Well couldn't resist putting this story about Hedy Lamar and her invention(having to do with WWII and the Allies. Amazing story! We were discussing her over in the Library. So here you go:
Inventor[edit]
Main article: Frequency-hopping spread spectrum
Although Lamarr had no formal training and was primarily self-taught, she worked in her spare time on various inventions, which included an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink. The beverage was unsuccessful; Lamarr herself said it tasted like Alka-Seltzer.[20]
Copy of U.S. patent for "Secret Communication System"
During World War II, Lamarr learned that radio-controlled torpedoes, which could be important in the naval war, could easily be jammed, thereby causing the torpedo to go off course.[22] With the knowledge she had gained about torpedoes from her first husband, she came up with the idea of somehow creating a frequency-hopping signal that could not be tracked or jammed. She contacted her friend, composer and pianist George Antheil, to help her develop a device for doing that, and he succeeded by synchronizing a miniaturized player-piano mechanism with radio signals.[21] They drafted designs for the frequency-hopping system which they patented.[23][24] Antheil recalls:
We began talking about the war, which, in the late summer of 1940, was looking most extremely black. Hedy said that she did not feel very comfortable, sitting there in Hollywood and making lots of money when things were in such a state. She said that she knew a good deal about munitions and various secret weapons . . . and that she was thinking seriously of quitting M.G.M. and going to Washington, D.C., to offer her services to the newly established Inventors’ Council.[14]
Their invention was granted a patent on August 11, 1942 (filed using her married name Hedy Kiesler Markey).[25] However, it was technologically difficult to implement, and at that time the U.S. Navy was not receptive to considering inventions coming from outside the military.[20] Only in 1962 (at the time of the Cuban missile crisis) did an updated version of their design appear on Navy ships.[26] The design is one of the important elements behind today's spread-spectrum communication technology, such as modern CDMA, Wi-Fi networks, and Bluetooth technology.[5][21]
In 1997, they received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award and the Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award, given to individuals whose creative lifetime achievements in the arts, sciences, business, or invention fields have significantly contributed to society.[27] She was featured on the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel.[10] In 2014, Lamarr and Antheil were posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[28]
Wartime fundraiser[edit]
Lamarr w
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