International Women ’s day: women that pressed for progress

Wireless technology Wi-fi is all around us, in our homes, workplaces, cafes, and in many countries readily available in public spaces. However it was the technological advances from Hedy Lamarr in the 1940’s that revolutionized mobile communications. Hedy was a Vienna born Hollywood actress and together with her business partner and composer George Antheil, received a patent for a ‘secret communication system’ in 1942. This system known as frequency hopping, involved radio signals rapidly changing frequencies with only the sender and the receiver knowing the sequence. Originally designed for radio-guided torpedoes, frequency hopping would make them far more resilient to enemy jamming or detection. The pair gave the system to the U.S Navy but Lemarr’s ideas were ignored at first. Decades later the technology went on to be used by the military during the Cuban missile crisis and eventually become a constituent part of GPS, Wi-fi and Bluetooth. Windscreen wipers For those of us that drive or use public transportation, impaired vision during less than favorable weather conditions can result in dangerous driving conditions. The presence of windscreen wipers on cars makes it possible in such conditions due to Mary Anderson’s invention of the ‘swinging arm with a rubber blade’ in 1903. She drew up the concept for wipers after a trip from Alabama to New York where she observed drivers stopping their cars to get out and remove snow from the windshield. Despite initial ri...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Technology International Women's Day Invention Source Type: blogs