A little smoke, a flash, and a waste basket, a curtain or something else is in flames. A few years ago an excited person would fail to extinguish the blaze with water or with any other first aid at hand and would call for the fire department. When that arrived the fire frequently would be beyond control.

Modern methods have wrought great changes. Nowadays, in case of fire, any man, woman or child can reach for a fire extinguisher and after a few strokes of the pump the fire is out.

This change did not come all at once. The fire extinguisher has been developing ever since man learned to fear fire. Devices for extinguishing fire are almost coeval with that element itself. In the second century before Christ, the Egyptians had pumps worked by levers to put out their fires. The Roman, Pliny, refers to fire extinguishers but gives no account of their construction. Apollodorus, architect of the Emperor Trajan, speaks of leathern bags with pipes attached. Water was projected by squeezing the bags. Medieval Europe used various forms of water pumps, and it was not until the opening of the nineteenth century that chemicals were used to combat fire.

There are two classes of chemical fire extinguishers: the soda and acid tank or three-gallon type, and the one-quart pump type. The latter came when the efficiency of carbon tetrachloride as an extinguishing agent became known. All the extinguishers of this type use a liquid which has carbon tetrachloride as a base. The liquid is a combination of organic materials with an aromatic odor and high specific gravity. When subjected to a temperature of 200° F. or over, it changes to a heavy, cohering, non-poisonous gas blanket which surrounds the burning material and cuts off the air suppy necessary for the life of the fire.

The first one-quart pump type of extinguisher appeared in the United States in 1907. There was little resemblance between it and the extinguisher of today. A cylindrical tube with a perforated end contained the liquid. The user was expected to sprinkle the liquid over the fire just as salt is sprinkled from a saltcellar over meat.

One company applied the idea of pumping the liquid on the fire in 1909. They introduced a single-acting pump. The user inserted the nozzle in the liquid, drew it into the pump, and then ejected it on the flames. This company substituted a double-acting pump early in 1910. The container for the fluid and the pump were thus combined and the extinguisher had the general appearance of those now on the market.

* Illustrations by courtesy of the Pyrene Manufacturing Co.

Brass construction was substituted for tin in the latter part of 1910, and in 1911 all brass construction was adopted. The extinguisher has remained practically unchanged since 1911.

This was the only one-quart type extinguisher on the market until 1911. Since then several others have been marketed. All use an extinguishing liquid with carbon tetrachloride as a base. They differ principally in the manner of its ejection. The original type pumps the liquid out by hand. Others eject it by air pressure or by a combination of the two methods. The objection made by some people to the use of air pressure is that it demands attention and the use of a complicated mechanism which more readily gets out of order.

The liquid extinguishing agent has seen little change since 1907. In 1914 it was modified so that it injures nothing with which it comes in contact. It puts out fires originating in oily wastes, turpentine and shellac, and fires resulting from the ignition of gasoline, benzine or acetylene gas, on which ordinary chemicals and water are useless. It extinguishes electrical fires without injuring insulation or apparatus and without injury to the operator. A stream of this liquid has been directed upon a circuit of 110,000 volts without the least harm to the operator.

A German originated the soda and acid type of extinguisher from tests made in Denmark between 1830 and 1835. The enterprising Teuton divided a hogshead into two parts. He filled one part with a solution of alcohol and water; the other division was partly filled with sulphuric acid. His problem was to unite the two when he wanted to put out a fire. This was accomplished by fastening a charge of gunpowder in such a way that when exploded it would break the partition and mix the solutions. French ingenuity added slight improvements a short time later.

Alexander Graham, of Lexington, Virginia, applied for patents on this type of extinguisher a number of times between 1844 and 1849. He was unable to patent his invention. A fire extinguisher company in Chicago and one in Baltimore obtained patents on what was known as the "bicarbonate of soda and sulphuric acid" extinguisher by a special act of Congress in 1865. These patents were known as the Graham patents, and both extinguishers were called the "break-bottle type" because the soda and acid were mixed when a glass bottle containing the latter was broken.

The "up-set" type of soda and acid extinguisher was adapted by Meyerose in St. Louis in 1891. The improvement lay in the vessel containing the acid being upset instead of broken. This extinguisher was of copper construction and had a capacity of three gallons. One fire extinguisher company improved upon the original type of "up-set" extinguisher in 1893 by lining the extinguisher with lead which the acid did not affect. Since 1893 there have been no improvements of consequence on the soda and acid extinguisher. It consists of a cylindrical container with a solution of sodium bicarbonate. Over the bicarbonate is suspended a vessel containing sulphuric acid. When in use the acid is tilted over and comes in contact with the bicarbonate. This liberates carbon dioxide. The pressure generated is sufficient to throw a stream of the bicarbonate solution forty feet. The chief disadvantages of the soda and acid type of extinguisher are that its weight makes it cumbersome to operate and it cannot be safely used on electrical fires until the current has been turned off..