LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Hedy Lamarr: George Antheil
built 641 days ago
On Aug 11, 1942, Hedy Lamarr was granted US Patent No. 2,292,367 for a “Secret Communication System” which was then available for study by the US military. 20 years later the patent was put into effective use by the US Navy in torpedo guidance systems, while 40 years later it was used in commercial radios. Neither Lamarr, who died on January 18, 2000, nor Antheil, who died in 1959, ever received any compensation for their patent now better known as the basis for “spread-spectrum broadcast communications technologies”. Today, after the “wireless revolution” in the 1990s, spread spectrum technology is utilized for applications as diverse as cellular phones, wireless internet, Milstar defense satellites, traffic signals, and Battlefield Combat Identification Systems.
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Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil are being honored by the EFF this year with a special award for their trail-blazing development of a technology that has become a key component of wireless data systems. In 1942 Lamarr, once named the "most beautiful woman in the world" and Antheil, dubbed "the bad boy of music" patented the concept of "frequency-hopping" that is now the basis for the spread spectrum radio systems used in the products of over 40 companies manufacturing items ranging from cell phones to wireless networking systems.
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The basic idea that Hedy Lamarr had in her mind was for a form of radio control mechanism for torpedoes. Although this idea was not new, the idea of preventing jamming by using a frequency hopping mechanism was. The drawback was that a reliable method had to be sought for ensuring that both the transmitter and receiver were synchronised so that the transmitted signal could be received at the remote end. Antheil's contribution was in proposing a method by which this could be achieved. The concept was to use paper rolls similar to the piano player rolls that were used for pianolas.
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How much did Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil receive for their idea? Not a dime. Rumors persist about her bitterness toward the situation, but quotes that would substantiate that claim are scarce if any.
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Hedy Lamarr was once known as the world's most beautiful woman. Yet apart from being a Hollywood icon, Hedy Lamarr had a varied and interesting life and was an accomplished scientific inventor. With a co-inventor George Antheil she invented a radio system for preventing jamming using a system known as frequency hopping. This is in widespread use today. In her film career Hedy Lamarr caused a worldwide scandal when she appeared nude on screen in a film and she went on to become one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1940s. In her private life it is said that she escaped from her jealous first husband by drugging a guard and in total she married six times.
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On March 12, 1997, Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil (posthumously) were given a special Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation. The Pioneer Awards were started in 1991 in order to recognize individuals who have made significant and influential contributions to the development of computer-based communications or to the empowerment of individuals in using computers.
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George Antheil