This is day 4 of our theme week on Things You Didn’t Know Were Invented by Women! Today we’re talking about home security systems, which were invented by Marie Van Britton Brown in 1966. She was a nurse and her husband was an electrician, so they both had irregular work hours. This meant that Marie was often home alone at night. Their neighborhood in Jamaica, Queens had a high crime rate and it often took police a long time to respond if there was an incident. So Marie decided to invent the very first home security system with the help of her husband. Their invention consisted of 4 peepholes, a sliding camera, TV monitors, and microphones. She later added a system to unlock the door with a remote and a way to contact police and emergency responders with just the tap of a button. They submitted their patent application in 1966 and it was granted in 1969. Her invention was the first closed-circuit TV security system and its the predecessor of all modern home systems today. Learn more here.
