Historical Facts about Women in Computing: Hedy Lamarr

Women in the History of Computing Technology

"Hope and curiosity about the future seemed better than guarantees. That’s the way I was. The unknown was always so attractive to me… and still is."

"All creative people want to do the unexpected."

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr is undoubtedly the most contradictory personality in the history of computing. She was an Austrian-born Hollywood actress and scientist. Loved by her public and at the same time condemned because of her free and easy manners, she has often been underestimated and stereotyped. Though known primarily for her acting, Lamarr also co-invented frequency hopping - an early form of what today we refer to as spread-spectrum communications technology. Her invention serves as a basis for all technologies used in modern wireless network connections.

Hedy Lamarr was born on November 9, 1914 as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Her mother Gertrud, a pianist and Budapest native, and her father Emil Kiesler, a successful bank director, were both Jewish. They send her to study ballet and learn to play the piano at a very early age, this way, unwittingly helping her to discover her passion for acting. Soon, the pretty teenage girl starts to play major roles in German movies, alongside well-recognized stars like Heinz Ruhmann and Hans Moser.

On August 10, 1933 Hedy marries Friedrich Mandl, an Austrian arms manufacturer, who is 13 years her senior. Their marriage turns out to be unsuccessful because of Mandl’s conservative nature and his inclination to control every aspect of his wife’s life. Although he prevents Lamarr from pursuing her career as a Hollywood actress during the period of time they are together, the Vienna-based arms manufacturer gives her a unique gift as well. It is he that makes it possible for Hedy to find out another passion besides acting – science. During their marriage, Mandl takes her to different meetings with technicians and businessmen. In these meetings, the mathematically-talented Lamarr learns a lot about military technology and its related issues. When in 1939 World War II begins, she decides to use the knowledge she has acquired to help the U.S. fight the war. She focuses her attention at the major problem related to torpedoes, guided by radio signals – enemy ships could hear the radio signals sent from a firing ship to a torpedo and prevent them from reaching it, this way, making the torpedo uncontrollable and stopping it from hitting its target.

Hedy Lamarr

Soon, Hedy finds out a way how to hide radio signals sent from a ship to its torpedo. She notices that when a ship flips quickly from one radio channel to another, it is impossible for another ship to detect the signals it is sending. On the other hand, she has an alternative solution to the problem regarding the already sent signals reaching the torpedo’s radio – the radios of the ship and the torpedo have to change channels simultaneously. Together with her neighbor, George Antheil, a composer who has experimented with automated control of musical instruments, she submits her idea of a secret communication system in June 1941. As a result, in 1942 Hedy and George receive a U.S. Patent 2,292,387 for their invention. They name it the Secret Communication System.

Hedy Lamarr

The U.S. Navy, however, does not take advantage of Lamarr’s and Antheil’s idea during the war because they consider it costs too much to adopt the new technology to the old torpedoes. Nevertheless, in 1962 the Navy eventually uses their invention and put it on their ships. It is used by the U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba after the patent has expired. The patent itself is little-known until 1997, when The Electronic Frontier Foundation acknowledges Lamarr’s contribution to the invention of frequency (channel) hopping and gives her an honorary award – the Pioneer Award. Hedy herself is more than seventy years old when the world finds out she is an inventor and not just another Hollywood movie star.

Nowadays, Lamarr’s and Antheil’s frequency hopping idea serves as a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as the technology used for Wi-Fi network connections and the technology used in some cordless and wireless telephones. Furthermore, the U.S. uses channel hopping when it sends signals through a satellite since it prevents secret messages from being understood.

Sources

The information presented above is taken from the following online sources: