BLACK HISTORY MOMENT: REMEMBERING MARIE VANBRITTAN-BROWN, INVENTOR OF THE HOME SECURITY SYSTEM
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.
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.
