Many people think of high-tech security measures seen in heist movies when they think of burglar alarms. However, burglar alarms have been around for much longer than most people realize. The first burglar alarms were designed in America over 150 years ago. Hard to believe, huh?
The first burglar alarms, which appeared in the 1850s, weren’t as primitive as you might expect. These alarms ran on rather large batteries that connected individual alarm units to a large bell or gong. Since these alarms were initially designed for small shops and businesses, the arming devices for the burglar alarms were located outside the shop so they would protect stores during the night. When the alarm system was armed, opening a door or window would send an electric current from the battery to the alarm itself. Alarms of this nature were popular for many years.
However, criminals found ways to get around these systems. Since these alarms were armed from the outside, thieves and burglars could snip the wires to the alarm without even having to enter the premises. Also, as you can imagine, these alarms were only useful to businesses in shopping plazas and urban areas.
The next step in the evolution of burglar alarms was to hook a phone line to the alarm setup. This would send an electronic signal to a police station, and they could respond to the burglary themselves. Due to technical limitations of the time, this phone line had to be used solely for the burglar alarms. Likewise, it didn’t take long for criminals to cut the phone lines connected to burglar alarms.
This setup, with a few tweaks, was standard for home and small business burglar alarms until the 1990s. Digital technologies made the sensors in burglar alarms a bit more precise. A digital transmitter, still using the phone line, could send different signals to a monitoring center. This gave rise to multiple-purpose burglar alarms that would also alert a monitoring center in case of fire or other emergencies. Also, the advent of the monitoring system also created a buffer for false alarms, so the police would not report constantly to faulty alarms.
Phone line systems were later augmented with cellphone technology. Burglar alarms could now transmit signals to a monitoring center without wires, making it much harder for crooks to disable the alarms prior to breaking in. Although more complex security systems have been in development for larger institutions, these modern wireless burglar alarms are usually quite effective in deterring burglaries in residential areas.
Photo via KevinDooley
