Hedy Lamarr: A Short Biography

Electronics Pioneers & History
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Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress and inventor who co-invented a technology known as spread spectrum communications, which is now widely used in modern communication systems such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell phones.

Lamarr, along with her collaborator George Antheil, developed the technology during World War II as a means of creating secure and unjammable radio communications for torpedoes. Their invention involved using a frequency-hopping signal that rapidly switched between different radio frequencies, making it difficult for enemies to intercept or jam the signal.

In 1942, Lamarr and Antheil were granted a U.S. patent (2,292,387, granted on August 11, 1942) for their invention, which they called the "Secret Communication System." However, the technology was not immediately adopted by the military, and it was not until many years later that spread spectrum technology became widely used in civilian applications.

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