ARCHIVE NO. 013

Alice H. Parker patented a natural gas heating system in 1919 — a furnace with individually controlled units that pushed warm air through ducts to separate rooms. It was never put into commercial production, but the design is credited as the first to bring natural gas into a ducted, room-by-room home heating system — the same basic idea behind the central heating running through your house right now.

Here's what history left out completely: nobody knows what she looked like. Every photo commonly used online to represent her belongs to someone else — one is a different woman entirely, born five years after the patent was granted. Her birth year is disputed. Even her connection to Howard University, repeated in nearly every account of her life, can't be confirmed.

Some names get forgotten. Hers got erased so completely we don't even have her face.

Now you know it existed. Wear that.

The Buillth Central Heating tee is part of the Never Forget collection — wearable archives honoring the Black inventors who built the modern world and never got the credit.

The design: Museum-inspired archival badge artwork. Furnace, duct network, room heat distribution diagram — the invention that made winter livable, made wearable.

Wear it. They'll ask. Then you tell them.

The shirt: Unisex tee. 100% ring-spun cotton. Soft, durable, built for everyday wear. Tear-away label. Runs true to size.

→ Read the full story of Alice H. Parker on the Buillth inventor page.

Documented from U.S. Patent 1,325,905.

Be the one who knows. Never get caught without the answer.