using a mobile phone leading to speculation that she was a time traveler.

Other examples of suggested time travel include claims that archaeologists in China unearthed a small piece of metal from an ancient tomb in Shangsi County - which was shaped like an exact replica of a modern Swiss watch frozen in time at 10:06.

VIDEO:The time traveling cell phone footage