Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fire Extinguisher Balls

Posted by michael on from the slow-pitch dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes "The Far Eastern Economic Review has this article about a Thai inventor who has come up with throwable fire extinguisher balls. You just toss them into the fire, or place them in high risk areas, and - boom - they explode from the heat and spew various fire-retardants all over the place. According to the article, they will soon be on sale in Thailand's 7-Eleven stores and are being considered by US-based fire and safety supply company Tyco."

7 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Fire extinguisher bottles by sigwinch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This sounds like antique fire extinguisher bottles: thin glass "grenades" full of water or other chemicals that were tossed at fires.

    --

    --
    Kuro5hin.org: where the good times never end. ;-)

  2. invented? by tmarzolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Another spurrious patent ... if I recall this has been done (and patented) a long long time ago.
    HARDENS HAND GRENADE FIRE EXTINGUISHER", --> "PATENTED NO 1 AUG 8, 1871 AUG 14 1883

    For those who are interested check out the picture of the blue glass bulb towards the bottom of the page. Cached

    --

    This Sig has been depreciated.

    1. Re:invented? by crazyeddie · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yup, I've actually seen one of these. My great-grandfather built a cabin in the 1920's that my family still owns, and hanging on the wall in the kitchen is one of those glass "grenades" for putting out fires. It's red and shaped like a sno-cone. There is one like it in the above-linked picture in the bottom left corner. AFAIK it is original to the building. I probably wouldn't trust it to still work but I remember as a kid thinking that was a neat idea.

  3. In Russia it's routinely used... by WetCat · · Score: 4, Interesting
    there is a lot of such production for example on

    http://ognet.h1.ru

    English translation of the site is, for example:Babelfish translated

    So it's at least some prior art present...

  4. The Bad part... by Tazzy531 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The bad part is the high squeeching sound. Yes, I agree that if you were stuck somewhere it would help that it would emit a sound. But after you're rescued, you and/or the firefighter is not going to go around searching for this ball. Other people are going to hear it and go towards that sound in hopes of rescueing someone in effect, putting their life at risk...

    --


    _______________________________
    "I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
  5. I Have Seen A 1901 Model by ryanisflyboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Cleaning out the basement of an old historic building I used to work in we found something very similar to this. It was a glass sphere containing what appeared to be water. It looked a little like a lightbulb. It was attached to a holder on the wall with a spring loaded pin pointed at the sphere. Holding the pin in place was some sort of metal that looks like it would melt under heat (thus releassing the pin, bursting the bulb, and releasing the liquid). There is a picture of it here. I showed this to my father and step-father who are both professional firefighters (L.A. and Las Vegas). They mentioned that these things were very dangrous and were destoyed, they were used clear up to the 1950's. Apparently the clear liquid is a fire-retardant that upon hiting the fire puts it out, but also releases DEADLY fumes. Not to mention the shards of glass that fly everywhere. These devices were also ment to be used as "hand-grenades." Perhaps the innovation of the stories topic "invention" is that it doesn't have these draw backs.

  6. Auto-smashing bottle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Around 1945 I lived in a well-built house in Springfield, Mass. that had one or two glass balls above the oil-fired furnace, filled with carbon tetrachloride. Each had a spring-loaded hammer restrained by a fusible link. The phosgene (iirc) and other nasty decomposition products were apparently not considered at the time. The wooden beams and flooring above the furnace area were protected by some predecessor of drywall. There was also a fusible link and cable for a gravity-operated shutoff for the oil tank, which was inside the cellar.
    Enby in Waltham