Wow! You learn something new every day! I had a mobility instructor one
time who had a sign in Braille and embossed print on her desk that said
"Never underestimate the power of a woman," and there's proof of that right
there!
73
Aimee Lewis
KK4JHF
"Be well, do good work and keep in touch." (Garrison Keillor)
-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Howard Kaufman
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: A Bit of History. Very Interesting
It all started with a skin flick...
In 1933, a beautiful, young Austrian woman =
took off her clothes for a movie director. She ran through the woods... =
naked. She swam in a lake... naked. Pushing well beyond the social norms =
of the period, the movie also featured a simulated orgasm. To make the =
scene "vivid," the director reportedly stabbed the actress with a sharp =
pin just offscreen.
The most popular movie in 1933 was King Kong. =
But everyone in Hollywood was talking about that scandalous movie with =
the gorgeous, young Austrian woman.
Louis B. Mayer, of the giant studio MGM, said =
she was the most beautiful woman in the world. The film was banned =
practically everywhere... which of course made it even more popular and =
valuable. Mussolini reportedly refused to sell his copy at any price.
The star of the film, called Ecstasy, was =
Hedwig Kiesler. She said the secret of her beauty was "to stand there =
and look stupid." In reality, Kiesler was anything but stupid. She was a =
genius. She'd grown up as the only child of a prominent Jewish banker. =
She was a math prodigy. She excelled at science. As she grew
older, she became ruthless, using all the =
power her body and mind gave her.
Between the sexual roles she played, her =
tremendous beauty, and the power of her intellect, Kiesler would =
confound the men in her life... including her six husbands, two of the =
most ruthless dictators of the 20th century, and one of the greatest =
movie producers in history.
Her beauty made her rich for a time. She is =
said to have made - and spent - $30 million in her life. But her =
greatest accomplishment resulted from her intellect... and her invention =
continues to shape the world we live in today.
You see, this young Austrian starlet would =
take one of the most valuable technologies ever developed right from =
under Hitler's nose. After fleeing to America, she not only became a =
major Hollywood star... her name sits on one of the most important =
patents ever granted by the U.S. Patent Office.
Today, when you use your cell phone or, over =
the next few years, as you experience super-fast wireless Internet =
access (via something called "long-term evolution" or "LTE" technology), =
you'll be using an extension of the technology a 20- year-old actress =
first conceived while sitting at dinner with Hitler.
At the time she made Ecstasy, Kiesler was =
married to one of the richest men in Austria. Friedrich Mandl was =
Austria's leading arms maker. His firm would become a key supplier to =
the Nazis.
Mandl used his beautiful young wife as a =
showpiece at important business dinners with representatives of the =
Austrian, Italian, and German fascist forces. One of Mandl's favorite =
topics at these gatherings - which included meals with Hitler and =
Mussolini - was the technology surrounding radio-controlled missiles and =
torpedoes. Wireless weapons offered far greater ranges than the =
wire-controlled alternatives that prevailed at the time. Kiesler sat =
through these dinners "looking stupid," while absorbing everything she =
heard...
As a Jew, Kiesler hated the Nazis. She =
abhorred her husband's business ambitions. Mandl responded to his wilful =
wife by imprisoning her in his castle, Schloss Schwarzenau. In 1937, she =
managed to escape. She drugged her maid, snuck out of the castle wearing =
the maid's clothes, and sold her jewelry to finance a trip to London.
(She got out just in time. In 1938, Germany =
annexed Austria. The Nazis seized Mandl's factory. He was half Jewish. =
Mandl fled to Brazil. Later, he became an advisor to Argentina's iconic =
populist president, Juan Peron.)
In London, Kiesler arranged a meeting with =
Louis B. Mayer. She signed a long-term contract with him, becoming one =
of MGM's biggest stars. She appeared in more than 20 films. She was a =
co-star to Clark Gable, Judy Garland, and even Bob Hope. Each of her =
first seven MGM movies was a blockbuster.
But Kiesler cared far more about fighting the =
Nazis than about making movies. At the height of her fame, in 1942, she =
developed a new kind of communications system, optimized for sending =
coded messages that couldn't be "jammed." She was building a system that =
would allow torpedoes and guided bombs to always reach their targets. =
She was building a system to kill Nazis.
By the 1940s, both the Nazis and the Allied =
forces were using the kind of single- frequency radio-controlled =
technology Kiesler's ex-husband had been peddling. The drawback of this =
technology was that the enemy could find the appropriate frequency and =
"jam" or intercept the signal, thereby interfering with the missile's =
intended path.
Kiesler's key innovation was to "change the =
channel." It was a way of encoding a message across a broad area of the =
wireless spectrum. If one part of the spectrum was jammed, the message =
would still get through on one of the other frequencies being used. The =
problem was, she could not figure out how to synchronize the frequency =
changes on both the receiver and the transmitter. To solve the problem, =
she turned to perhaps the world's first techno-musician, George Anthiel.
Anthiel was an acquaintance of Kiesler who =
achieved some notoriety for creating intricate musical compositions. He =
synchronized his melodies across twelve player pianos, producing =
stereophonic sounds no one had ever heard before. Kiesler incorporated =
Anthiel's technology for synchronizing his player pianos. Then, she was =
able to synchronize the frequency changes between a weapon's receiver =
and its transmitter.
On August 11, 1942, U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387 =
was granted to Antheil and "Hedy Kiesler Markey," which was Kiesler's =
married name at the time.
Most of you won't recognize the name Kiesler. =
And no one would remember the name Hedy Markey. But it's a fair bet than =
anyone reading this newsletter of a certain age will remember one of the =
great beauties of Hollywood's golden age ~ Hedy Lamarr. That's the name =
Louis B. Mayer gave to his prize actress. That's the name his movie =
company made famous.
Meanwhile, almost no one knows Hedwig Kiesler =
- aka Hedy Lamarr - was one of the great pioneers of wireless =
communications. Her technology was developed by the U.S. Navy, which has =
used it ever since.
You're probably using Lamarr's technology, =
too. Her patent sits at the foundation of "spread spectrum technology," =
which you use every day when you log on to a wi- fi network or make =
calls with your Bluetooth-enabled phone. It lies at the heart of the =
massive investments being made right now in so-called fourth-generation =
"LTE" wireless technology. This next generation of cell phones and cell =
towers will provide tremendous increases to wireless network speed and =
quality, by spreading wireless signals across the entire available =
spectrum. This kind of encoding is only possible using the kind of =
frequency switching that Hedwig Kiesler invented.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr=20
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