Vintage Fire Extinguishers

[RetroToday]

Anybody else here have a vintage fire extinguisher on display around the house? Would love to see them.

This is the only one I have, a nice handy little 1930s Pyrene brand pump-action extinguisher. Measures about 14" from nozzle to handle.
Also included is a 1930 newspaper advertisement I found that prominently features my extinguisher. I was quite happy to have found that ad.

I mounted it on the wall beside my 1930 Victor Radio-Electrola radio/phono, just in case a 'vintage fire' breaks out.

The wall-mount bracket that came with the extinguisher.

 

[Lucky Strike]

Some stuff; first, a 1940-dated extiguisher, quite similar to a couple of the ones in the ad above:

A fireman's helmet, ca. 1870:

Late 19th C extinguisher:

Early 19th C fire-buckets in leather:

The buckets are contemporaries of this type of "extinguisher", these were kept beside fireplaces up until the late 19th C:

Turn-of-the-century nozzles:

A turn-of-the-century fire-cart:

And my favourite, a Keystone "Packard No. 56" toy:

 

[High Pockets]

Anybody else here have a vintage fire extinguisher on display around the house? Would love to see them.

That's really nice,...I love the way you've got it displayed.


Mine just set on the floor of the Man-Cave:


An old "Automatic" by G.W Diener Mfg. Co. soda/acid

Bugs Bunny's favorite brand "Acme" soda/acid

And I've got a really nice "American La France" loaned to the Oklahoma City Fire-fighter's Museum,....they asked if they could put it on display in it's running-board-mount on an Engine that carried it as original factory equipment.





Any last but not least; wife's vintage fire-extinquisher that hangs around the house:

 

[Feraud]

Some stuff; first, a 1940-dated extiguisher, quite similar to a couple of the ones in the ad above:

This is nearly the exact extinguisher my parents had in our family owned grocery store. I recall seeing it in the late 70s to early 80s.
The thing probably couldn't extinguish a match by then..

 

[rumblefish]

Anybody else here have a vintage fire extinguisher on display around the house? Would love to see them.

This is the only one I have, a nice handy little 1930s Pyrene brand pump-action extinguisher. Measures about 14" from nozzle to handle.
Also included is a 1930 newspaper advertisement I found that prominently features my extinguisher. I was quite happy to have found that ad.

I mounted it on the wall beside my 1930 Victor Radio-Electrola radio/phono, just in case a 'vintage fire' breaks out.

That extinguisher if not empty, has carbon tetrachloride in it. Careful...
Before Halons, that was the stuff used in extinguishers because besides being heavier than air, it would cause no extra damage like a water or CO2 extinguisher would. Besides all it's health hazards on it's own carbon tetrachloride makes phosgene gas when heated,,, like in a fire...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene

I used to find hundreds of vintage fire extinguishers when I worked as a fire equipment serviceman. Most soda acids were steel, but plenty were copper and/or brass. We used to just sell them for scrap.:eusa_doh:

The stuff I would find in ships and boats were most unusual... I wish I had kept some or taken pictures. One oddity I found in an old boat was a glass grenade filled with carbon tetrachloride- to be thrown into a fire.

 

[SpatzKat]

That extinguisher if not empty, has carbon tetrachloride in it. Careful...
Before Halons, that was the stuff used in extinguishers because besides being heavier than air, it would cause no extra damage like a water or CO2 extinguisher would. Besides all it's health hazards on it's own carbon tetrachloride makes phosgene gas when heated,,, like in a fire...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene

I used to find hundreds of vintage fire extinguishers when I worked as a fire equipment serviceman. Most soda acids were steel, but plenty were copper and/or brass. We used to just sell them for scrap.:eusa_doh:

The stuff I would find in ships and boats were most unusual... I wish I had kept some or taken pictures. One oddity I found in an old boat was a glass grenade filled with carbon tetrachloride- to be thrown into a fire.

I have a Pyrene like this in the basement. Any ideas on how to safely discard the contents after discharge?

 

[Highlander]

I got one, I'll get a picture of it and post it...

 

[RetroToday]

Thanks everyone, happy to see these pics.

Highlander: Please do, will enjoy seeing it.

Lucky Strike: I seem to remember somebody posting great quality photos like this before. Are you the guy who works (or worked) taking photos for auction houses? Neat stuff!

High Pockets: Love the 'man cave' loot. Great extinguishers, especially the last one that hangs around the house.

rumblefish: Thank you very much for the warning about the tetrachloride.
After your post I turned my extinguisher around and could hear the liquid flowing around inside. Bought this one at a garage sale and just assumed it had already been emptied.
Like SpatzKat I'd also like to hear a recommendation on proper disposal of the contents, if you don't mind.

Here's one other vintage fire fighting related item I have, a 1930s Gamewell Fire Alarm pull box. Of course, it's not directly made to fight fires, but these definitely would get the fire department to come to the scene to put out a fire. I restored it a couple of years ago.

Mine used to be mounted on a wall in the Ontario Government Building of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. The building still exists, now functions as the "Liberty Grand" entertainment complex.
http://www.libertygrand.com/index2.html

The Ontario Government Building of the CNE, completed in 1926.

 

[High Pockets]

Thanks everyone, happy to see these pics.

Highlander: Please do, will enjoy seeing it.

Lucky Strike: I seem to remember somebody posting great quality photos like this before. Are you the guy who works (or worked) taking photos for auction houses? Neat stuff!

High Pockets: Love the 'man cave' loot. Great extinguishers, especially the last one that hangs around the house.

rumblefish: Thank you very much for the warning about the tetrachloride.
After your post I turned my extinguisher around and could hear the liquid flowing around inside. Bought this one at a garage sale and just assumed it had already been emptied.
Like SpatzKat I'd also like to hear a recommendation on proper disposal of the contents, if you don't mind.

Here's one other vintage fire fighting related item I have, a 1930s Gamewell Fire Alarm pull box. Of course, it's not directly made to fight fires, but these definitely would get the fire department to come to the scene to put out a fire. I restored it a couple of years ago.

Mine used to be mounted on a wall in the Ontario Government Building of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. The building still exists, now functions as the "Liberty Grand" entertainment complex.
http://www.libertygrand.com/index2.html

Those are beautiful!!!

I remember when boxes like that hung on telephone poles on every street corner. In the early sixties they started putting a green fluorescent grease on the hook so they could tell which little smart alec pulled it for fun! (At least that's what we were told it was for)

 

[rumblefish]

rumblefish: Thank you very much for the warning about the tetrachloride.
After your post I turned my extinguisher around and could hear the liquid flowing around inside. Bought this one at a garage sale and just assumed it had already been emptied.
Like SpatzKat I'd also like to hear a recommendation on proper disposal of the contents, if you don't mind.

I have a Pyrene like this in the basement. Any ideas on how to safely discard the contents after discharge?

Speak to some one at your local fire department. A fire extinguisher company would probably charge you for taking the chemical from you. Some municipalities offer a sort of amnesty day or week when they take any kind of hazardous waste without question. My father used to keep carbon-tet in a jelly jar to clean electrical contacts. It stayed there until he passed away and then it, along with a bunch of other nasties, became my problem. The town took it from me during one of these "we'll take what you got" days. I forget how those extinguishers come apart, but I'm sure they we're built to be rechargeable. If they are, then something like the nozzle or the flange at the handle end would unscrew. If not, carefully pumping it in to a glass container until would do the trick- do it outside. I should also mention that it poses no immediate threat being in that extinguisher, it stayed there for 80 years, it'll probably stay another 100. I would just worry if it were easy to knock down or if children got at it.

Remember-these were for only class B and C fires, you'll need a soda acid for class A. And if class D fires are a threat...

 

[RetroToday]

Speak to some one at your local fire department. A fire extinguisher company would probably charge you for taking the chemical from you. Some municipalities offer a sort of amnesty day or week when they take any kind of hazardous waste without question. My father used to keep carbon-tet in a jelly jar to clean electrical contacts. It stayed there until he passed away and then it, along with a bunch of other nasties, became my problem. The town took it from me during one of these "we'll take what you got" days. I forget how those extinguishers come apart, but I'm sure they we're built to be rechargeable. If they are, then something like the nozzle or the flange at the handle end would unscrew. If not, carefully pumping it in to a glass container until would do the trick- do it outside. I should also mention that it poses no immediate threat being in that extinguisher, it stayed there for 80 years, it'll probably stay another 100. I would just worry if it were easy to knock down or if children got at it.

Remember-these were for only class B and C fires, you'll need a soda acid for class A. And if class D fires are a threat...

Thanks again rumblefish,

The wall-mounting harness that it came with does secure the extinguisher to the wall very well and holds the handle in place so that it won't be accidentally discharged while on the wall.

I don't believe this extinguisher would come apart very easily, you'd probably have to cut it open. There is however a screw near the handle where it can be re-filled or emptied.
You can see that hexagonal headed screw near the handle in that 1930 advertisment I posted.

Though this really poses no immediate threat I think it might be best to empty it, so that there is no chance at all for any accident to happen.

 

[Feathers]

My husband and I thought this one was pretty spiffy:

We saw it when we were in Door County last year for our anniversary. If you're ever up there check out the museum. They have a whole slew of fun stuff, like this fire truck!

 

[jeep44]

I have an old Gamewell box from the Willow Run bomber plant in Ypsilanti,MI. For a while longer, it is still a GM plant,and I worked there for 30 years. One day,when they were tearing down the old personnel office from the Ford days, I noticed this box sitting on a pile of rubble, and heaved it into the back of my truck. They are still everywhere in the plant, and most of them have been in the same places since 1942. Back then, the doors of the boxes had "Ford Motor Company" cast into them in raised letters. Some later plant owner, either Kaiser-Fraser or GM, had that carefully ground off each box. It was done very well, and you have to look closely to see that there used to be something there (mine is ground,too). A very few escaped the grinding, and one was carefully preserved in the assembly room as a sort of shrine to the Bomber days. It was still a working box,BTW.

Those small Pyrene fire extinguishers were mounted in many WW2 military vehicles,and correct ones are sought-after,especially the ones for Jeeps. I have a 'General-Detroit' one under the dash of my Dodge Weapons Carrier.

 

[Shangas]

I must ask...are any of the fire-extinguishers featured in this thread still operational and functional to the point that they'd put out a fire in an emergency? Or are they just there for decoration?

 

[RetroToday]

My husband and I thought this one was pretty spiffy:

We saw it when we were in Door County last year for our anniversary.
If you're ever up there check out the museum...

Seems like a cool museum. That's one of those extinguishers that rumblefish wrote about, a glass grenade filled with carbon tetrachloride.

I must ask...are any of the fire-extinguishers featured in this thread still operational and functional to the point that they'd put out a fire in an emergency? Or are they just there for decoration?

As long as the chemicals inside haven't changed their composition over this many years I believe they would still put out a fire. From what rumblefish has warned in his first response, it seems the ones with tetrachloride are still active and will actually do more harm than good, creating a harmful gas when heated.

The Gamewell pull box I have works very well, but it isn't hooked up to an alarm system. Again, it doesn't put out fires.
To reset the alarm it has a knob you manually crank on the inside which tightens a spring that mechanically powers the workings of the alarm, much like a watch music box or gramophone. These alarms sent out their alloted location number (in a sort-of morse code) back to the main fire call station.

jeep44: Thanks for the information on the call boxes, very interesting how these were customized.
Until you mentioned it I didn't know they made them like that for Ford, sounds like they would have been beautiful looking. A shame they ground the lettering out. :eusa_doh:

 

[rumblefish]

I must ask...are any of the fire-extinguishers featured in this thread still operational and functional to the point that they'd put out a fire in an emergency? Or are they just there for decoration?

All those vintage extinguishers are not pressurized. If they weren't supposed to be mechanically pumped, they stood with two unmixed ingredients- soda (sodium bicarb) and acid. When the cylinder was turned upside down a small container of acid either broke or spilled its contents into the water with the sodium bicarb. Then, like the experiment mixing vinegar and baking soda, it would make carbon dioxide, pressurize the cylinder, and force out the liquid from the nozzle.

Making one operational, if it wasn't already, would mean making the pump operational and charge it with it's extinguishing agent; water, film forming foam, carbon tetrachloride (which carbon-tet is no longer available) for a pump type. Or having the glass container filled with acid and the cylinder filled with water and sodium bicarbonate for a soda acid type.

 

[Highlander]

Finally got a photo, and a few of my old nozzels I've acquired over the years. I have several old helmets coats

etc too.

 

[Shangas]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I thought I was going to get laughed off the thread.

Those glass fire-grenades (is that what that is? In Feathers' post?) are, in my mind, one of the most awesome firefighting tools ever invented. I wonder how effective they were?

 

[Highlander]

Some of the cool glass globes were set up with "carbon tetrachloride" as I recall and were hung overdoorways, with a fillament that was heat sensitive. The fillament would melt through, the globe would fall, breaking and keeping the doorway safe for exit. Anyway I have seen some that did that.

 

[RetroToday]

Finally got a photo, and a few of my old nozzels I've acquired over the years. I have several old helmets coats...

Very nice, Highlander. :eusa_clap Thanks for sharing them here,

Helmets and coats too? Wouldn't mind seeing those as well, if you have photos handy, of course.

I didn't know there were versions of the exhinguisher "fire-bombs" that had a heat-sensitive filament. A great idea, unless you happened to be trying to smash through a doorway just as one of those bombs released their contents overhead.