10/09/2026
In the 1930s, parents in London routinely placed babies in wire mesh "baby cages" suspended outside apartment windows, several stories above the ground.
The cage was patented in the US in 1922 by Emma Read of Spokane, Washington as a "portable baby cage" - a housing to be suspended upon the exterior of a building adjacent an open window where a baby could get fresh air and sunlight. The design took off in London in the 1930s, when apartment dwellers without backyards used them to follow doctors' advice to give infants fresh air. The Chelsea Baby Club even distributed cages around the city, and some 1930s photos show the cages in regular use. Patent No. 1,448,235 was granted March 13, 1923.
