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Overview
Burglar alarms have become an important theft deterrent. Many homes feature such technology, and the majority of commercial stores and businesses have alarms as well. It may be hard to imagine a world without this technology, but there was a time when alarm systems were a thing of the future.
Pre-Electrical Alarm
Alarm systems have been in use for centuries. However, until the mid-19th century, these alarms were rather simplistic. An English inventor by the name of Tildesley is credited with inventing the first home alarm system. His design linked a series of bells to a door lock, which caused them to jingle if someone attempted to open the door.
Electrical Alarm
The first electrical burglar alarm was patented in 1858 by Edwin Holmes. He used technologies pioneered by Augustus Pope. Using a small factory in Boston as his workspace, Holmes devised a setup involving a spring that was attached to a door or window. When the entryway was opened, the spring would release--which would cause an electrical circuit to close.
Features
Today, most home alarm systems are wired to send a signal directly to an alarm monitoring service. This was not the case for the original electrical alarm. Holmes' design merely resulted in the ringing of a bell, which was intended to alert the homeowner or store owner to the intrusion. The noise would often scare the would-be thieves away.
Expert Insight
The Holmes alarm system didn't gain popularity until several decades later. The public was initially skeptical of using electricity as a mechanism for burglar control. This would change with the introduction of electrical streetlights in 1880, which served to bolster confidence in other electrical inventions.
Considerations
The Holmes burglar alarm eventually became the first system to be wired directly to an emergency call system. This occurred in 1905, after the American Telephone and Telegraph Company bought Holmes' business.
