Anecdote of the Week

In the heat of World War II, Hedy Lamarr, a Hollywood star, and George Antheil, a trailblazing composer, crafted an unlikely solution to a critical problem. Disturbed by the news of German submarines torpedoing Allied vessels, they zeroed in on the enemy’s ability to easily disrupt radio-controlled torpedoes.

Inspired by Antheil’s novel method of synchronizing player pianos, they developed ‘frequency hopping,’ an ingenious system that kept torpedo transmitters and receivers dancing between frequencies in unison, thwarting enemy interference. Their “Secret Communication System,” patented in 1942, found itself in the arsenal of the U.S. Navy two decades later. The echoes of their work are still heard today in our GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi devices, underscoring their lasting imprint on our digital world.