Women's History Month - Hedy Lemarr. Episode 119

Monthly Newsletters and Themed Invention Spotlights

Some of you are on my email list, but if you’re not—and I don’t mean to toot my own horn—I get a lot of feedback that people really like it. I don’t spam your inbox; I only send out one email a month, and I focus on something that the month is known for. For example, in February, because it was Black History Month, I focused on the inventions of one of the most famous African American inventors, George Washington Carver, and all the things he did with the peanut. When it was National BBQ Month, I had an issue on BBQ-related patents.

March is Women’s History Month

This month, March, is Women’s History Month. So my newsletter was about one of the most famous female celebrities of all time—who was also a prolific inventor—and her name was Hedy Lamarr. If you’re not an old movie buff, you might not know who she is, but she was an Austrian-born American actress, inventor, and film producer. She appeared in over 30 films during her 28-year career. Probably her most famous movie was Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah in 1949.

Hedy Lamarr the Inventor

She was not trained as a scientist or engineer, but she came up with lots of inventions. Her most famous invention was one that eventually led to today’s GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technology, and she received a patent for it. If you want to look it up, it’s titled Secret Communication System, U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387.

Hedy Lamarr learned that radio-controlled torpedoes could be jammed, so she thought of a way to create a frequency-hopping signal that could not be tracked or jammed. If you look up the patent, it will be under her married name, Hedy Kiesler Markey, and she filed it with her friend and composer George Antheil.

At the time she invented it, it wasn’t implemented, but the technology was later adapted to develop a sonobuoy. In 1962, an updated design was installed on Navy ships. Later, this technology evolved into what is now known as spread-spectrum techniques, which became part of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology.

Other Inventions by Hedy Lamarr

She also came up with several other inventions, including a new kind of stoplight, a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink, a system to help movement-impaired people get out of a bath, a glow-in-the-dark dog collar, a skin-tautening technique, and even a design for a modified airplane wing for Howard Hughes, whom she dated during WWII.

Recognition and Legacy

Hedy Lamarr was the first woman to receive the Invention Convention’s Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award. In 2014, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her frequency-hopping technology.

I’m Adam Diament, and until next time, keep on inventing.