The actress told a friend who knew Antheil that she would like to meet him.

WSJ: Book Review: Hedy's Folly

Lamarr and Antheil offered their idea to America's armed forces, but it was not taken seriously.

ECONOMIST: Player-piano pioneer

Antheil and Lamarr eventually moved on to talking about the war in Europe.

WSJ: Book Review: Hedy's Folly

Lamarr and Antheil proposed using a punched-paper roll like that of a player piano.

ECONOMIST: Player-piano pioneer

Enter George Antheil, an American avant-garde composer whose works were known for using unorthodox instruments such as player-pianos, airplane propellers and sirens.

WSJ: Book Review: Hedy's Folly

As you have said, in 1940 Hedy Lamar (Obituary, January 29th) and a film-score composer, George Antheil, developed the technology, then called spread spectrum.

ECONOMIST: Letters | The

Ever scrambling to piece together an income, Antheil wrote frequently for Esquire magazine including articles on endocrinology, particularly female hormones, that happened to catch Lamarr's attention.

WSJ: Book Review: Hedy's Folly

Antheil lent his experience with synchronizing player pianos.

WSJ: Book Review: Hedy's Folly

U.S. Patent No. 2, 292, 387 for a "Secret Communication System" was issued to Hedy Kiesler Markey and George Antheil in 1942. (Markey was the surname of a husband she had divorced in 1940.) The frequency-hopping technology was not put to use in World War II, but it was employed in 1962 during the blockade of Cuba.

WSJ: Book Review: Hedy's Folly