• 1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi.

George Antheil


Detail from a portrait of Antheil, by American
photographer Berenice Abbott, c. 1927

Born: July 8, 1900; Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
Died: February 12, 1959 (aged 58); New York, New York, U.S.
Occupations: Composer, pianist, author, inventor

George Johann Carl Antheil (/ˈæntaɪl/; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, mechanical – of the early 20th century.

Spending much of the 1920s in Europe, Antheil returned to the US in the 1930s, and thereafter spent much of his time composing music for films and, eventually, television. As a result of this work, his style became more tonal. A man of diverse interests and talents, Antheil was constantly reinventing himself. He wrote magazine articles (one accurately predicted the development and outcome of World War II), an autobiography, a mystery novel, newspaper and music columns.

In 1941 he developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes with actress Hedy Lamarr that used a code (stored on a punched paper tape) to synchronise random frequencies, referred to as frequency hopping, with a receiver and transmitter. This technique, which is now known as spread spectrum, is now widely used in telecommunications. This work led to them being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

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Ballet Mécanique and later work in Europe

Antheil's best-known composition is Ballet Mécanique. The "ballet" was originally conceived to be accompanied by the film of the same name by experimental filmmakers Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy (with cinematography by Man Ray), although the nature of the collaboration is mysterious. The first productions of Antheil's work in 1925 and 1926 did not include the film, which turned out to last around 19 minutes, only half as long as Antheil's score.

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Other interests

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Antheil wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper relationship advice column, as well as regular columns in magazines such as Esquire and Coronet. He considered himself an expert on female endocrinology, and wrote a series of articles about how to determine the availability of women based on glandular effects on their appearance, with titles such as "The Glandbook for the Questing Male". Another book of "glandular criminology" was titled "Every Man His Own Detective".

Frequency-hopping spread-spectrum invention

Antheil's interest in this area brought him into contact with the actress Hedy Lamarr, who sought his advice about how she might enhance her upper torso. He suggested glandular extracts, but their conversation then moved on to torpedoes.

During World War II Lamarr, who was fiercely pro-American, realized that a single radio-controlled torpedo could severely damage or sink enemy ships causing irreparable damage. However these radio-controlled torpedoes could easily be detected and jammed, by broadcasting interference at the frequency of the control-signal, thereby causing the torpedo to go off course.

Using knowledge of torpedoes gained from her first husband – munitions manufacturer Friedrich Mandl – Antheil and Lamarr developed the idea of using frequency hopping: in this case using a piano roll to randomly change the signal sent between the control-center and torpedo at short bursts within a range of 88 frequencies on the spectrum (there are 88 black and white keys on a piano keyboard). The specific code for the sequence of frequencies would be held identically by the controlling ship and in the torpedo. This basically encrypted the signal, as it was impossible for the enemy to scan and jam all 88 frequencies because this would have required too much power. Antheil would control the frequency-hopping sequence using a player-piano mechanism, which he had earlier used to score his Ballet Mécanique.

On 11 August 1942, U.S. Patent 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and "Hedy Kiesler Markey", Lamarr's married name at the time. This early version of frequency hopping, though novel, soon met with opposition from the U.S. Navy and was not adopted.

The idea was not implemented in the USA until 1962, when it was used by U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba after the patent had expired.

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Ballet Mecanique by George Antheil, at the National Gallery of Art

Paul Lehrman
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The Ballet Mecanique Robotic Orchestra performs George Antheil's 1924 "Ballet Mecanique" at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, March 2006. This is the complete video! Music programming and editing by Paul D. Lehrman. Robotics by the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR), Eric Singer, director. For more information about the Ballet Mecanique visit www.antheil.org. For more about LEMUR, visit www.lemurbots.org.