The Great Fire of London in 1666 led to the first set of building regulations in Britain, identified the need for passive fire protection, and prompted the emergence of fire insurance. It also gave impetus to the development of automatic fire sprinkler systems.
Just over half a century after the Great Fire, London chemist Ambrose Godfrey patented a device comprising a cask of fire-extinguishing liquid and incorporating a chamber of gunpowder. When ignited, a system of fuses exploded the gunpowder and scattered the extinguishant.
Some 80 years later, John Carey proposed a system of perforated pipes to extinguish fires. This idea was further developed by Sir William Congreve in 1812, who described it as ‘an apparatus for extinguishing fires which shall be called into action by the fire itself at its first breaking out, and which shall be brought to bear upon the precise part where the flames exist,’ elegantly summarising the state of the art as it exists today.
Congreve’s invention ushered in a 70-year reign of perforated pipe systems, including the first in the US installed in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, during the 1850s.1
In 1864, Major A.S. Harrison invented a complete fire sprinkler system far in advance of its predecessors but, for unknown reasons, it was abandoned without seeking a patent. Ten years later, Henry S. Parmelee, a ‘Connecticut Yankee’, patented the first and, for a number of years, only automatic sprinkler which performed splendid serviced in America and England.2
An improved variant – a sensitive, metal-disc sprinkler with a toothed deflector to direct the water spray – was introduced by Frederick Grinnell in 1882. It was followed by an improved model with a glass button valve seat in 1890, a feature which ran unchanged for decades.
1879 saw patenting of the first dry-pipe sprinkler control/alarm valve (needed for sprinkler installations exposed to freezing conditions). A few years later, C.J.H. Woodbury, chief mechanical engineer of the Boston Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company, conducted the first extensive series of sprinkler tests, which served to identify the performance characteristics of the various automatic sprinklers then in use. His findings were published in 1884.
This was a productive period. Also in 1884, F.H. Prentiss of Boston patented a sprinkler that depended upon the expansion of ether and alcohol. The original version was in fact an ‘on-off’ device. Known as the Draper in the US (and the Draper-Hetherington in Britain), it was apt to close prematurely, so was a commercial failure. The on-off concept was again explored in the 1970s/80s but was abandoned because of persistent field issues.
The 20th century opened with the filing of the first patent applications for glass-bulb sprinklers (mainly to avoid corrosion), with the first production commencing around 1922. Glass-bulb technology remains an important factor in sprinkler design to this day.
1914 saw the first major ship installations in the Hamburg-Amerika Lines vessels Imperator and Vaterland; many more were to follow in British-built ships. Then, around 1953, the so-called ‘spray sprinkler’ effectively replaced the then ‘standard (conventional) sprinkler’. This now widely accepted sprinkler discharges all water downward, whereas the conventional sprinkler sprays 40% to 60% of the water upward at the ceiling.
The ubiquitous (fork) lift truck entered the scene during the 1940s, permitting ever higher piling of stored commodities and greater challenges for sprinkler protection. The sprinkler industry responded, first with intermediate storage level sprinkler layouts, then with the introduction of large-drop sprinklers (1971–1980) and ‘early suppression fast response (ESFR) sprinklers’ (1983–1989).
ESFR sprinklers proved able to suppress severe storage fires beyond the protection capabilities even of large-drop sprinklers.
The first sprinkler installation in Australia was completed in 1886 in the bedding factory of Laycock, Son & Nettleton, South Melbourne. It incorporated 1884 model Grinnell sprinklers and pipework shipped largely prefabricated from the works of Dowson, Taylor & Co Ltd, Blackfriars Bridge in Manchester. This installation controlled its first fire on 21 December 1886 (only four years after Grinnell patented this sprinkler in the USA). The first sprinkler system in New Zealand came a few years later, in 1889, and was installed in the Northern Roller Milling Co. Ltd, Auckland.
Here one or two Australian innovations are worthy of mention. First, in 1909, Wormald introduced the Kirkby automatic fire brigade alarm attached to sprinkler systems. This pioneering alarm worked well until it was superseded by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) hydraulically operated alarm. Then, in 1936, the first automatic petrol-engine-driven pump sets were designed and installed in Australia, followed in 1955 by the first automatic diesel-driven pumps.
A landmark development in the history of automatic sprinkler protection occurred in 1885, when John (later Sir John) Wormald of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Manchester, wrote the first installation rules. In 1888, these rules were adopted by the Fire Offices’ Committee (FOC), London. The New England Fire Insurance Exchange adopted new rules in 1887. Finally, in 1896, the USA’s National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) published the first edition of what is now known as NFPA 13, a standard for the installation of sprinkler systems.
In December 1968, the 29th edition of the FOC Rules for Automatic Sprinkler Installations was published, which took account of the requirements for occupancies of extra-light, ordinary and extra-high hazards. These new rules were adopted in Australia with the publication of the first edition of AS2118.
The performance of automatic sprinklers in residential occupancies was thoroughly researched during 1976–1982. This work culminated in 1981 with the first approval of a residential sprinkler – the Grinnell FR-1 – a quick-response, extended coverage horizontal sidewall sprinkler. As the NFPA observed, ‘the era of effective, efficient, affordable sprinkler protection for homes has begun’. FPA Australia’s cost-effective automatic sprinkler standards FPAA 101D and FPAA 101H for residential accommodation are the descendants of this innovation.
And there is surely more to come in the systems design context. As the NFPA puts it, ‘The technological boom continues across every industry imaginable: pencil skyscrapers, energy storage systems, cannabis production facilities, spaceports for the burgeoning commercial space industry, and electronically activated sprinklers are just a few of the emerging areas recently addressed by NFPA codes and standards, or that are under consideration for new standards…’.
This article was originally published in Fire Australia magazine, commissioned to promote last month’s National Fire Protection Month. A summary of that series of events will be published in the next edition of Asia Pacific Fire magazine.
For more information, go to www.fpaa.com.a
References
1. Textile mills hold a special place in the history of automatic fire sprinkler systems. Many early systems were installed in New England and Lancashire cotton mills.
2. 1974 was widely recognised as ‘The Year of the Sprinkler’, representing as it did 100 years of invaluable performance dating from the introduction of the Parmelee sprinkler.
About the Author
Barry Lee OAM was President of the Australian Fire Protection Association, and former President of the Fire Protection Industry Association of Australia when the two associations agreed to merge to form Fire Protection Association Australia (FPA Australia). Barry started as a fire protection engineer in 1951, when he joined Wormald Brothers in Melbourne, and ended up as Technical Director for Tyco International Pty Ltd, which succeeded Wormald International, before semi-retirement and ongoing involvement in fire protection consulting.
