The Amazing Hedy Lamarr!
Have you ever heard of an actress from the 1940’s and named, Hedy Lamarr?
I first heard about Hedy Lamarr when she was mentioned in the Mel Brooks film “Blazing Saddles.” Although I never understood the references to her, I never forgot her unusual name. I’d never heard of anyone with a first name of “Hedy” before or since.
Actually, Encyclopedia Britannica lists her full Austrian name as “Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler,” and says that she left her husband and migrated to the USA in 1937 to star in a romantic Hollywood film called, “Algiers.”¹ But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
I once read an article in Time Magazine about Hedy Lamarr which blew my socks off! It turns out that Hedy was a co-inventor along with her music composer friend named, “George Antheil,” of the broadband spread-spectrum algorithm.
So what’s the big deal? And why am I so geeked about her?
The spread-spectrum algorithm Hedy and her friend developed is present in all Wi-Fi, CDMA, GSM and BlueTooth algorithms! Hedy’s brains are now incorporated in billions of wireless routers, cell phones and secure radio products all over the world!
If you own a cell phone or WiFi router, you owe a debt of gratitude to Hedy Lamarr. If you have an automatic garage door opener, the “clicker” device most probably uses her algorithm to make it secure so that no one else can intercept, store and open your garage door when you are not home. How did this happen? It’s a fascinating story. Read on.
How, and why did a beautiful actress like Hedy Lamarr come to create this fabulous engineering algorithm which is now used all over the world?
It turns out that Hedy was once married to an Austrian engineer who worked for a munitions plant which was taken over by the Nazis during WWII. Thankfully, Hedy fled both her abusive husband, and the Nazis, and came to America. Being the bright and beautiful woman that she was, she landed in Hollywood, USA so she could continued her acting career which had been forbidden by her Australian husband.
Hedy was cast in several major movies and was often billed as, “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” But in my mind, she was one of the most brilliant ones too!
Because she had been married to an Austrian engineer, Hedy knew a good deal about the Nazis’ electronic communications protocols. She hated the Nazis, and she wanted to help the Allies war effort by creating a torpedo communication protocol which would be immune to the Nazis electronic jamming techniques.
Hedy and her co-inventor patented the idea of a broadband spread-spectrum algorithm, but they gave it free of charge to the United States Navy.
As they say, “the rest is history!” Hedy should be an inspiration to us all. It show us what we can do, and the impact that we can all have on the world by having a unique idea and acting upon it.
Hedy Lamarr changed the history of the world by helping the Allies to win World War II, and her brainy idea is now in billions of radio telecommunications devices used by us all.
Reference
¹ Author Unknown, Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hedy-Lamarr, May 12, 2021.
