History of the Antique Fire Extinguisher

Nowadays antique firefighting equipment is very much in demand by firefighting memorabilia collectors worldwide. One particular item which always draws attention is the antique fire extinguisher.
  The earliest types of antique fire extinguisher date back to the early 1700’s. These antique fire extinguishers were of a primitive design consisting of a cask filled with a fire retardant liquid, incorporated in the internal construction of the cask was a gunpowder charge connected by a light-able fuse. The fuse would be lit which ignited the gunpowder which in turn exploded the cask releasing the liquid onto the fire.
   The first modern type of antique fire extinguishers were patented in the early 1800’s. They consisted of a mixture of compressed air and potaasium carbonate in a copper cylinder. On operation the compressed air would expel the potassium carbonate at the base of the flames.
A further development of this design was patented in France in 1866, which utilised the the internal mixing of water, sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid to produce carbon dioxide gas.The carbon dioxide gas was directed at the seat of the fire to extinguish the flames

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