The portable fire extinguisher is a vital appliance in every workplace these days, not least because authorities recognizing their vital role in fire security have made it illegal to not supply them. Have you ever thought about how long these ingenious devices have existed, or who it was that invented them?
Who Invented The First Fire Extinguisher?
The solution to this depends on what you mean by a fire extinguisher. The first illustration of something recognizable as a mobile fire fighting apparatus can be found nearly 200 years back. George Manby made this breakthrough from England in 1813 with what he called an 'Extincteur'. It consisted of a copper container which had within it three gallons of potassium carbonate solution and compressed air. This was the first illustration of the basic principle behind all fire now, where a fire suppressant is propelled from a container by a pressurized gas.
Credit should be given, but to the chemist Ambrose Godfrey, who devised the first automatic fire fighting device ninety years ahead of Manby's portable extinguisher. Abrose Godfrey's fire extinguisher wasn't supposed to be mobile, but to be left in place in an area to protect it if fire started. It could be regarded as a precursor to modern day sprinkler systems. Godfrey's apparatus had a series of fuses, which would be ignited if a fire started in the place. These would then detonate a small explosive charge inside a container full of liquid, which was then sprinkled round the room, extinguishing the flames.
George Manby's inventiveness didn't finish with this device, also he created various different creations that relied on exploiting the power of small explosions. One of the best known of these was the Manby Mortar, that was utilized to assist rescue ships in distress, by firing ropes from land onto the stricken vessels. His other ideas and creations included a method to rescue people who'd dropped into water and a mechanism to rescue people trapped in burning buildings by letting them leap to safety. He was also the first man to come up with the suggestion that there must be a nationwide fire rescue service.
Who Invented the Soda-Acid Fire Extinguisher
The soda-acid fire extinguisher works by mixing together two substances which react to produce carbon dioxide gas, which is then used to inject some liquid in the extinguisher. The very first illustration of a soda-acid fire extinguisher was in 1866 when Francois Carlier improved his in France. In this example tartaric acid was mixed with a solution of sodium bicarbonate to produce the gas.
In the US the first illustration of a soda-acid fire extinguisher is that the one patented by Almon M Granger in 1881, who employed concentrated sulfuric acid in his variant of the fire extinguisher. Each of soda-acid extinguishers functioned on the same basic principle, which had been that the acidity was contained within a little vial inside the appliance, and one of several approaches could be used for discharging the acid to the soda solution.
Normally the trigger to release the acid and combine the chemicals would be either a plunger or alternative system causing the breaking of the vial or a lever system to discharge a stopper out of one end of it. Either way, when the acidity was released, the reaction generated carbon dioxide, which then compelled liquid from this appliance in a jet, which could be directed in the flame by means of a hose or nozzle.
The earliest known illustration of a compound foam fire extinguisher has been devised in Russia from Alexander Laurant in 1905. The idea was quite similar to the principles of the soda-acid extinguisher, but a foam compound was included, which induced a few of the gas to be trapped in the liquid, making a foam. The foam compound was apparently often created from licorice root, and this could be in the soda solution. The extinguishers were usually activated by turning the appliance upside down to mix the substances.
Also known as CTC fire extinguishers, the carbon tetrachloride extinguisher was initially invented by the firm Pyrene about 1912. The extinguishers propelled the liquid CTC in the flame by way of a handheld. The CTC vaporized and generated a thick suffocating blanket within the fires, starving the fire of oxygen and preventing combustion. There was also a 'bomb' variant of the CTC extinguisher in the kind of a glass jar that you threw in the flame.
The potency of the CTC extinguisher on liquid and electrical fires made them quite popular with the automotive sector for quite a while, though the by-products of this procedure could have very serious health consequences, particularly in restricted spaces. It was therefore later replaced with extinguishers with less toxic chemicals.
That same basic principle devised by George Manby, in which a gas is used to force a combustion suppressant out of a container, is still the main mechanism behind all modern day mobile fire extinguishers. Most modern fire extinguishers will work on one of two main systems. The compressed gas will be stored within the main container, known as stored strain type extinguishers, or in a small cartridge inside, called gas capsule type extinguishers.
Stored pressure are the most frequent type of extinguishers, the advantage of gas cartridge being that they are simpler to recharge if used fairly frequently. Carbon dioxide fire extinguishers are the only exception to this in that they just contain liquid carbon dioxide under pressure.
The evolution and refinement of mobile fire extinguishers has come a very long way in the last two hundred years. The several different types of fire have now been classified, and all modern day fire extinguishers are provided a rating show which kind of fires they are safe to use on and how effective they are. These classifications and ratings are an important development because handling a fire with the incorrect type of fire extinguisher may have serious consequences, such as electrocution trigger by using a water extinguisher on an electrical fire. Find out more info click fdny fire extinguisher inspection