Because I didn’t write a blog on International Women’s Day, my penance is simple: I’m going to give us all a bit of an edumacation. Welcome to the DID YOU KNOW? series where I’ll do research on important women from the past and share what I’ve learned…which means you’ll want to check every fact to make sure I haven’t led you astray.
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Hedy Lamarr ((November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000). For those of you who are fans of the silver screen, you know this woman was a movie star…but did you also know that she was an inventor? AHA! I thought not.
With the help of composer George Antheil, Ms. Lamarr, a mathematically-talented gal, invented a secret communication system in an effort to help the allies defeat the Germans in World War II. The invention, patented in 1941, manipulated radio frequencies between transmission and reception to develop an unbreakable code so that top-secret messages could not be intercepted. The technology called spread spectrum, now takes on many forms: such as COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones.
Yo…you just got learned.
