Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

A short and brief introduction to Hedy Lamarr the inventor, not Hedy Lamarr the screen actress. The book can be divided into three parts. The first part alternates between biographical sketches of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil. The middle part is about their collaboration inventing their Secret Communication System and the third part (the last chapter) is about latter day applications of the technique Lamarr and Antheil invented. The book is an easy read with the bulk of it taken up by the biographies of Lamarr and Antheil. I knew that Lamarr was credited with inventing frequency hopping (although not that Antheil was a co-inventor) so I was hoping to find out more about Lamarr the Inventor and what else she might have worked on from the book. Contrary to the title, the book is largely about Lamarr and Antheil's Secret Communciation System, what most now know as spread spectrum frequency hopping. Lamarr's other inventions are mentioned only briefly in passing. I thought it was an interesting look at a side of Lamarr that most people until recently had never heard of but in the end it left me a little unsatisfied and wanting more.

Spread Spectrum Technology