9781422273128

Think about it. Agriculture was invented by someone. Without farming, human beings would not have been able to settle down and build societies. Can you imagine what it would be like if we were still hunters and gatherers? Or what about the wheel? Imagine where we would be if no one had ever come up with this simple but powerful invention! Think about what you do on a daily basis. The food you eat, the house you live in, and even the bus you ride to school are all complex inventions. But they were not always this complicated. An invention that has been around for a long time The Browns planned to pursue commercial opportunities for the patent, but it appears they did not do so. However, their invention inspired many of the home security systems we use today. More than ten inventors have cited the Browns’ patent when applying for patents for their own devices. Marie Brown died in Queens on February 2, 1999. INVENTOR PROFILE: MARIE BROWN Marie Brown (née Van Brittan), an African American nurse, was the inventor of the first home security system. She is also credited with inventing the first closed-circuit television system. Brown was born in Queens, New York, on October 22, 1922. Her husband, Albert Brown, an electronics technician, was away at work many nights, and she worried about the high level of crime in her neighborhood. Brown wanted a way to see and hear who was at the door from any room in her house. In 1966, she created a design that included a closed- circuit security system that monitored visitors via camera and transmitted their images onto a television monitor; cameras that would slide over peepholes to capture images of who was at the door; microphones that allowed a resident to talk with the person at the door; a remote control option that allowed users to lock or unlock the door; and a panic button that could be used to contact the police. Brown and her husband filed the patent for her “Home Security System Utilizing Television Surveillance” on August 1, 1966. Their application was approved on December 2, 1969. A New York Times article about the couple stated that “with the patented system, a woman alone in the house could alarm the neighborhood immediately by pressing a button, and installed in a doctor’s office it might prevent holdups by drug addicts.”

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WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE AN INVENTOR?