She was a talented actress, an ‘exotic’ Austrian, and legend has it that when her face appeared on screen, the audience gasped at her beauty. But Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was much more than just a pretty face.
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When she was 23, the European beauty was discovered by Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM studios – he immediately presented her a role in a new Hollywood production and offered her a new name: Hedy Lamarr. She accepted, and went on to star in 20 movies, even earning the title of “most beautiful woman in the world”.
Before she became famous in Hollywood, at age 18, Lamarr married an Austrian military arms dealer and manufacturer named Friedrich Mandl. Mandl’s business made him rich and powerful, and he often threw lavish parties where he mingled with the likes of fascist politicians, such as former Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini and German dictator Adolf Hitler. Whenever she accompanied her husband at such events, Lamarr would listen to conversations with leading scientists working on military technology. She developed an interest in the field and began to study applied science.
But her life with Mandl began to oppress in more ways than one. In her autobiography, Ecstasy and Me, Lamarr shares details of how, unable to bear her husband’s overbearing nature and business contacts, she disguised herself and felt her country, heading straight for the City of Lights: Paris.
There, she was hired by Mayer and set off for Hollywood. One day, while working, Lamarr and her American composer friend George Antheil’s conversation turned to the ongoing war – World War II. Lamarr realised that American radio-controlled torpedoes could severely damage or sink enemy ships. But since the torpedoes could easily be detected and jammed by broadcasting at the frequency of their control signals, the torpedoes could go off-course or worse, turn back and attack American ships.
Working together, Lamarr and Antheil were inspired by piano rolls, a method of programming pianos to play songs on their own. Using this type of programming and Lamarr’s background in military technology, the friends invented a new style of frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology. It allowed radio waves controlling the torpedoes to be spread across multiple channels, making it impossible to locate or tamper with them. They received a patent for the invention in 1942 but the US government didn’t use it at the time because it didn’t accept inventions from civilians.
In 1962, however, the Cuban missile crisis arrived. The US Navy implemented Lamarr’s invention on Navy ships, to resounding success. The technique was also adapted to other forms of communication technology, like WiFi and Bluetooth. In fact, the WiFi we use today is likely using the exact method Lamarr patented!
Lamarr and Antheil were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014 for their ground-beaking invention.
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