While the name Hedwig Kiesler may not be immediately recognisable, and few would remember Hedy Markey, there's a strong likelihood that anyone of a certain age reading this would recall one of Hollywood's iconic beauties from its golden era - Hedy Lamarr.
That was the name bestowed upon her by Louis B. Mayer, propelling her to stardom and fame through his movie company. Regrettably, the vast majority remain unaware that Hedwig Kiesler, or Hedy Lamarr, was one of the pioneering figures in wireless communications. Her revolutionary patent laid the groundwork for "spread spectrum technology," the very technology that underpins the WiFi networks and Bluetooth-enabled phones we rely on daily. It also forms the core of the substantial investments currently fueling fourth-generation "LTE" wireless technology, promising vast improvements in wireless network speed and quality by spreading signals across the entire available spectrum - a feat made possible by Hedwig Kiesler's inventive brilliance.
In 1933, a young Austrian woman of exquisite beauty shed her garments for a film director's lens. She fearlessly sprinted through the forest in her nakedness, and unabashedly swam in a lake in defiance of the prevailing social conventions of her time. While King Kong dominated the screens as the most popular film of 1933, all of Hollywood was abuzz with this Austrian actress.
Louis B. Mayer, the mogul behind the giant studio MGM, proclaimed her as the world's most beautiful woman. The film, titled "Ecstasy," faced bans in many places, fueling its allure and market value. It's even said that Mussolini adamantly refused to part with his copy at any price.
The leading lady of "Ecstasy" was none other than Hedwig Kiesler, known on-screen as Hedy Lamarr.
However, beneath that facade, she possessed a brilliant mind. Raised as the only child of a prominent Jewish banker, she exhibited talent in mathematics and the sciences. As she matured, she harnessed the formidable power of both her body and intellect.
Between her rather provocative roles, Tame on today's standards ) her extraordinary physical beauty, and her intellectual brilliance, she managed to have six husbands, fascinate two of the 20th century's most ruthless dictators, and one of the most influential movie producers in history. Her beauty brought her immense wealth, with reports suggesting she amassed and subsequently spent $30 million throughout her life.
However, her most significant achievement stemmed from her intellect, forever shaping the world we inhabit today. This young Austrian actress managed to appropriate one of the most invaluable technologies right from under Hitler's nose. After escaping to the United States, she not only rose to prominence as a major Hollywood star but also secured a place in history with one of the most consequential patents ever granted by the U.S. Patent Office.
Today, when we use our mobile cell phones or experience lightning-fast wireless internet access, often referred to as "long-term evolution" or "LTE" technology, we are utilising an extension of the technology initially conceived by a 20-year-old actress during a dinner encounter with Hitler.
During the time she starred in "Ecstasy," she was married to one of Austria's wealthiest men, Friedrich Mandl, the country's leading arms manufacturer whose company would become a crucial Nazi supplier. Mandl frequently showcased his stunning young wife at business gatherings attended by representatives of Austrian, Italian, and German fascist forces. One of Mandl's favorite topics at these gatherings, which included meetings with Hitler and Mussolini, was the technology surrounding radio-controlled missiles and torpedoes.
Wireless weaponry offered significantly greater operational ranges compared to their wire-controlled counterparts prevalent at the time. Kiesler, ( Hedy Lamarr ) though seemingly passive during these dinners, absorbed every detail she heard. As a Jew, she harboured a deep loathing for the Nazis and despised her husband's opportunistic pursuits. She became angry with her husband's actions, and found herself confined in Schloss Schwarzenau, his castle. However, in 1937, she orchestrated a daring escape, apparently drugging her maid, donning the maid's attire, and selling her jewelry to fund a journey to London.
A promotional video but it is a rare glimpse inside this castle.
She escaped just in time. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria, and the Nazis seized Mandl's factory. Given Mandl's partial Jewish heritage, he fled to Brazil, ( later becoming an adviser to Argentina's president, Juan Peron.)
In London, she orchestrated a pivotal meeting with Louis B. Mayer, ultimately signing a long-term contract with MGM, propelling her to become one of its biggest stars. She appeared in over 20 films, sharing the screen with people like Clark Gable, Judy Garland, and Bob Hope.
On the eve of the U.S.’s involvement in WWII, one of Lamarr’s boyfriends, aviation tycoon Howard Hughes, recognised her brilliance. His new love life’s creativity and intelligence astounded him, causing the businessman to introduce her to his aerodynamics team so she could help advance the planes.
Whether working from her movie set trailer or at-home lab, Lamarr explored the idea of designing a faster aircraft. After analysing the shapes of the world’s quickest fish and birds, she created a more economical, speedier wing design for Hughes.
At the peak of her fame in 1942, she conceived a groundbreaking communications system specially designed for transmitting coded messages that could resist interference, ensuring torpedoes and guided bombs would unfailingly reach their targets. Her objective was clear: to develop a system capable of defeating the Nazi threat. By the 1940s, both the Nazis and the Allied forces had adopted single-frequency radio-controlled technology, akin to what her former husband had promoted. The major drawback of this technology was its vulnerability to interception or jamming by the enemy.
Her groundbreaking idea was to "change the channel," effectively encoding a message across a broad spectrum of wireless frequencies. If one part of the spectrum was jammed, the message would still find a route through one of the other frequencies in use. However, she faced a significant challenge in synchronising the frequency changes between the transmitter and the receiver. To overcome this hurdle, she enlisted the help of George Anthiel, one of the world's first techno-musicians.
Anthiel, a friend of Kiesler, had composed intricate musical pieces synchronised across twelve player pianos, producing stereophonic sounds. She incorporated Anthiel's technology for synchronising his player pianos into her invention. This breakthrough allowed her to synchronise frequency shifts between a weapon's receiver and transmitter. On August 11, 1942, U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and "Hedy Kiesler Markey," which was Kiesler's married name at the time.
In essence, Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil's frequency hopping system was an early form of spread spectrum communication. It laid the foundation for modern wireless communication technologies that use similar principles, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) in cellular networks. These technologies have improved the security and reliability of wireless communication by spreading the signal across a range of frequencies and making it resistant to interference and jamming.
After receiving a patent for it in 1942, Hedy Lamarr donated the technology to the US military to help fight the Nazis, specifically to help guide torpedoes underwater without being detected. But it was dismissed at the time and the significance of the discovery would not be realised until decades later when it was helpful and important to the US Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
So next time you turn on your WIFI or Bluetooth, think of Hedy Lamarr. Her contributions to both the entertainment industry and the field of technology have left a lasting legacy, and she is celebrated as both a Hollywood icon and a pioneering inventor.
What a shame that modern Hollywood seems so ugly and self-serving in comparison. Still, I suppose it required talent in the first place to succeed back in the days of the silver screen.......
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