Brown, Marie Van Brittan (1922-1999), was an African American nurse and inventor . She received a patent for the first home security system.
Marie Van Brittan was born on Oct. 22, 1922, in the Queens borough (section) of New York City. She married Albert Brown, an electronics technician. She worked late hours as a nurse and was concerned about the slow response time of the police in her neighborhood. Marie created a home security system for their house and filed for a patent in 1966. Brown called her invention the “Home Security System Utilizing Television Surveillance.”
The system involved a camera that monitored four different areas, displaying surveillance footage on a television. The system also had a two-way microphone, a button to let visitors into the house, and a button that called the police. The patent was approved in 1969. However, Brown never found a manufacturer or marketed her invention. Brown died on Feb. 2, 1999, in Queens.
