You can thank the most beautiful woman in the world for your Wi-Fi.
Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Kiesler) was an Austrian-born inventor, better known as a siren of the screen during the 30s and muse to the MGM franchise. Few, even today, would know her as an inventor who contributed to future essentials like Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and cell phones. That is right; the stuff we are using when we aren’t either unconscious or underwater!
Hedy was born in Austria in 1914 to a wealthy Viennese family, allowing her to grow up a curious daydreamer. As a kid she would take apart machines and radios, only to put them back together again.
At 19 she was married to her first husband, Friedrich Mendl, a notorious arms dealer in Austria. Remarkably, she had already made a splash in the European acting world, starring in a film at 18 called Ecstacy. Some evidence suggested this is the first film where a female simulates an orgasm on screen and as a result, it was banned in the American market, though it was banned in Germany because of Hedwig being Jewish.
A few years into her marriage, Hedwig ditched Mendl in Austria and escaped to London where she met the co-founder of MGM, Louis B. Mayer. Mayer offered Hedwig a gig that she turned down, though she then boarded a ship to America that Mayer was on, and somewhere over the Atlantic convinced Mayer to offer her more. By the time they docked in New York, her name was changed and the word was out that an Austrian siren named ‘Hedy Lamaar’ was “the world’s most beautiful woman.” It wasn’t long before Austrian-American Hedy was being promoted for a multitude of productions.
“Any girl can be glamourous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” - Hedy Lamarr
Hedy soon became tired of being looked at or talked about exclusively due to her beauty. While the stage was her ticket to places and people, her brain was ripe for picking. Ironically she got her opportunity to use her brain when she befriended business tycoon Howard Hughes. Hughes noticed her curiosity and intelligence, then gave Hedy a role as part of his research team. Hedy advised Hughes on his aircraft carriers, noting that after studying the wings of some of the fastest fish and birds, his airplane wings needed some work.
Hedy’s penchant for solving problems reached new depths when she met avant-garde composer George Antheil. Both Hedy and George were European ex-patriots passionate about playing a part in the war efforts. In 1940 Hedy heard about a German torpedo destroying an American allied ship full of war refugees, she and George decided to put their heads together to study improving Navy technology. How could radio technology be leveraged so that German forces weren’t constantly outmaneuvering the outdated British navy systems? Would a radio-controlled torpedo work? With reports that the Germans were filling the air with radio interference Hedy and George set about developing a way for the radio guidance transmitters and torpedo’s receivers to jump frequencies simultaneously. This made it impossible for war enemies to locate and block messages. Frequency hopping was born, allowing George and Hedy to patent their invention and approach the US Navy, who rejected the idea — deeming it unmanageable.
In the end, the Navy would have done better to take the pretty Austrian starlet seriously. Frequency hopping did very much become a thing, and during the Cuban Missile Crisis some 20 years later, all U.S ships around Cuba were armed with torpedoes guided by Hedy’s “frequency hopping.” The “most beautiful woman in the world” patented a technology whose market value is estimated to be over $30 billion dollars today and has been foundational to the development of secure Wi-fi, cell phones, GPS and Bluetooth!
––– Watch too intelligent Hedy get fawned over on the Merv Griffin show in 1969.