We all have talents and some of those talents outshine others. Take a look at six well-known, even famous, people who have an engineer’s mind and skills, but who have been acclaimed for talents other than engineering.
Hedy Lamarr: A beauty with brains
Voted the most desirable, beautiful actress or pinup during World War II, few people know that Lamar had a workbench in her Hollywood home where she tinkered on a regular basis.
The beauty with brains had experimented with automated control of musical instruments. Together with George Antheil, she submitted the idea of a secret communication system in June 1941 and in 1942 received US Patent 2,292,387.
The patent was little-known until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Lamarr an award for her contribution -- A worthy one at that, as Lamarr and Antheil's frequency-hopping idea served as a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as Bluetooth, COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections, and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones.
It has been reported that Lamarr wanted to become better known for her inventiveness but was often brushed off by scientific communities because of her acting career or outright refused in certain circles because she was a woman.
Alfred Hitchcock: An engineer with a talent for suspense
Famed movie director Alfred Hitchcock was schooled in engineering before entering the film industry. He graduated from the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation before looking to the suspense and psychological thriller genres.
Hitchcock’s detailed practice of meticulously drawing scenes before shooting allowed him to work out whatever technical problems would arise. This allowed his film work to reflect what he had in his mind's eye (and on paper) onto the screen.
Indeed, it was his ability to think like an engineer that gave the film making pioneer his edge. For example, when working on “Vertigo,” Hitchcock wanted to simulate dizziness but was told it was too expensive to produce. That’s when he came up with a technique to simulated dizziness by zooming in with a camera while moving the camera backward, giving a sort of double vision look to the shot.
Herbert Clark Hoover: Kept engineering civil
When EDN asked why engineers haven’t taken over the world, our readers chimed in with some very interesting answers. One reader, Ed Norbeck, emailed to remind that one engineer did, in a way.
Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, was a civil engineer before taking a seat in the White House.
Hoover once said of engineering:
Engineering ... it is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer's high privilege.
(Collected. To be continued)