During World War II, Hedy Lamarr was listening to her friend, George Antheil, playing the piano. Antheil was a "far-out" composer, and his piece modulated in key at every note.

This gave Lamarr the idea of a jam-proof method of radio transmission. Idea: change the frequency of transmission at every signal, with a planned "menu" of variations known to the receiver. Any unwanted listener would not have time to uncrypt this "coding" in order to understand the message or to "jam" the transmisstion by competing signals. Antheil worked on the method with Lanarr and the two received a patent for the invention. Hedy was so elated about this that, for a time, she considerered abandoning her film career and taking up the "inventing" profession.

However, WWII ended without its use. No one seemed interested. Lamarr and Antheil allowed the patent to lapse. A company then became interested and secured its own patent for the method and sold liscenses for its use in American submarines.