BLACK HISTORY MOMENT: REMEMBERING MARIE VANBRITTAN-BROWN, INVENTOR OF THE HOME SECURITY SYSTEM (6082 hits)
Marie VanBrittan Brown, Home Security Inventor
While home security systems today are more advanced than ever, back in 1966 the idea for a home surveillance device seemed almost unthinkable.
That was the year famous African-American inventor Marie VanBrittan Brown, and her husband Albert Brown, applied for an invention patent for a closed-circuit television security system – the forerunner to the modern home security system.
Marie Van Britton Brown was born on October 30, 1922 , in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. There is little known about her early life other than the fact that her parents stressed that she get a good education.
Her system had a set of four peep holes and a camera that could slide up and down to look out each one. Anything the camera picked up would appear on a monitor.
An additional feature of Brown’s invention was that a person also could unlock a door with a remote control. She was given an Award for the National Scientists Committee (NSC).
A female black inventor far ahead of her time, Marie Van Brittan Brown created an invention that was the first in a long string of home-security inventions that continue to flood the market today.
Marie died on February 2, 1999 at the age of 76 in Queens.
