Mililtary Inventions

Out of context: Reply #55

  • Started
  • Last post
  • 103 Responses
  • TheBlueOne0

    Margarine
    Trench Coats
    Postal Service
    Helicopters
    Jeeps

    And most interestingly, CDMA Cel phones, as discovered by Hollywood legend Hedy Lamar. Seriously.

    "This invention started in the backyard, went to the battlefield and then came back to the backyard. Before it helped you make calls, the technology in your cell phone or your Bluetooth headset was used by the military for secure communications.

    Code division multiple access (CDMA) breaks up a transmission into little pieces and then spreads the signal across the entire radio spectrum.

    The military first utilized it during the Cuban blockade in 1962, but the technology was invented by Hollywood starlet Hedy Lamarr way back in 1940.

    Bizarre but true. One fortuitous California night Lamarr (think of her as the 1940s answer to Angelina Jolie) went to a party hoping to improve her figure, but instead she ended up giving us the cell phone.

    At the party Lamar met up with experimental composer George Antheil. He had a reputation as a guy who could help make your breasts bigger – remember this was long before silicon implants – but he was also famous for his composition in which he gets several player pianos to play in sync.

    Lamarr thought Antheil may be able help her with two problems: her cup size and whether or not this crazy idea she had about how to securely control torpedoes could actually work. He couldn’t do anything about her first problem, but the two sketched out a plan for would what eventually be known as CDMA on a couple of cocktail napkins.

    Lamarr and Antheil were granted a patent, which they immediately gave to the Navy. "

View thread