24/06/2025
During World War II, she invented a “Secret Communication System,” together with avant-garde composer George Antheil. The system used the concept of frequency hopping to guide torpedoes in a way that was un-jammable. They received a US patent for their invention, but it was never adopted by the US Navy during the war, and Antheil and Lamarr never received a penny for their work. The technology was later used for military communications, including during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and was a precursor to modern-day technologies such as Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.
Regarded as the “most beautiful woman in the world,” Hedy Lamarr was not only a famous Hollywood actress who sold millions in war bonds during World War II, she was an inventor. Her creations included a frequency-hopping radio communications device for Allied torpedoes during the war.