Hedy Lamarr was famous for appearing on the silver screen—but one of her most remarkable achievements happened far away from Hollywood.During World War II, Lamarr and composer George Ant
Hedy Lamarr was famous for appearing on the silver screen—but one of her most remarkable achievements happened far away from Hollywood.During World War II, Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed a frequency-hopping communication concept designed to make radio-guided torpedoes harder to detect or jam. Their invention was granted a U.S. patent in 1942, yet its significance was not widely recognized during their lifetimes.Hedy Lamarr, The Signal Siren explores the fascinating public history behind this overlooked achievement: the actress who became an inventor, the wartime problem that inspired an unusual technological solution, and the idea of rapidly changing radio frequencies to make communications more difficult to disrupt.This concise history also examines how frequency-hopping concepts became part of the broader story of spread-spectrum communications and how later wireless technologies drew upon related principles.Part technological history, part portrait of an unconventional inventor, this book looks beyond Lamarr's glamorous public image to reveal the inventive mind behind one of the most intriguing chapters in wireless communication history.
