NARRATIVE: Hedy Lamarr was a self-deprecating beauty of the Golden Age of film, initially discovered by Louis B. Mayer as she fled German occupied Europe in the late 1930s. Quickly gaining fame, she co-starred along Charles Boyer, Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, to name a few, yet she pursued her love of science and invention during her down time.

Once, while dating millionaire inventor Howard Hughes who encouraged her scientific thought, she helped him redesign his airplane to be more aerodynamic. He called her brilliant. Though she held no formal degrees, her ideas flowed effortlessly. When the Allied forces began losing the war, she felt called to try and help. Upon seeing a radio controlled box that was used as a transmitter to change radio stations, she came up with a hypothesis. If the radio frequencies could change channels (less discoverable) and be in sync with the station control tower on a ship directly to the torpedo being deployed, this “hopping” of channels would eliminate the enemies ability to jam the Allied torpedoes and they could hit their target. Lamarr employed assistance from her American composer friend, George Antheil, who had once been in the military. They developed a patent and the military reviewed it, but they rejected the way it was presented to them as a musical piano player roll where both rolls hit the same notes simultaneously. George, being musical, couldn’t help himself with the demonstration but the government refused to hear more. They thought he literally meant for piano rolls to be placed in the ship’s tower and torpedo. However, Hedy’s theory and patent were correct.

Years later, after the war was a distant memory, Hedy asked a military friend to find out what happened to her patent. She learned it was used by a branch of the military in sonar detection and surveillance. Enough years had passed that the US government was not obligated to give financial restitution. Hedy believed it was used for the military torpedoes as well.

Hedy’s “frequency hopping” technology led to the invention of secure Wi-Fi, wireless networks, GPS, cell phones, Bluetooth and spread spectrum signals. Near the end of her life, she did receive awards by the science community and was honored for her accomplishments. Even knowing she would never receive full credit for her ideas, Hedy would’ve done it all again, because that’s who she was.