Google paid tribute to Hedy Lamarr with a video clip of the actress' activities during her life as a popular actress and controversial icon in celebration of what would have been her 101st birthday on Nov. 9. The short animated clip showed Lamarr's glamorous life in the United States after she fled from her first husband in Austria, as well as her intellectual feats in science and engineering which helped usher in new technology that we enjoy today.
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler whom we all know as Hedy Lamarr was born in 1914 in Austria where she became an actress at 17 years old. One of her films was the controversial and sensual Czech film directed by Gustav Machatý, "Ecstacy," which showed Lamarr in the throes of passion.
After escaping from her husband who had close ties to the Nazis and divorcing him in 1937, she signed with Metro Goldwyn Meyer (MGM) and headed to the U.S. Her interest in the applied sciences was actually an influence of her first husband who often had business meetings and conferences with scientists dealing with military technology due to his munitions manufacturing business.
She became a big star in the 1940's but it was not enough for Lamarr who craved intellectual activities as opposed to parties and drinking, and so inventing became her hobby. It also didn't please her that she was typecasted in roles that only focused on looks and was not given any lines.
"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid," she said. Lamarr didn't want her skills to go to waste, so she began to invent anything that she believed could improve lives. Her earliest work was an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that dissolves in water to create a carbonated drink. The latter was junked because of the taste.
In the heat of World War II and due to her frustration at the U.S. Torpedoes missing its mark because the signal keeps getting jammed by the enemy, she approached composer George Antheil and worked with him to come up with a communication system that is unpredictable enough to avoid getting intercepted.
The duo came up with the "secret communication system," the object of which is "to provide a method of secret communication which is relatively simple and reliable in operation, but at the same time is difficult to discover or decipher," their patent abstract describes.
They presented their invention to the Inventor's Council in 1942 but, while they were awarded patent 2,292,387 for their work, the military decided to pass on it. The technology was only finally used during the Cuban missile crisis, 20 years after it was submitted.
The work itself, however, became useful in the private sector as it was built upon to create spread-spectrum technology, which is the basis for Bluetooth, Global Positioning System (GPS) and Wi-Fi but, sadly, neither Lamarr nor Antheil were ever mentioned as the brains of the technology.
"I can't understand why there's no acknowledgement when it's used all over the world. Never a letter, never a thank you, never money. I don't know. I guess they just take and forget about a person," Lamarr reportedly said in a 1990 interview.
Lamarr was finally recognized for the invention after U.S. Army Colonel Dave Hughes made the connection between the technology and patent 2,292,387 in 1997, 55 years after it was submitted and 35 years after it was first used.
It was discovered that Lamarr also had a proposal for a new kind of traffic stoplight as well as suggested design modifications to the Concorde passenger craft and a device that would help people who are movement impaired.
Lamarr passed away in Jan. 19, 2000 due to heart complications. She was 85 years old.
She was finally inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
Photo : Kate Gabrielle | Flickr
