How Hollywood Star Hedy Lamarr Co-Invented the Key Technology Behind WiFi in the 1940s

Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr was known for her stunning looks and striking presence. However, a lesser known fact about her is that she was also an incredible inventor. She helped invent some technologies that we can't live without today, like WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. A documentary on Netflix called “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” presents this new side of the actress's life.

After working 12 to 15 hours at MGM studios, the actress avoided Hollywood parties and threw herself into her second job as an inventor. However, the lack of recognition for his work as an inventor left a gaping hole in his life. Hedy always felt that people didn't like her for her intelligence and that her beauty got in the way, said Richard Rhodes, a Pulitzer-winning historian who also wrote Lamarr's biography, as quoted by TV History 18.

According to Rhodes, the actress had a wall full of engineering books and took her work as an inventor very seriously. Even though the actress had no formal training in engineering or science, she was a natural problem solver. His inventions were inspired by everyday problems like a tissue box for depositing trash and a glow-in-the-dark dog collar.

The actress played a major role in the invention of “frequency hopping” during World War II, a technology that played a fundamental role in communications security. But unfortunately, she didn't get the credit for it until much later in her life.

Hedy Lamarr was born into a progressive Jewish family. She received piano lessons, ballet lessons, and equestrian training as a child. She was also inclined towards machines and technology. At the age of 5, the actress took apart a music box and reassembled it piece by piece. She grew up in Vienna and during their walks through the streets, her father would explain to her how trams worked and how their electricity was produced in a power plant.

Hedy didn't grow up with any technical training, but she had that personal connection, Rhodes expressed. She loved her father very much, so it's easy to see how from there she could have developed an interest in the subject. And it also prepared her to be what she really was, a sort of amateur inventor.

Since being an inventor was not a career option for young Viennese women in the 1930s, Lamarr turned to acting at the age of 16. She was hailed as the most beautiful woman in Europe by Max Reinhardt, an Austrian film director. However, it was not a life Lamarr wanted. She said: Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.

Meanwhile, as World War II began and the Nazis began to take over more and more parts of Europe, the news coming out was nothing short of distressing. Lamarr was in London at the time and was determined to help with the war effort. His opportunity presented itself with the German U-boats. These disrupted the Atlantic, helping the Germans gain control of more territory.

Lamarr soon came up with the idea for radio-controlled torpedoes with George Antheil, an avant-garde music composer she met at a party. But the problem was that even if the radio-controlled torpedoes worked, what would stop the Germans from simply cutting the radio signal? This is when the duo's combined musical knowledge was put to good use.

Both of them would think late into the night and compose music to see if the other person could recognize it and start playing along. The solution was simple. When two musicians play a song they know, the person will know what to play next, but if someone doesn't know the song, they won't know which key to press next. Thus, the signal would be hidden in constantly changing frequencies.

This was the idea behind “frequency hopping”, a term coined by Lamarr. This would help the radio controlled torpedoes because the Germans could block a signal but not a constantly changing signal. The idea was rejected by the U.S. Navy, leading both artists to think it was the end of their inventive days. However, the patent got a second life when Sylvania, a manufacturer of electrical devices, used it to build a secure system for communicating with submarines in the 1950s. The technology was later deployed on ships of American war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The idea of ​​”frequency hopping” took off when car phones came into use in the 1970s and the same technology was used for the first cell phone networks. In the 1990s, frequency hopping became the standard technology required for secure radio communications. According to Rhodes, “Hedy didn't want money, but she wanted recognition and it really made her angry that no one was giving her credit for this important invention.” However, in the 1990s, she finally got an award for her contribution. According to the National Museum of Women's HistoryIn 2014, Lamarr was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for inventing frequency hopping technology.