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srean
The article comes close but does not mention one interesting piece of trivia. The frequency hopping device was made using (and inspired by) a pianoroll for an autopiano. An instrument that Lamarr and her collaborator, composer Antheil would have been familiar with. In their scheme of things, the torpedo and the sub would play the same "song" and jump frequencies in sync. Their patent lay ignored till fairly recently

EDIT: here is an Atlantic article that has more detail:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/09/celebr...

EvilTrout
Fun tidbit for gamers: in Half Life 2, the headcrab that causes the portal mixup is named Lamarr, after Hedy. Get it?
topa
and it hops around randomly..
surlyadopter
That's Hedley.
Ryanmf
Oh, come on.

I sort of get the "quips that don't add materially to the discussion get all the downvotes" sentiment, but a well executed, topically relevant Mel Brooks joke in the gray? On a Sunday? We're very puzzled.

enneff
It's just noise. If you want pop culture references and one liners go to Reddit.
dextorious
Exactly. Let's keep HN purely filled with startup advice, middle age crisis geek questions, functional programming trivialities and Mongo.
iso8859-1
This whole thread is nothing but trivia. It seems there is double standard.
yummies
i can think of a few trolls who would love to snatch up that patent and sue everyone who ever had anything to do with a smartphone.
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vilda
I'm quite surprised that they ignored her past - she was married to Friedrich Mandl, an arms manufacturer. She learned about military technology from his friends.

So obvious option - that historians considers - is that she basically patented ideas she obtained/discussed during her marriage. Missing details are also behind the reason why she could not reproduce some of them.