About 30% of homes in America have some type of home security system but do you know who Mary Van Brittan Brown is?
Back in 1966, Mary Ban Brittan Brown, a Black American nurse, created an early security unit for her own home. Living in Queens, New York, she spent many nights home alone while her husband was away. With the crime rates being so high and the police being unreliable and unresponsive, she wanted a way to feel safe at home.
This lead to the creation of a system that used a camera that would slide into and look through four peepholes in her front door. She would be able to see any potentially unwanted guest with the camera’s view appearing on a monitor in her home.
She added other features to the system, including a microphone to speak to anyone at the door, a button to unlock the door, and a button to contact the police. She and her husband took out a patent for the system in the same year, and they were awarded the patent three years later in 1969. The home security systems that are found is most homes today are derived from her design.