- The importance of Lamarr’s achievements has even led to Inventor’s Day being commemorated on her birthday.
To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrated on 11 February, we take a closer look at some female role models in the STEM field.
On this occasion, we will learn more about the life and professional achievements of Hedy Lamarr, a leading figure in the scientific world – like Ada Lovelace – but who has also gone down in history as a Hollywood actress.
Hedy Lamarr: origins
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, who would go down in history as Hedy Lamarr, was born on 9 November 1914 in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The only child of a bank manager and a pianist, her family’s affluent position and the fact that she was instilled with an interest in the world around her meant that from childhood she showed an interest in how machines such as printing presses and trams worked.
An example of this, as recounted by the National Women’s History Museum on its website, is that at the age of five she took apart and reassembled her music box to understand the mechanism that made it work.
However, her scientific side took a back seat after she was ‘discovered’ by Max Reinhardt at the age of 16 and moved to Berlin to study acting under the director until 1930, when she landed her first small role in a German film entitled Geld auf der Straβe (Money on the Street).
Hedy Lamarr, actress: from Europe to the United States
In 1933, Lamarr achieved recognition as an actress for her role in the controversial film Ecstasy, a Czechoslovakian production that brought her enormous notoriety, although it was surrounded by controversy because, beyond the purely artistic aspect of the film, the Austrian went down in history as the first actress to appear nude in cinema.
As proof of the film’s relevance, directed by Gustav Machatý, we could add that it won the Best Director award at the Venice Film Festival, which, having been founded in 1932, was celebrating its second edition.
Like many figures in Central European cinema in the interwar period, Lamarr made the leap to the United States, where she enjoyed prominence in the late 1930s and early 1940s with films such as Algiers, This Woman Is Mine, and Ashes of Love, acting only sporadically in the 1950s.
Hedy Lamarr, inventor: pioneer of GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
For decades, her contribution to the world of science and technology went unnoticed.
However, during the Second World War, Lamarr, together with American pianist and painter George Antheil, invented an early version of frequency hopping spread spectrum, a technology that forms the basis for long-distance communications and has applications in Wi-Fi (even being considered one of the key elements in its invention), Bluetooth and GPS.
In the context of the aforementioned war, Lamarr and Antheil devised a technology inspired by the piano, whose signal “hopped” between different frequencies so that only the receiver who knew the pattern could follow and decipher it, making it almost impossible to block or listen in on.
The aim was to make it impossible for the Axis forces to locate Allied torpedoes, although its military use was almost non-existent.
As a curiosity, we could add that, although Lamarr and Antheil never profited from their invention during their lifetime, in 1997 the Electronic Frontier Foundation recognised it as an important advance in wireless communications.
Although belatedly, the theoretical contributions of this system—patented in 1942—led to her posthumous induction in 2014 into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the United States.
Such was the relevance of the non-artistic side of her professional career that Inventor’s Day is commemorated on 9 November precisely because it was on that date in 1914 that this multi-talented Austrian, who later became a naturalised American citizen, was born.
Girls Love Tech
#GirlsLoveTech is Telefónica’s community of STEAM professionals whose goal is to connect their talent, knowledge and experience with girls and young women. More than 200 Telefónica professionals and experts in the fields of humanities, engineering, entrepreneurship, mathematics, science and technology make up this community, which is determined to increase young female students’ interest in scientific and technological studies.
In its five years of existence, it has carried out more than 300 activities in which more than 8,000 girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 22 have participated.
Frequently asked questions
On 9 November 1914 in Vienna.
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler.
She died on 19 January 2000 in Casselberry, Florida, in the United States.
Hedy Lamarr had a multifaceted professional career, notably as an actress and inventor.
The ‘frequency hopping’ system, a technology that allows rapid switching between frequencies for secret and secure communications, laying the foundation for modern Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.
The discovery was made in collaboration with composer George Antheil to guide torpedoes without being intercepted by the enemy, constantly changing transmission frequencies to make them undetectable and secure. Although its use was not widespread, it laid the foundations for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, as mentioned above.
Inventor's Day is commemorated on 9 November precisely because that is the day on which the inventor and actress was born.
