Early Female Innovator.

Hedy Lamarr

  If you said the words "Bombshell" people think of Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, or anyone of a number of others from that time period but not everyone knows about Hedy Lamarr and her place in history both as a bombshell and inventor. 

She was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world.  She acted in several movies between the late 1930's and the early 1960's.

She originally came from Germany where she had a film career but after being discovered by Hollywood, she fled Germany for a career in Hollywood.

This is the side the world knew but there was another side that few people knew.  I only found out because of a television show I watched.  As soon as I heard, I checked the internet because I'd never heard of this and no one I knew had heard but she was also an inventer.

Back in 1942, she and composer George Antheil patented the design of a "secret communications system".  The idea behind this is that radio signals would change frequencies so the enemies could not detect messages.  They conceived the idea as a way to help America win the war.

 At the time the idea was patented, the system could not be built because the parts were not small enough.  The patent itself remained unused in the patent office until three years after it expired when the military used it during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Their work formed the basis of the "spread spectrum" wireless communication used in blue tooth, secure wi-fi, and GPS.

Think of the mathematics involved in creating this type of system.  The mathematics and the understanding of engineering. She never really went to college so how did she manage this?  First of all, she was pretty good at mathematics but where did she gain her knowledge of the military and radio technologies?

In 1933, she married a Jewish arms manufacturer who converted to Catholicism so he could do business with the Nazi's.  She claims he kept her prisoner except for when he took her to business meetings and that is where she learned about military and radio technologies.  After four years, she left him, headed to Paris and obtained a divorce. 

Once she'd been signed to a contract in Hollywood, she met the composer and sometime during their conversations, the idea came up.  When they were granted the patent, they donated the design to the Navy to use but nothing happened until later. 

 The sad thing is she never received any monies for this.  It wasn't until 1997, she and George began gaining the recognition so rightly deserved.  I find it amazing that this woman, a Hollywood star, came up with such a far reaching idea that changed the face of the world.  She didn't have any formal training but still understood the concepts enough to do this. 

If we had to classify the mindset of this woman, we would classify her as having an open mindset because she didn't not cave to the idea that women couldn't do it.  I am amazed and thrilled to learn more about here.  Perhaps, I'll start a wall this year in my classroom showing people who succeeded in the world without formal training but still had the where with all to do it.

Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear.