A fascinating new book explores the intriguing tale of how Hollywood film star, Hedy Lamarr, and off-the-wall composer, George Antheil, came to invent the technology used in the most modern of mobile
May 8, 2006 (Press Release) --
That films, especially those from Hollywood, had a massive effect on the worlds perception of womanhood goes without saying. Mannerisms, dress, behaviour, words and gestures were all adopted with great enthusiasm, especially those of the goddesses of the early movies. Amongst those goddesses was a coldly beautiful Austrian lady who sailed from Europe to the USA amidst the brouhaha surrounding her nude appearance in the film Ecstasy. Hedy Lamarr was the first woman to appear naked on screen and probably the first to simulate an orgasm for the movie audience. Lauded as the most beautiful girl in the world, her crowning Hollywood role was as Delilah opposite Victor Matures Samson, a part that fitted her public reputation like a glove. But she had another role which may be more relevant to the woman of today she was also an inventor.
In 1942 Hedy, along with iconoclastic piano player George Antheil, obtained a patent for something called the secret communication system. This was a scheme for wirelessly guiding torpedoes: an invention that Hedy innocently hoped might help to destroy the enemy that she had left behind in Europe Hitler. Many years later this technology leaked out of the secret world of the military and into mainstream use. You are probably using it today. It is called spread spectrum and is now used to wirelessly connect computers, to push TV onto your mobile phone and to power the satellite systems that tell you where you are.
A new book about this strange admixture of the movies, the military and mobiles poses a simple question: how on earth did an actress and piano player come to invent this stuff and, more to the point, did they? The book is written by Rob Walters and entitled Spread Spectrum; Hedy Lamarr and the mobile phone. Commenting on his book Rob says, I used to teach people about the next generation of mobile phones and hence came across the Hedy Lamarr story. I decided to move out of the technical world but couldnt get Hedy and the story of her invention out of my mind. I researched into her life and George Antheils and became more and more intrigued. The whole thing makes a provocative and interesting tale. My book covers the background to the invention, but it also tells the story of mobile phone and the people involved in its evolution including Hedy and George of course.
If you are going to read one book in your life that smacks at all of technology this must be it. It will probably change your image of invention and inventors. It will give you a glimpse into the life of a most unusual Hollywood star and the life of a zany composer who excelled in the rarefied atmosphere of 1920s Paris and who ultimately ended up in Hollywood himself. It will even give you a greater understanding of that most successful of consumer technologies the mobile phone.
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More details at http://www.satin.demon.co.uk/Writing.htm
Contact email: spread-spectrum@satin.co.uk
General release date: May 2006
Title: Spread Spectrum: Hedy Lamarr and the mobile phone
Author: Rob Walters
ISBN 1-4196-2129-7
Publisher: Booksurge
Availability: On-line from Amazon and via all good bookshops
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In 1942 Hedy, along with iconoclastic piano player George Antheil, obtained a patent for something called the secret communication system. This was a scheme for wirelessly guiding torpedoes: an invention that Hedy innocently hoped might help to destroy the enemy that she had left behind in Europe Hitler. Many years later this technology leaked out of the secret world of the military and into mainstream use. You are probably using it today. It is called spread spectrum and is now used to wirelessly connect computers, to push TV onto your mobile phone and to power the satellite systems that tell you where you are.
A new book about this strange admixture of the movies, the military and mobiles poses a simple question: how on earth did an actress and piano player come to invent this stuff and, more to the point, did they? The book is written by Rob Walters and entitled Spread Spectrum; Hedy Lamarr and the mobile phone. Commenting on his book Rob says, I used to teach people about the next generation of mobile phones and hence came across the Hedy Lamarr story. I decided to move out of the technical world but couldnt get Hedy and the story of her invention out of my mind. I researched into her life and George Antheils and became more and more intrigued. The whole thing makes a provocative and interesting tale. My book covers the background to the invention, but it also tells the story of mobile phone and the people involved in its evolution including Hedy and George of course.
If you are going to read one book in your life that smacks at all of technology this must be it. It will probably change your image of invention and inventors. It will give you a glimpse into the life of a most unusual Hollywood star and the life of a zany composer who excelled in the rarefied atmosphere of 1920s Paris and who ultimately ended up in Hollywood himself. It will even give you a greater understanding of that most successful of consumer technologies the mobile phone.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
More details at http://www.satin.demon.co.uk/Writing.htm
Contact email: spread-spectrum@satin.co.uk
General release date: May 2006
Title: Spread Spectrum: Hedy Lamarr and the mobile phone
Author: Rob Walters
ISBN 1-4196-2129-7
Publisher: Booksurge
Availability: On-line from Amazon and via all good bookshops
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