United States Patent and Trademark Office

Have you heard? James E. West celebrates a milestone birthday on February 10. The world hears things a lot better due to the efforts of West, an acoustical science inventor who turns 90 this month.

In 1942, the iconic actress received a patent from the then-National Inventors Council for co-inventing a radio signaling device that changed radio frequencies to keep enemies from decoding messages. She figured the device could help in the World War II effort.