Hedy Lamarr 1942 Movie Star, Inventor

Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on 9 November 1914 to an affluent family in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. She got into acting in Berlin in the late 20’s and by 1931 had her first notable role in the film “Man Braucht Kein Geld” (No one Needs Money).  She became famous (or infamous depending upon your viewpoint) in 1933 when she starred in the Czech film “Ecstasy.”

This was the first mainstream film that had a nude scene and more notorious still, showed her face in the “throes of orgasm” .  The film was banned  in many countries around the world. This also shocked her husband that she had just married, Friedrich Mandl, reputed to be the third wealthiest man in Austria who made his money in the Arms Industry.  She later wrote that during those years (1933-1937) Mussolini and Hitler attended lavish parties hosted at the Mandl home. She also went with him to many business meetings where he conferred with many scientist and gave her introduction to applied science, a field that would fascinate her through her entire life and career in Hollywood. Feeling trapped in her marriage (literally by her husband locking her up in his castle) and her husbands friends (Hitler and Mussolini) she wore all her jewelry to dinner one night and fled after dinner to Paris.

She then made her way to London where she met Louis B Mayer and after he hired her to come to Hollywood had her change her name to Hedy Lamarr. In Hollywood she starred in 31 films, acting until 1957 on film. The one thing that was consistent through these years was she was patriotic and fascinated by things. While making films and being renowned as “The most beautiful woman in Hollywood” she always kept an office in her house, on one wall were engineering manuals, along with a drafting table and all the equipment necessary to draw her inventions. She created many things through her life but nothing as notable as when she met George Antheil (died 1959). George Antheil was born as George Carl Johann Antheil on July 8, 1900, to a family of German immigrants, in Trenton, New Jersey.  He grew up to become a multitude of things including a Composer, a Pianist, an Author, and an Inventor. He traveled back and forth to the United States and Europe quite a bit in the early 1900s. He wrote many magazine articles for different magazines, mostly about music and compositions, which he became known for.  He also wrote an autobiography, a mystery novel and many newspaper and music columns.  The majority of his music was based on the piano, which he started learning at the age of six. In the 20’s and 30’s he did infamous shows in Paris and New York where he incorporated unique instruments. In New York such as he used Airplane propellers in his composition.  In 1941 Antheil joined Hedy Lamarr, who sought his advice on how she could enhance her upper torso, in inventing what was referred to as frequency hopping, or also known as spread spectrum. In 1940 when they met at a dinner she described her idea to him and they were both taken with his work with paper tape synchronization of player pianos years earlier for a movie. She even wrote her phone number on his windshield in lipstick so he would have it. The following year on June 10, 1941 they applied for a patent. They immediately turned it over to the US Military. Spread Spectrum used a code to synchronize random frequencies, which were stored on a punch paper tape.  It started with them using a piano roll to randomly change the signals sent between two devices. Originally, when they created the technology it was to help with the guiding of torpedoes and causing them to controlled all the way to the target.  They would use these short bursts, within a range of 88 frequencies, which is how many white and black keys there are on a piano, to help control torpedoes in case the enemy was able to “jam” one of the frequencies.  If the enemy was able to “jam” one frequency then the technology would allow a different frequency to be used to continue the task at hand.  The patent was granted to Antheil and Lamarr on August 11, 1942.

The technology finally caught up to the patent in the 1950’s and it was first used in air dropped sonar bouys. By 1960’s this was included in every us surface warship and all military commands. This technology is believed to have given the decisive edge to President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis over Nikita Khrushchev in 1962. As all warships of the US were equipped with this system the navy jammed every frequency they were not using. This led to the Soviets being unable to achieve positive control of their forces and helped achieve a peaceful solution. Years later the technology was finally declassified and was employed in civilian uses. Today there are over 51 other patents that reference this one including such companies as Northrop, General Electric, Seagate, Sony, Microsoft, Ruckus Wireless,  Phillips, ITT corp, and Tokyo institute of technology. These patents and the original one they are all founded on create the modern communication age. Every Cellphone and wireless/Bluetooth device uses this founding principal of Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum. Ref. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarrhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Antheil http://www.hedylamarr.com/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001443/ http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/35http://www.hedylamarr.org/hedystory1.html http://www.hedylamarr.org/deccan_article.html