There was an article on the news couple of days ago that mentioned that Hedy Lamar (the movie actress) invented a key part of the technology that makes wifi, GPS and cell phone technology work. Apparently there are a number of inventions that are attributed to people famous or known for other reasons. For instance, the first artificial heart was patented by Paul Winchell, a popular ventriloquist when I was young and recently the voice of Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh cartoons.
And Zeppo Marx invented the first moist heating pad, a clamp that is still used in the space program and the first wristwatch that could measure a person’s pulse.
And then there was William Marston — to say he had an unconventional life would certainly be an understatement. He had three degrees from Harvard, one a PHD in psychology.
The Systolic Blood Pressure Test was invented in 1915. The Systolic Blood Pressure Test would be incorporated into the Polygraph Test, the modern version of the “Lie Detector” Test.
Wonder Woman was created in 1941. The fictional heroine debuted in DC Comics.
What do these two things have in common? They were created by the same person — yep, William Marston.
Marston began work on his Systolic Blood Pressure Test in 1915 while attending Harvard. He became interested in the idea that the difference in a person’s blood pressure might determine their mood when his wife, Elizabeth said “Whenever I get mad or excited, my blood pressure seems to climb.” Marston came up with the Systolic Blood Pressure Test with the hope that the spikes in a person’s blood pressure could deduce whether the person was lying when asked a series of questions.
Marston did a lot of work with the polygraph, trying to commercialize it. As a result of his work, he became convinced that women were more honest than men and he also thought they could work faster and more accurately at many jobs. That was pretty radical thinking back then.
Not only was Dr. William Marston an internationally famous psychologist, that was obsessed with people’s personalities, and their secrets, he was also a prolific writer of screenplays, novels and articles — and — a consulting psychologist for Universal Pictures.
In 1940, he was hired by Maxwell Charles Gaines, the founder of All-American Comics that published the popular Superman and Batman comic books at that time. However, the comic books were being criticized for their violence and sexual imagery. Marston was appointed to the editorial board for the comics and he believed the best way to counteract what he called the “blood-curdling masculinity” of the comics world was with a female superhero and he submitted his script for Wonder Woman in February of 1941. Wonder Woman’s signature secret weapon was the “Lasso of Truth” — a golden rope. While bound with it, anyone was compelled to tell the truth and do as she commanded. The lasso worked much better than a polygraph, but it’s pretty clear that Dr. Marston came up with Wonder Woman’s golden lasso because of his work on the polygraph.
So as to not offend any Wonder Woman fans, I should mention that the Lasso of Truth was previously owned by the Greek Goddess Hestia and it is sometimes referred to as the Lasso of Hestia. The lasso itself is approximately twenty feet long — that gives it sufficient range while not compromising the user’s ability to wield it easily. However, its length can be magically extended to allow for extra range. After reading the news today, I think one of these might come in handy today…
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