Fire Extinguisher Balls

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."

Comments

Fire Extinguisher Balls

[teaserX]

That was my nickname in college.

Fire extinguisher bottles

[sigwinch]

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

No oxygen??

[Ark42]

Fire-proof powder, monoammonium phosphate and non-chlorofluorocarbon foam spurt out to dampen the flames and suck up the oxygen that keeps fires burning. At the same time, the ball emits a high-pitched alarm, set at 101 decibels--loud enough to signal for help and just tolerable to human ears.

so, you roll the ball into the fire, suffocate the burning victim, and then run away from the annoying sound the thing makes? sounds great!

invented?

[tmarzolf]

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

Re:invented?

[Anonymous Coward]

You display a stunning ignorance of how the patent system works. Worse then that, it's the same stunning ignorance that's causing many of the current problems with patents in the United States. Patents cover a specific product or process. They do NOT cover every possible way of doing a particular task.

If you develop a fire extinguisher in a glass ball, your patent covers things like the shape of the glass ball, the composition of chemicals inside, etc. It does NOT cover every possible one-use fire extinguisher that could possibly be made.

This later invention has a different containment system, contains different chemicals, and uses a different means of detecting when to go off (heat versus impact). It deserves it's own patent.

In Russia it's routinely used...

[WetCat]

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...

Fire Fighing Balls..

[j_kenpo]

For some odd reason, Im just picturing a guy throwing a ball at the fire and a big Pokemon coming out and squirting water at it.....

fyi, About Tyco

[Jeff Knox]

This is somewhat redundant as someone mentioned they are from Bermuda, purely for tax reasons of course (like Global Crossing is/was incorperated in bermuda as well) , which is correct, but to say they are a fire and safety company isnt even close to what Tyco is. Tyco is one of the largest conglomerates in the world in everything from electronics to healthcare. In fact, I would say fire & safety is the smallest part of their business. Its also one of the Top ten stocks in volume of trades every single day. A direct quote of their website probably explains them best.

"

Tyco International is the world's largest manufacturer and servicer of electrical and electronic components, as well as undersea telecommunications systems. We are also the world's largest manufacturer, installer, and provider of fire protection and electronic security services-not to mention our strong leadership positions in disposable medical products, plastics, and adhesives, and the manufacture of flow control valves. Our Company operates in more than 80 countries and has over 180,000 employees."

Re:Eye safety?

[wheany]

So would I, because I rutinely watch fires at a few meters with my mouth wide open.

The Bad part...

[Tazzy531]

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 sure I like this

[Our Man In Redmond]

I mean, I've spent the greater part of my adult life trying to keep my balls out of the fire.