Frequency Hopping

Lamarr spent nights creating a communication system with the help of Antheil. During WWI, Antheil worked as a munitions inspector for the U.S. Army.  He was familiar with remote control technology and spread spectrum sequences that he had used in his music compositions.  Nikola Tesla alluded to frequency hopping in patents in 1900 and 1903, yet they developed their “frequency hopping” secret communications system which broadcast a signal over a random series of radio frequencies, hopping from frequency to frequency.  Antheil’s system to control the jumps between 88 pre-programmed frequencies was based on the 88 keys of his piano.  If both the sender and receiver knew in advance the channels that would be used, the message would be easily decoded.  So a spy without the correct combination, the message was indecipherable. 

"Her son thinks one source for her invention was her playing piano duets with George Antheil. I found evidence that she had also developed her idea in part from her fine home radio with its telephone-dial remote control."

              -Richard Rhodes, Personal Interview, May 2020

         "The brilliant mind of Hollywood legend Hedy Lamarr", interview with Alexandra Dean, director of  "Bombshell', March 10, 2018, PBS NewsHour

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"Frequency hopping" sat on the shelf until the 1950s when it was used in a new sonobuoy design with rotating cylinders to switch frequencies.  It would be used for the first time on U.S. naval ships during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"When I was young, she would tell us about this anti-missile device she had invented. I’d say, ‘Yeah, right mom!’ like any kid probably would. Then when I was an adult, a professor sent me a copy of a science magazine that had her on the cover and had an article about what she had done. So I called her and said, ‘So you really did invent that!’ She said, ‘I’ve been telling you that for years!’ When she died, it was really the first time the press had talked about it.”

 -Denise Loder Deluca, daughter of Hedy Lamarr, Mesquite Local News, November 28, 2014