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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Mike Rowe (of "Dirty Jobs" fame) has a podcast [mikerowe.com] that follows in the footsteps of Paul Harvey's, "The Rest of the Story," wherein he covers little-known history about famous people or events. His March 1, 2016 episode, "25 Million Dollar Kiss," covers Hedy Lamarr [wikipedia.org], a 30's and 40's era film star and brunette bombshell who was also a visionary inventor. She invented an improved traffic light and "a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink." [wikipedia.org] Her greatest invention, though, was the radio-spectrum hopping principle at the heart of Wi-Fi, CDMA, and Bluetooth to help the Navy's radio-guided torpedoes defeat Nazi jamming in WWII.

The Navy, however, ignored her invention, which she patented, until the 1960's because it came from a woman and film star. In fact, when she tried to join the National Inventor's Council to bring her ideas to help with the war effort, she was told to go sell war bonds by selling kisses instead. She raised $25 million that way, and never received recognition for that either.

She died in impoverished seclusion, estranged from her children, in 2000.

It's a fascinating and sad story of unrecognized genius. Even fame and fortune aren't enough to guarantee you history's plaudits if your contemporaries aren't willing to listen to what you're trying to say because of who you are.

Original Submission