When the U.S. military finally deployed frequency-hopping spread spectrum on Navy ships during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis blockade, the patent that described the technique had expired three years earlier, and its inventor was watching the news in a Los Angeles bungalow without any idea her idea was at sea. (opens in new tab)

On August 11, 1942, the U.S. Patent Office granted Patent No. 2,292,387 for a “Secret Communication System” to two inventors with unusual day jobs. One was the avant-garde composer George Antheil, who had once scored a ballet for synchronized player pianos. The other was Hedy Kiesler Markey, better known to American audiences as Hedy Lamarr, […]