Patent for a “Secret communication system”
US 2292387 --> on the exhibition bookshelf

In 1941 the actress with the stage name Hedy Lamarr and the composer George Antheil filed a patent for a method of encrypting radio signals. The carrier signal was to be repeatedly switched between frequencies synchronically in both the transmitter and the receiver (“frequency hopping”), which would guarantee security against interception. The idea arose during an attempt to synchronise 16 reproduction pianos at a concert by Antheil. Originally the method was only used infrequently (the Cuba missile crisis in the 1960s), but today it plays a significant role in mobile phones, Bluetooth, WLAN etc as a means of increasing the throughput speed for data.

 
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