Hedy Lamarr – 1914 – 2000
Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, November 9, 1914, in Austria
Died January 19, 2000 (aged 85), Casselberry, Florida, U.S.A.
Hedy Lamar is best known as a Hollywood actress in the 1930’s and 40’s. She was very attractive, once described as the most beautiful woman in the world. This reason, coupled with male misogyny may be the reason she was not widely recognized for her inventions, although I subscribe to the notion that the incongruity of a Hollywood film star inventor was beyond belief for most, even today.
Her most notable co-invention was spread spectrum frequency hopping, a technology that allowed for covert communications and that is used my military radio systems and is the basis for today’s WiFi and Bluetooth. She also invented an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that when dissolved in water produced a carbonated drink.
She fled her controlling first husband, first to Paris and later to London. In 1937 in London, she met Louis B. Meyer head of MGM who offered her a contract as an actress. She demurred his initial offer but later accepted a $500/week deal from him during their transatlantic voyage to the USA. Mayer brought her to Hollywood where he promoted her, and it was he who described her as “the most beautiful woman in the world”. During WWII she participated in the selling of war bonds but wished to make a larger contribution to the war effort. It was this wish that led her to her invention of frequency hopping spread spectrum radio.
She offered her invention to the US Navy as a method of steering torpedoes without the danger of their jamming or spoofing. The Navy declined her offer suggesting she went back to selling war bonds for which she was better qualified. It may be noted that at this time the US Navy, in great secrecy, was developing FIDO, an acoustic homing torpedo that was perhaps the most successful anti-submarine weapon of the second world war. Lamar’s inventions were not acknowledged during her life, and it is only recently that her contribution to covert radio communications has been acknowledged.
Here are some links to where you can find out more about her.