Actress/Inventor Hedy Lamarr dies

No Such Agency writes "Wired News reports that Hedy Lamarr has died at the age of 86. Lamarr was not only a sex symbol and film star in the 30's-40's but also invented 'spread-spectrum' or frequency-hopping radio (with composer George Antheil). Originally intended to provide jamming-proof communications and remote torpedo control, the technology is one of the foundations of modern wireless communications, including wireless internet connections and GPS. Unfortunately their innovation was not appreciated until after their patent had expired. You can read more about Lamarr and spread-spectrum radio here."

Comments

This is the essence...

[Shoeboy]

...of the garage revolution. A composer and an actress coming up with a breakthrough in communications technology. Far out. I'm rethinking my whole approach:

Wanted: Hollywood starlets and composers to assist in next generation web development architecture. Must have interest in compression technology, just-in-time compilers and self modifying code. Large, firm breasts and/or
appreciation of Irving Berlin a plus. Competitive salaries, call today.

In all seriousness, I like this story in that is provides a (admittedly anecdotal) refutation to the frequently expressed opinion that only stereotypical geeks can contribute to technology. Some geeks have bulging biceps or a knack for (american) football. Some geeks are cute. Too many of us on /. tend to assume that the beautiful people are lusers.
--Shoeboy

Other Links

[ewhac]

Oh, sure, my submission about the passing of Ms. Lamarr gets rejected. Not that I'm bitter, mind you...

Anyway, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about her passing, inclding some nic e photos of her. They also had an overview of her spread spectrum invention.

Hedy was also honored by the EFF with a Pioneer Award in 1997 for her spread spectrum work.

Schwab

Tesla invented this much earlier!

[Epitaph]

I've read quite a bit about Nikola Tesla and his inventions, and I'm certain he invented this system right after the turn of the century.

He invented radio, patented it, and in 1893 gave a lecture about it and published it free for everyone in the world to use. He was then totally ripped off by Marconi around the turn of the century when he made the first transatlantic broadcast using the exact same apparatus that Tesla had described in the paper he published.

At this time, Tesla was trying to push the government to adopt his system of wireless war machines that could do battle without having humans be sitting ducks inside them. He demonstrated a model boat at the world's fair that was not only wireless, but used spread spectrum techonology to encrypt its signal. Nobody, of course picked up on this.

He went on to invent radar and offered to build radar systems for the government in the late 1920's, but they refused, and were forced to play catchup in 1938 and develop their own radar system.

If you'd like some more information about Tesla, go check out this short article about his major achievements: http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/ tesla/tesla.html.

Tesla was not a crackpot, like a lot of people who know nothing about the man seem to think. This view was created by Thomas Edison who spent a large portion of his life trying to smash Tesla's image, and he ended up succeeding very well.

- Chris

Patents, Hedy, George, possibilities, and Slashdot

[ChrisInSF]

I was very sad to hear about the death of Hedy Lamarr tonight, and I wanted to share my opinions on her invention. George Antheil, her co-inventor, was my father, and Hedy's son Tony is a close friend of mine.

The story of the "Secret Communications System" patent is truly one of the most incredible stories I've ever heard, (wouldn't it make a great film?) and a look at the patent is a real eye-opener for people who are familiar with modern digital technology.. Why? Because the design was for a digital system built with analog components..

And the person who said that Hedy and George had given their patent to the government in hopes of helping to stop Hitler was right..Hedy had seen facists and facism at close hand.. and so had my father, and they both knew what was at stake..

in spite of this, Hedy was still looked at suspiciously as an "enemy alien" by some.. :(

She was married off by her family when she was stillin her teens, and was kept virtual prisoner in Austria as a "trophy bride" of the Austrian arms magnate Fritz Mandel a few years before the war, and she literally had to drug a maid in order to flee..

While being forced to sit at the dinner table with her husband and his facist friends, who included high-ranking Nazi military officials, she built up a knowledge of military technology and carried that with her when she fled to London. (where Samuel Goldwyn, I think, gave her a ticket to the US) She met my father at a party at Janet Gaynor's house, and asked him if he could help her turn what was then a valid, but unformed idea into something that could work..(My father had a reputation in Hollywood as an experimental musician and as somebody who was familiar with the latest in technology..)

It took them about six months to do the whole process, and the patent is really interesting.

(you can see it at http://www.ncafe.com/chris/pat2/index.html at some point. I tried to check my site tonight and got a message saying that I had exceeded my "hard limit" ..Ive been linked to by media outlets several times, but this has never happened before..

I have my web site virtual hosted at what was until recently Best, but they were recently bought by Verio -perhaps "assimilated" is a better word..:(

(Best said that they would not turn off a site for a short anomaly like being picked "Cool Site of the Day", which is sort of like what has happened..but maybe that has changed..)

an aside...does anybody have any suggestions how to avoid this in the future?

Hedy and George never made a penny from the patent, which was really unjust, I think, because the government had classified it as "Top Secret" and made the commercial utilization of the invention difficult. Just after the patent expired, in 1960, it began to see commercial use..(in the Cuban Missle Crisis) Its now the main secure communications technology in use in Milstar, the US govt's 25 billion dollar "survivable" satellite communications system. Spread Spectrum is, in addition to being an incredibly efficient way to send data, inherently secure.. (one needs to know the code, in order to read the message..or usually, even know a message exists..)

By the way, spread spectrum holds out another possibility with startling implications.. It could be used to create a new television and/or radio broadcasting service that would be able to, in any given geographic area, accomodate the broadcast of many, many more channels of information, at higher quality, than we have now, eliminating scarcity on the airwaves and the battles over bandwidth .. Just imagine, community radio, community television, creativity, true democracy of the airwaves, and perhaps, even, no need for a license to broadcast..and no more canned satellite shows..

That possibility scares some interests tremendously. And its something worth fighting for.

They have digital radio in Europe, why not here?

Guess why...

Back to the patent:
Just a thought:
The government sat on this..Rightfully, they should have compensated Hedy and George for that, or extended the patent to make up for the years in which it was classified... I know that Hedy was poor for many years.. until quite recently actually. She lived on a small pension and basically spent time with friends and tried to live cheaply.. My father was better off in the later years of his life, I understand, but was never rich in the same way that many well-known composers were. He was quite prolific musically, writing the scores for over 60 films.. But my favorite music of his was his early pieces.. He was enamoured with the possibilities opened up by machines, which could play faster and more accurately than any human ever could..

Anyway, my father died about six weeks after I was born, so I never knew him.. But I definitely did inherit his interest in communications technology...and music..and now that I know the real story, I'm very proud of him..

Now if only I could only get my only two relatives on this planet to stop saying I'm "blackmailing" them for simply being open about my father..(Its a generational thing, I guess. my mother and father weren't married, big deal..)

By the way, thanks for an excellent site, I read it almost every day..

Chris Beaumont
chris@ncafe.com