The prototype of the automatic fire extinguishing system was developed by our compatriot Kozma Dmitrievich Frolov back in 1770. He worked at the Zmeinogorsk mines of the Altai Territory and was seriously engaged in hydraulic power machines. One of his projects was just a powerful pumping fire extinguishing system, which, however, did not find understanding among the tsarist administration. A detailed drawing of the unit was discovered only in the 60s of the last century by the archivists of the Altai Museum of Local Lore. In the event of a fire in the room, it was only necessary to open the tap, and water began to flow from the pipes of the irrigation system under pressure in fountains. The suction pumps were driven by a large water wheel.
Kozma Dmitrievich Frolov
Stationary fire extinguishing installation designed by Frolov, 1770
And only 36 years later in England something similar was patented by the inventor John Carrie. In 1806, an extensive fire extinguishing system was installed for the first time in the world in London's Royal Theater Drury Lane, including a water tank with a capacity of about 95 cubic meters, from which distribution pipes diverged throughout the building. From the latter, thinner irrigation pipes, equipped with holes for water, departed. In a "fire case", a London plumber's powerful steam pump had to quickly fill a reservoir with water, from which the liquid was sent by gravity to extinguish the fire. There was even a contract with the plumbing service "to bring the pump to full readiness to fill the reservoir within 20 minutes of the alarm being triggered." Design engineer William Congreve, based on Carrie's patent, provided taps that could only supply water to burning parts of the theater. Obviously, such an innovation worked quite well - Drury Lane is still standing.
London Theater Drury Lane
Over time, huge reservoirs with water and a developed network of irrigation pipes located in the upper part of buildings have become quite common in public places in Europe, Russia and the United States. Many of them migrated to the fire extinguishing systems of ships. Such developments were brought to automatism by Henry Parmeli and Frederic Grinel, who in 1882 proposed sprinkler systems.
Left - Grinel hinged water valve, right - Grinel sprinklers in open and closed positions
The valve in the sprinkler was activated by melting a gutta-percha plug or a low-melting metal. There were also variants in which a mixture of wax, rubber and stearin acted as a heat-sensitive substance. Also, fire safety engineers suggested pulling ropes to the valves, which, when burned out during a fire, opened irrigation holes for water pressure.
Rope fire section valve control system, 1882
The main driver of the development of sprinkler fire extinguishing systems was light industry enterprises, where fires were frequent events. One of the most advanced options for automatic water extinguishing systems is steel tubes, perforated with holes only 0.25 mm thick. Moreover, they were sent to the ceiling, which in an emergency created a voluminous fountain of water in the room. Barnabas Wood significantly supplemented the design of such a technique with an alloy of his own invention, consisting of tin (12.5%), lead (25%), bismuth (50%) and cadmium (12.5%). An insert made of such Wood's alloy became liquid already at 68.5 ° C, which became the "gold standard" of most sprinklers of subsequent generations.
Sprinkler system Grinel. In the picture: a - a short pipe with a diameter of ½ inch, screwed into the water pipe and closed from below with a flat valve b; the valve is held in place by a lever c and a support d. The support d is attached to the copper arc e of the apparatus using a weak solder that melts at 73 ° C
Considering the history of foam fire extinguishing, one cannot fail to mention the Russian priority in this area. In 1902, chemical engineer Alexander Georgievich Laurent came up with the idea of using foam to suppress fire. Legend has it that the thought came to him in the pub, when after another glass of intoxicating drink a little foam accumulated at the bottom. The unit “Lorantina” was created, generating foam from the products of the interaction of acid with alkali in a soap solution. Laurent saw the main purpose of his creation in extinguishing fires in oil fields near Baku. During the demonstration demonstrations, "Laurentina" successfully suppressed the burning of tanks and puddles of oil.
Laurent's numerous tests of foam fire extinguishers
Alexander Georgievich Laurent and his foam fire extinguisher
The Russian inventor also had a modernized version of a fire extinguisher, in which foam was formed mechanically from a solution of carbon dioxide and licorice as a foaming agent. As a result, the engineer on the "Lorantin" managed to obtain a privilege in 1904, and three years later, Laurent was issued an American patent US 858188. As usually happens, the Russian bureaucratic machine made it impossible to organize the production of a foam fire extinguisher at public expense. Laurent became desperate and organized in St. Petersburg a small private office for the production of his "Laurens", which he gave the name "Eureka". It is noteworthy that the engineer in "Eureka" was a professional studio photographer, which brought in considerable income. By 1908, the fire extinguisher business was in full swing, and Laurent's own forces for production were no longer enough. As a result, he sold his business to Gustav Ivanovich List, the owner of a Moscow plant, where they began to make foam fire extinguishers under the Eureka-Bogatyr brand.
Advertising poster of the fire extinguisher "Eureka-Bogatyr"
But List turned out to be not the most honest industrialist - after a few years, his engineers made minor changes to the design of the Eureka, which made it possible to bypass Laurent's patents and sell equipment without sharing the proceeds with him. The main competitors of the Eureka foam were the Minimax acid fire extinguisher, which, however, was seriously inferior to the Russian design in terms of efficiency. Moreover, our equipment pressed the German "Minimax" in many markets, which irritated the Germans - they even wrote a petition to ban "dangerous" foam fire extinguishers. Indeed, Laurent's designs were inferior to foreign counterparts in terms of reliability and ease of use, but the efficiency was simply excellent. Unfortunately, all information about the inventor Laurent is cut off in 1911. What happened to him is still unknown.
Acidic "Minimax" - the main competitors of "Lorantina"
Many years later, Concordia Electric AG, in 1934, seriously modernized the foam fire extinguisher, taking as a basis compression foam, which flew into the fire from a nozzle under a pressure of 150 atmospheres. Further, the foam began to march around the world: the mentioned "Minimax" developed a wide range of foam fire extinguishers, many of which were automatic and installed in engine compartments and structures with flammable substances.
Stationary foam fire extinguisher "Minimax" of the 30s of the XX century
Floating fire extinguisher "Perkeo"
Perkeo generally developed a floating foam fire extinguisher to suppress fire in large containers of fuel. In the 20th century, foam fire extinguishing has long occupied an important place in the technique of fire fighters, becoming a simple and at the same time effective method of fighting fires.
