Hedy Lamarr: Actress and Inventor, Her Life and Innovations

Early Life and Career of Hedy Lamarr

• Hedy Lamarr was born with the name Hedwig Eva Kiesler and she was of Jewish descent.
• She married an Austrian arm dealer, and in 1937 she escaped to Hollywood with the pseudonym of Hedy Lamarr, in honour of the actress Barbara La Marr.
• Her first film in 1938 made her famous and she continued to be on film and on stage throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
• People at the time saw her just as a beautiful actress and she found that frustrating as she wasn't always taken seriously.

Curiosity: Her Beauty Inspired Catwoman and Snowhite

The Break of WWII and Hedy's Invention

• WWII began in 1939 and in 1941 America entered the war. It was a terrible loss of human life on ships, torpedoed by the Germans.
• This prompted Hedy to invent something really clever. Her husband used to host meetings about the war and from this meetings she found out a way to prevent torpedoes from hitting their targets by jamming their radio frequencies.

George Antheil's Automated Piano

• George Antheil was Hedy's friend who was a composer. He had composed a piece of music which involved playing music on automated pianos.
• These pianos had a roll of paper with punched holes and a mechanism for playing the notes following to the pattern of holes in the paper.
• Anteil composed a piece of music using 16 pianos perfectly synchronised together.

Frequency Hopping Technology

• Hedy came up with the idea of a secret communication system that could guide military technology so that the torpedos' signal could not be intercepted by the enemy.
• Guided by radio waves, the torpedo's transmitter and receiver would jump to different radio frequencies so that its signal could not be intercepted.
• All the frequencies in the section of the spectrum marked radio can be used to send radio messages. It is quite a wide band of frequencies so there are quite a few different ranges which can be used.

Attached are two images of Hedy Lamarr's and George Antheil's 1942 patent. Aug. 11, 1942. H. K. MARKEY ET AL SECRET COMMUNICATION SYSTEM Filed June 10, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 10, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1 R. 34- 05G. 1000 33 SE -35 32 20, 22, VARIABLE FREQUENCY CARRIER OSCILLATOR 51, MODULATOR AMPLIFIER -16 12. 102_0 37 820 22€ 38 -41 Fig.4. 37 60 169 166 168, Fig. 2. 170 bly 64, 65, FILTER 48 39 48 -101 47 -100 Di -102 102 39 -103 103 31" 175 24ª 24'e 2019 1-175 5478 85 74 Fig. 3. 84 -105 83 82 528 ST 53 53 53 7 41 37 102/ 54 10 39 100 6 Fig. 5. Hedy Hiesler Markey George antheil TORPEDO - By Lyon Thyou Attorneys Aug. 11, 1942. H. K. MARKEY ET AL SECRET COMMUNICATION SYSTEM 2,292,387 Fig. 7. 44-18 15 L19 -19 1-196 41 43 31 346 1287! 94 209 2,292,387 Fig.1. 23- OSC. 37 100 SELECTOR AMPLIFIER DETELTOR 566 560 FILTER RECTIFIE 569 180 `104 17%- 79 Fig. 6. 57, 52 -575 577- Station 56 -50 58 58 Inventory 50 P By Lyon rhyou 103 -11 Inventory Hedy Kiesler Markey George antheil 576 ₹ 72 6- 3% انه RECTIFIER L21 39 37

The Technology Today

• Hedy and George patented their idea and gave it to the US Navy who never used it!
• However, today this technology is at the basis for WiFi, GPRS and Bluetooth and it helps our messages to remain private and to maintain strong clear signals.
• Hedy's idea was really ahead of its time!

Hedy Lamarr Inventor

Actress Devises 'Red-Hot' Apparatus for Use in Defense

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept. 30- Hedy Lamarr, screen actress, was revealed today in a new role, that of an inventor. So vital is her dis- covery to national defense that government officials will not allow publication of its details. Colonel L. B. Lent, chief engineer of the National Inventors Council, classed Miss Lamarr's invention as in the "red hot" category. The only inkling of what it might be was the announcement that it was related to remote control of ap- paratus employed in warfare. "The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. Think big anyway." Source: New York Times (1923-Current file); Oct 1, 1941; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times Hedy Lamarr

Hedy's Other Inventions

• New design for plane wings (to increase speed) based on analysis of the fastest bird and fastest fish
• "Bouillon" cubes to transform water into a Coke, which was missing during wartime
• Better Kleenex box
• New traffic signal

References

• www.womenhistory.org
• STEM Sisters: Hedy Lamarr - Frequency Hopping @ HMDT Music 2020