Marie van Brittan Brown invented the Home Security System

 

Marie van Brittan Brown

(1922-1999)

African American inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown contributed to a safer society with her invention of the first home security system.  Her invention was the first closed-circuit television security system and paved the way for modern home security systems used today. 

 

Brown was born in 1922 in Jamaica, Queens, New York. She started off her career working as a nurse. Her husband, Albert Brown, was an electronics technician.

 

 As a nurse, Brown worked long hours and would return home late at night. Her husband, too, had irregular hours so she was often alone at night. 

 

Fearful of being vulnerable in a high crime neighborhood, Brown decided to figure out  a way to see who was at her door if she heard knocking.