to "stand there and look stupid” though a math prodigy, & astute innovator. So while Axis leaders & arms dealers attended their lavish parties, she gained sensitive military intelligence. She decided to leave him & made her escape disguised as her own maid (by drugging her & stealing her clothes), before annexation of Austria. In London Louis B. Mayer, who renamed her 'Hedy Lamarr' & hired her to work for MGM. She went on to make Hollywood films & was known as one of the most beautiful women 🧵2/

in the world. In ‘40, spurred by tragic U-boat sinking of a boatload of refugees, she put her mind to national defense. Torpedoes were guided by single frequency radio signals vulnerable to jamming. She had the idea that if multiple frequencies were employed, like a radio station which varied its channel unpredictably, it would be impossible to find & jam it & the signal could be encoded across a broad spectrum. The difficulty would be in synchronizing transmitter & receiver. 🧵3/

She met her neighbour, avant-guard composer Antheil at a party. He had been working on automated control of musical instruments! This was the answer. Together they developed her frequency-hopping idea, encorporating his tech for synching pianolas & on August 11 1942, US Patent Number 2,292,387 for “Secret Communications System" was granted. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano-roll to change among 88 frequencies (like 🎹 ). 🧵4/5