Hedy Lamarr was born in 1914 in Vienna. After being discovered by a German filmmaker, she studied acting in Munich, performing mostly in live theater. Upon her return to Vienna, she started appearing in German films, but fled to Paris to escape her abusive husband. It was in Paris that she met MGM's Louis B. Mayer who admired her beauty and quickly signed her to a deal.
Hedy found her Hollywood roles to be far too superficial for her talents and became bored with acting. To keep her sanity, she began putting her aptitude for mathematics to work. Her first inventions were an improved stoplight for intersections and a tablet that would, when put into a glass of water, become a carbonated beverage. Neither set the world on fire, but her biggest invention would quite literally change the world.
Partnering with composer George Antheil, who was no traditional inventor himself, they sought to develop a guidance system for torpedoes that would be resistant to jamming. They developed a frequency hopping method that would make it impossible for an enemy to jam a signal and send a torpedo off course. The Pentagon, who didn't like using technology originating outside the military, balked at employing it during World War II, disappointing Ms. Lamarr. They would later embrace the technology, using it during the 1960's.
Ms. Lamarr passed away in 2000, living long enough to see her invention get wider use. If you're viewing this on a cellular phone, tablet or using Wi-Fi, you can thank Ms. Lamarr. Her method is still used in these technologies even today.
