Parker, Alice H.
c.1895-unknown · Contribution: 1919
Gas-powered central heating furnace

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
Her furnace design used natural gas to provide central heating throughout a building, an early step toward modern home heating systems.
Life & background
An inventor who patented a furnace design that used natural gas to heat an entire home through a network of ducts, an early forerunner of forced-air central heating.
Sources
- BlackPast.org; Lemelson-MIT; Howard University
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