Alice H. Parker

In the early 20th century, Alice H. Parker invented a device to heat homes more efficiently and safely using natural gas, which became one of the precursors for the development of the modern HVAC system.

Although there is little official documentation of Parker’s life and no verified photographs of her, it is believed that she was born in 1895 in Morristown, New Jersey, and that she graduated in 1910 from Howard University Academy in Washington, DC. She appears again in the historical record in 1919, when she was granted a patent for her invention of the Improved Heating-Furnace. While her device was not the first to use natural gas, it had a unique system of multiple but individually controllable burners to allow for customizing heat flow. 

One hundred years after her patent was granted, in 2019 the National Society of Black Physicists honored Parker, and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce established the Alice H. Parker Women Leaders in Innovation Awards. To learn more about what is known about Parker and the challenges of documentation and recognition for Black women inventors in her time period, read this article by Energy News Network.