First Fire Extinguisher

[Skott]

When was the first chemical or foam fire extinguisher made and who invented it/them?

[pluto]

Water. God.

[KCB615]

From the Fire Protection Handbook, 18th ed, p 6-386:


The first real portable fire extinguishers were developed in the late 1800's. They contained glass bottles of acid, which was released into a soda solution to produce a mixture with sufficient gas pressure to expel the solution. Cartridge-operated water extinguishers of the inverting type were introduced in the late 1920's....

The first foam extinguisher was developed in 1917, and it looked and worked much like the soda-acid extinguisher. The use of foam extinguishers steadily increased over the years until, during the 1950's, dry chemical extinguishers gained widespread acceptance.

In 1976, aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) extinguishers were introduced. These proved to be a direct replacement for the inverting foam type. The latest addition to water-type extinguishers came in 1988 with the introduction of film-forming flouroprotien foam (FFFP).

It doesn't say who made them, though...

[Skott]

Thanks Jeremy. I appreciate it.

[pluto]

What? Nobody thanked me?

;)