No, Hedy Lamarr did not invent Wi-Fi.

It would be more accurate to say she invented Bluetooth — but even that would be a stretch. What she did invent was the spread spectrum radio transmission technique known as Frequency Hopping, which is used in Bluetooth today but not in Wi-Fi.

During World War II, Hedy Lamarr patented a concept for a “Secret Transmission System” — US Patent 2,292,387 — that she and her co-inventor envisioned as providing a more secure method of controlling torpedoes. Many years later this radio transmission technique was incorporated by the FCC as an allowed “spread spectrum” method that could be used by unlicensed, low-power devices. Frequency Hopping was incorporated as an option within the original 1997 version of the IEEE wireless LAN standard, but by 1999 it was clear that the alternative “Direct Sequence” technique would support higher data rates — and when Wi-Fi was launched it was only Direct Sequence that was supported.

Today, the entire wireless industry is jealous that someone could be so successful in two radically different careers — and she is honored as respected wireless pioneer.

Read more about this story in Beyond Everywhere.