In 30-40 years Hedi Lamarr (nee Hedwig Eva Maria Kisler) was an icon of style. This extraordinarily talented native of Vienna was the star of European, and later American, cinema.
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The first spouse of the star was a gun manufacturer, Fritz Mandl (Austria). He told his young wife about the problems in using unguided torpedoes. "Now if you could make torpedoes controlled from the moment of the shot and to the very goal ..."

Brief technical explanation
Torpedoes controlled by radio (radio-controlled) in the fleets were available. But they proved to be extremely ineffective in the practice of combat use. After all, since the beginning of the 20th century, military vessels have been equipped with radar and radio signal suppression systems. For example, in the Russian fleet for these purposes there was even a special vessel. True, his unique opportunities were not used by Admiral Rozhdestvensky the day before and during the Tsushima disaster.

The frequencies used to guide the torpedoes were easily identified by the enemy. Interference was exhibited, an anti-torpedo maneuver was carried out and deadly torpedoes left for "milk." There have been cases of even intercepting the control of torpedoes by technically more advanced ... radio amateurs)).

Somehow these purely technical questions were not forgotten by our beautiful woman, but settled in her memory. After four years of marriage, in 1937 she fled from her husband to America.

Hollywood met Lamarr with open arms, and for 20 years she starred in 26 films, earning about $ 30 million.
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She had magnificent roles and huge fees, but the acting did not give Lamar moral satisfaction. She wrote: "My beauty is my curse. I was pinned to the role of stupid dolls, and as soon as I stuttered about the serious role, the directors started laughing at me. "

Hedi was the object of universal worship. But on the personal front, it also did not work, although there were shootings, of course.

As a result, Lamarr was married six times and gave birth to three children.

Alas, but geniuses can rarely get along with someone. And when the genius is also a beautiful woman, surrounded by fans and spoiled by attention, it is difficult for her to become a happy woman.
For the sake of justice I note that the great actress was very sarcastic and had a truly unsettling character ...

Let's return to our torpedoes. In 1941, the United States entered the Second World War and extremely unsuccessfully. Initially, the Japanese staged Pearl Harbor, and then the German fleet cut off ocean communications.

Hedi did her best to help her new homeland win. So, she put out her kisses for sale. The bid is $ 25,000 invested in defense loan bonds. In this way, she managed to raise $ 7 million.

But Lamar had an inquisitive mind prone to exact sciences. And the idea was born: "You just need to transfer the frequency all the time randomly in a wide range, while synchronizing the transmitter and receiver. Such a signal can not be completely intercepted and deciphered by the enemy. "

The military raised the woman to laugh, and she told of her discovery to her neighbor, composer George Anteyl. The author of the work "Mechanical ballet" for the symphony orchestra, twelve mechanical pianos, bells and an aircraft propeller.

This eccentric and talented person did not study endocrinology, but published articles on it. And also along with history. And all this was done at a decent scientific level.

Anteyl was able to correctly assess the idea of ​​Hedi Lamarr, and they together started to work. Once at a party they played four hands, and the principle of the embodiment of the idea of ​​signal synchronization was born of itself: Mechanical matching of the transmitter with the receiver by means of something like a roller of a mechanical piano.

Our inventors did not have another programmable device, but on it they also worked out all the details. As a result, a cushion with pins and a drive from the chronometer, able to fit in the body of the marine torpedo. The system could use a set of 88 radio frequencies, according to the number of piano keys.

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Lamar and Anteyl called their invention "jumping frequencies" and sent a request to the chairman of the National Council of Inventors, Charles Kettering.

This specialist was able to evaluate the invention, and in 1942 co-authors received US patent No. 2292387 on the "Secret Communication System". They gave it to the US government, refusing all possible payments.

Military engineers ridiculed the idea of ​​the actress "shove a mechanical piano into a torpedo."

The soldiers were not interested in the patent. But they called it the "System of Secret Messages", they classified it and put it under the cloth. Only in 1957 they returned to him, using semiconductors instead of mechanical parts.

As a result, the technology "jumping frequencies" was embodied in Millillar's multi-billion military satellite communications project. In the 80 years, it became part of the "star wars" of President Reagan. At the same time, the patent was declassified and became available for civilian use.

The technology has been applied to many kinds of wireless communication and cell phones all over the world.

Thanks to the invention of Hedi Lamarr, it became possible to create satellite communications, Wi-Fi and GSM standard.

The rest of her life Lamarr lived modestly and imperceptibly. She reconciled with the children and nursed grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was unsuccessfully tried to present to the Medals of Congress Honor and to the IEEE award.

In 1997, she received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It's high time," the elderly woman said skeptically. Journalists, she did not accept and refused to attend the ceremony, the reward for her was a son.

In 2000, Hedy Lamarr died in Florida at the age of 86 years.

Her invention is considered so important and significant that Hedi Lamarr's birthday, November 9, is celebrated as the Inventor's Day in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein.