George Antheil (1900 - 1959)

Born 8 Jul 1900 in Trenton, Mercer Co, New Jersey, USA

Died 12 Feb 1959 at age 58 in New York City, New York, USA

Biography

George Antheil is Notable.

George Antheil has German Roots.

George was born in 1900. The son of German immigrants, he gained fame as pianist and composer in the avant-garde genre. His trademark work was the 1924 work "Le Ballet Mecanique", which incorporated sounds from machines like airplane propellers and car horns. He also wrote film scores for numerous movies in the 1930s. He passed away in 1959.^[1][2]

At a dinner party given by Janet Gaynor, George Antheil met Hedy Lamarr. Shortly after this meeting, Lamarr and Antheil invented and patented a secret communications system, U.S. Patent 2,292,387. The patent was applied for June 10, 1941, and received August 11th, 1942. The purpose of the system was to provide reliable and jam proof control of long range torpedoes. The system, inspired by the self-playing piano roll, involved the use of the frequency hopping principles of Spread Spectrum radio. However it was 20 years before it was put to effective use by the United States Navy in torpedo guidance systems, and 40 years before it was permitted by the FCC to be used in commercial radios.

Among other things, Spread Spectrum forms the basic principle that allows the use of simultaneous multi-channel operation used in modern digital cellular telephone systems. Spread spectrum is the basis for the communications security of the strategic $25 billion MILSAT Defense communications system.

At the beginning of World War II, composer George Antheil and American film actress Hedy Lamar developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi. This work led to their posthumous induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014 ^[3].

Hedy Lamar with Boski and George Antheil and two unknown people either end of them.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia, George Antheil
2. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #12841
3. ↑ National Inventors Hall of Fame https://www.invent.org/inductees/george-antheil

See also:

• George is mentioned in the book 'BOOSEY & HAWKES: THE PUBLISHING STORY' written by Helen Wallace.'Boosey & Hawkes, the Publishing Story' by Helen Wallace-1
• Guy Livingston, "George Antheil’s Childhood in Trenton"; published in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, September 2001. Hosted by Paris Transatlantic Magazine.
• autobiography, Bad Boy of Music, Garden City, New York: Doubleday (1945; various reprints and languages)