Samson and Delilah, Blue Tooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, & Hedy Lamarr
How many of you know of Cecil B.Demille’s 1949 classic, Samson and Delilah, based on a Biblical Story? I remember the mesmerizing Delilah played by Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature as Samson. The story goes: Samson was a superman fighting all odds and no one could defeat him. Samson overthrows the Philistines with his strength stored in his hair. However, a Philistine woman Delilah, seduces him and secretly gets his hair removed, seeking revenge for her past plight. Samson loses his strength and superhuman powers.
This piece, however, is not about the histrionic talents or beauty of Hedy Lamarr’s Delilah. This is about Hedy Lamarr- the inventor and innovator. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1914, Hedy Lamarr’s early years were a passion for learning and observing. Caught in an unhappy marriage with an ammunition manufacturer, she plotted her escape and ended up in Hollywood and became a famous actress. But far from the glitzy movie world, her passion lay elsewhere! The Wikipedia page observes that although she “had no formal training and was primarily self-taught, she invested her spare time, including on set between takes, in designing and drafting inventions!”
I was amazed to learn that she is credited with developing the concept of frequency hopping to prevent the threats of jamming torpedo systems, which found use during the Second World War. By manipulating radio frequencies at irregular intervals, between transmission and reception, the invention formed an unbreakable code that could prevent secret messages from being intercepted.
“The brains of people are more interesting than the looks, I think”, she is quoted as saying in the documentary Bombshell: The Hedy LamarrStory on Amazon Prime. The patent she filed for the technology for frequency hopping in 1941, was the basis for the development of Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth- each of which is used worldwide. What is tragic, however, is that she got her due recognition only at the fag end of an eventful life.
As I salute this remarkable lady, I recollect Thomas Gray’s “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard”, where he says nostalgically, “ Many a Flower is Born to Blush Unseen..”.
Hedy Lamarr was one such Flower.
