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The history of the sprinkler The early inventors of automatic fire extinguishing systems were British. The following key dates plot the development of this industry. 1723 Patent No. 458 granted on 12th November to Ambrose Godfrey, a chemist who lived in Covent Garden, London. 1809 Colonel William Congreve from Westminster patented (Patent No. 3201) a refined sprinkler system using wires and pulleys, in addition to strings and cords. In 1812, he went onto install an improved system in Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. 1852 William McBay of Woolwich was granted Patent No. 505 for a system designed for both buildings and ships that in some respects resembled a modern automatic sprinkler system. 1855 James Smith, a Liverpool Baker, was granted Patent No. 2375 for further developing a system very similar to earlier inventions of Carey and Congreve. 1861 Perforated pipe systems were being developed in the USA. 1863 Roger Dawson was granted a Provisional Patent No. 1869 for a manually operated sprinkler system supplied from gravity tank. 1864 Major A. Stewart Harrison of the First Engineer Volunteers, London, invented the first automatic sprinkler automatic sprinkler operating in a manner familiar today. Although cumbersome and crude it marked an advance in sprinkler technology and was superior to a number of devices that followed it in the UK and USA. 1865 James B. Francis, a hydraulics engineer from the Locks and Canals Company made further improvements to pipes used within sprinkler systems. 1872 Philip W. Pratt of Abington, Massachusetts, took a patent for the development of an automatic sprinkler system, further encouraged by mutual insurance companies. 1874 - 1878 Henry S. Parmelee of New Haven, Connecticut went onto patent an automatic system in 1874. Parmelee further developed his sprinklers and up to 200,000 Parmelee sprinklers were fitted, successfully extinguishing nineteen listed fires. 1880 Frederick Grinnell patented his first automatic sprinkler system. 1881 - 1883 A. M. Buritt of Waterbury, Connecticut, patented an improved rose type sprinkler. 1882 Grinnell patented the now famous No.1 sprinkler that was a radical departure from all previous designs. The first of these systems in the UK was installed in the cotton spinning mill of John Stones and Company, Astley Bridge, Bolton, Lancashire. > CLICK HERE FOR NEXT PAGE |
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