Assignment 5- Hedy Lamarr

Hedwig Eva Maria Keisler, better known as the film star Hedy Lamarr, was born in Vienna, Austria on November 9, 1913 (died January 18, 2000). After attending an acting school owned by a man named Max Reinhardt (famous director of the era--http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718121/) , Lamarr landed a role in Extase (or Ecstasy), which was controversial, mainly because of its graphic sexual nature. Appearing in this film did not stop Lamarr from becoming a leading lady of the silver screen in Europe, and in 1937, she would emigrate to the United States and work for MGM in Hollywood, where her stage name, "Hedy Lamarr" would be given to her by Louis B. Mayer himself.

Throughout her life, Hedy Lamarr could be known for three things: her acting, her number of marriages (six), and her inventions. Most notable, was Lamarr's first marraige to a military industrialist named Fritz Mandal. Fritz Mandal's company manufactured artillery, such as shells and granades, but conducted research on control systems, mainly for aircraft. Though the marraige did not last, the knowledge Lamarr gained would make an impression on the world forever. In 1940, Hedy Lamarr met George Antheil, a musician who would be her co-inventor. Together, Lamarr and Antheil came up with the idea of "frequency hopping" and the synchronization between the transmitter and reciever. The general idea of frequency hopping is that commands are sent out over changing frequencies, to which the receiver is tuned to switch to at the same time they are transmitted, to get the whole message. Lamarr and Antheil wanted to use this as a torpedo guidance system. Their basic design was that of a player piano, where the tapes have slots in them that the piano 'reads' to play the music. The US Navy rejected the idea, even though, in 1942, Lamarr and Antheil were granted a patent. The ironic part is, in 1957, the project was taken up again by Sylvania and became wildly successful in torpedo guidance after the papers with slots were upgraded to electronics. (http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html)This method is still used today, and is known as 'spread spectrum' technology. The scattering of the commands or communications makes them less susceptible to jamming or interception. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_spectrum)

The Leading Lady:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hedy_Lamarr_in_Dishonored_Lady_7.jpg

Her Co-Inventor:
www.antheil.org/photos_hires/Antheil1927.jpg

Player Piano:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano