“HEDY LAMARR, screen actress, was revealed today in a new role, that of an inventor,” reported The New York Times on 1 October 1941. “So vital is her discovery to national defense that government officials will not allow publication of its details.”
The invention was not her first. Lamarr previously experimented with cola-flavoured bouillon cubes for homemade soft drinks. But her new idea, which officials would only say was “related to remote control of apparatus employed in warfare”, would become a signal innovation of the century, the technology now underlying cellphones and Wi-Fi. Expertly explaining the genesis and consequences of…
