What is the connection between the date of birth of Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr and the celebration of World Inventors’ Day?
Well, a lot, because on 9 November 1914, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, who would go down in history as Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000), was born in Vienna.
Although the Austrian actress may be best known for her artistic side, she was also an inventor.
In 2005, the Germans Gerhard Muthenthaler and Marijan Jordan proposed the celebration of this day to coincide with Lamarr’s date of birth in recognition of her scientific and technological work.
Therefore, perhaps it would be more appropriate to speak of International Inventors‘ Day than International Inventors’ Day.
Inventor’s day infographics
Hedy Lamarr, actress and inventor of the spread spectrum
For the general public, Lamarr may be better known for her artistic facet or even for the added historical curiosity of having been the first actress to appear naked in the seventh art, specifically in the Czechoslovakian film ‘Ecstasy’, from 1933, translated as ‘Ecstasy’.
This was no minor film, since its director, the Czechoslovakian Gustav Machatý, won the award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival, which, having been founded in 1932, was celebrating its second edition.
The role of Lamarr’s contributions, who is regarded as the creator of the frequency-hopping spread spectrum – a modulation technique used in telecommunications – went unnoticed for a time, as she gave the patent for her invention to the US Army in the context of World War II.
Hedy Lammar: wifi
The Austrian actress – later naturalised American – invented an early version of spread spectrum, as we have just mentioned: a technology that is at the basis of the long-distance wireless communications used today for wifi, GPS or Bluetooth.
Specifically, and this is where the link to warfare appears, the actress and George Antheil – an American pianist and composer – developed a patent in the early 1940s for a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to eliminate possible interference from Axis countries.
The patent was called ‘Secret communication system’ and had the registration number 2292387 at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
With the passing of the years and the recognition of her contributions, Lamarr – along with other women such as Marie Curie or Ada Lovelace – have become female references that serve as scientific or technological inspiration for girls and women.
Other days dedicated to inventors
Although International Inventors’ Day is celebrated on 9 November, some countries have their own commemorative dates based on their own history.
To cite a few specific examples, these are the following national days.
29th September. Inventor’s Day in Argentina
In Argentina, Inventor’s Day is commemorated on 29 September, because on that date – in 1899 – Ladislao José Biro was born in Budapest: although more specifically, it should be clarified that he came into the world as László József Bíró.
This Hungarian-born Argentinian journalist and inventor, fed up with problems with his fountain pen, is responsible for the birth of the biros, among other inventions. In fact, because of his surname, in some countries this small, everyday object is known as a ballpoint pen.
17 February. Inventor’s Day in Mexico
Mexican Inventor’s Day is celebrated on 17 February. The reason? On the same day, but in 1917, Guillermo González Camarena came into the world.
But what legacy did González Camarena leave behind after his untimely death at the age of 48 following a traffic accident? Well, the trichromatic sequential field system for television… in short: he was the inventor of colour television.
11 February: National Inventors’ Day in the USA
Coinciding with Thomas Alva Edison’s birthday in 1847 (who we don’t know if he is also the inventor of an extra leg on chairs to prevent unexpected falls), the United States celebrates National Inventors’ Day on 11 February.
Edison has gone down in history as one of the great names in the field of inventions, being responsible for the phonograph, the electric light bulb, the first electric power station or the kinetograph and the kinetoscope, the forerunners of the motion picture camera and the film projector.
Edison vs Tesla
Talking about Edison brings us to Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), the Serbian-born inventor from a village in present-day Croatia, which at the time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. To add more countries to the equation, and as a curiosity, his ashes rest in an urn in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, an institution founded by the Yugoslav government in 1952.
It is a paradox that Tesla only visited the Serbian capital on one occasion during his lifetime, since after studying in different parts of Europe he travelled to the United States, where he spent most of his professional career.
Why are we talking about Tesla in this section?
The War of the Currents
Because although there is no inventor’s day as such (neither in Serbia nor in Croatia), his clashes with Edison in the so-called ‘War of the Currents’ turned electricity into a battlefield.
To sum it up, Tesla advocated alternating current (AC) while Edison advocated direct current (DC). A clash that went beyond the merely academic or theoretical, since Tesla had worked for Edison when he moved to the American continent.
The Serbian demonstrated that Edison’s system was more expensive and inefficient at sending energy over considerable distances, something of particular relevance in a country the size of the United States.
Moreover, in addition to the struggle from the point of view of mere energy efficiency, there was an economic dispute (Edison associated with the banker JP Morgan and Tesla with the businessman George Westinghouse Jr) that led to an open war that reached cross accusations in newspapers and even demonstrations.
In spite of everything, alternating current gradually established itself as the most efficient system for electrifying the USA, to the point of being chosen for the electrical installations at Niagara Falls, on the border with Canada.
However, the history of quarrels and disputes between inventors is not limited to Edison and Tesla. For example, the differences between Alexander Graham Bell and Antonio Meucci over the telephone led to the former paying for the patent on the invention until, more than a century later, the US Congress recognised the Italian-American as the official inventor of the device.
