Edwin Holmes

Edwin Holmes (April 25, 1820 – 1901) was an American businessman who is credited with inventing, commercializing the electromagnetic burglar alarm and with establishing the first burglar alarm networks. Biography Holmes was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts, to Sally Graves and Thomas Holmes. His father was from New Hampshire where he served as the town postmaster. Holmes married Eliza Ann Richardson. They had four children (two boys and two girls). One girl was Titanic survivor Ella Holmes White. Edwin started his business in 1849 in Boston, as a seller of household items and entrepreneur, and acquired skills which later helped him in establishing the burglar alarm industry. Burglar alarm The alarm was patented in 1853 by the Reverend Augustus Russell Pope (1819–1858) of Somerville, Massachusetts. Edwin Holmes acquired Pope's patent rights in 1857 for US$1500 and manufactured the device in his factory in Boston, Massachusetts. He began to sell them in 1858. His son Edwin Thomas Holmes took over his father's company after his death and documented the events in his biography, A Wonderful Fifty Years.