Scared about the high-crime rate in their neighborhood, husband and wife Albert and Marie Van Brittan Brown came up with a genius solution to keep their family safe at home. The Browns’ first design of a home security system incorporated many new technologies, including closed circuit television (CCTV). And even though their idea never came to fruition during their time, many of their principles are used in home and commercial security systems today.
Van Brittan was born on Oct. 22, 1922 in the Jamaica neighborhood of the borough of Queens, New York to a father from Massachusetts and a mother from Pennsylvania. Not much is known about her early years, but she ended up marrying Albert Brown and having two children. In the 1960s, Marie worked as a nurse, and Albert was employed as an electronics technician.
