You missed another Jewish angle -- fighting the Nazis.

From a book I wrote about telecommunications:

>>Frequency Hopping technology was co-invented by actress Hedy Lamarr during World War II, to help direct American torpedoes at Nazi war ships, without them getting jammed and sent off-course. The technology was intended to send navigational instructions to the torpedoes over 88 radio frequencies, using a piano roll to make the changes. The idea was novel Ì¢‰â‰۝ but ahead of its time and unfeasible Ì¢‰â‰۝ due to the state of 1942 technology.

It was kept on the shelf until 1962, when it was used by the U. S. Navy during the blockade of Cuba to provide secure ship-to-ship communications. The technique was also used to provide secure communications for reconnaissance drones in Vietnam. With advances in digital technology and the military's release of frequency hopping for public use in the 1980s, the invention gained much wider use. Now known as Ì¢‰âÒspread spectrum,Ì¢‰âÂå itÌ¢‰â‰ã¢s used to make cordless and cellular conversations more secure from eavesdropping.

Hedy Lamarr may not have helped to defeat the Nazis, but she did get a patent, made a major contribution to communications, won an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and her face was on a Corel software packages. Her heirs sued Corel for using her picture without permission.<<

http://www.amazon.com/dp/09816...

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Donate

Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women.

donate now

Get JWA in your inbox

Read the latest from JWA from your inbox.

sign up now