Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes delivers a remarkable story of science history: how a ravishing film star and an avant-garde composer invented spread-spectrum radio, the technology that made wireless phones, GPS systems, and many other devices possible.
Beginning at a Hollywood dinner table, Hedy's Folly tells a wild story of innovation that culminates in U.S. patent number 2,292,387 for a "secret communication system." Along the way Rhodes weaves together Hollywood’s golden era, the history of Vienna, 1920s Paris, weapons design, music, a tutorial on patent law and a brief treatise on transmission technology. Narrated with the rigor and charisma we've come to expect of Rhodes, it is a remarkable narrative adventure about spread-spectrum radio's genesis and unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.
- Available now
- Time to Brush Up On Some Classics?
- New eBook additions
- New kids additions
- New teen additions
- Most popular
- Try something different
- See all
- 2024 Audie Winners & Finalists
- ALA Listen List
- New audiobook additions
- Available now
- New kids additions
- New teen additions
- Celebrity Readers
- Quick Listens
- See all
- Home & Garden
- Tech & Gaming
- Business & Finance
- Fashion
- Health & Fitness
- Travel & Outdoor
- Celebrity
- Food & Cooking
- Family & Parenting
- News & Politics
- Photography
- See all