In 1910, The Pyrene Manufacturing Company of Delaware filed a patent to use carbon tetrachloride (a liquid in fire extinguishers) to extinguish fires. The liquid vaporized and extinguished flames by inhibiting the chemical chain reaction of the combustion process (it was an early 20th-century assumption that the fire suppression ability of carbon tetrachloride relied on oxygen removal). In 1911, they patented a small, portable extinguisher that used the chemical. This consisted of a brass bottle with an integrated hand pump that was used to expel a jet of liquid toward the fire.
In 1926 “home safety” became a key concern and saw the establishment of a number of fire extinguisher manufacturers catering to the domestic market. The largest of these was the Pyrene Company.
Pitching their firefighting systems to the British Air Ministry leading up to the declaration of war with Germany, Pyrene secured contracts for both airfield and hanger firefighting systems as well as the contract to outfit the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) new generation of light and heavy bombers such as the Vickers Wellington and Avro Lancaster. The US Army also made use of Pyrene’s compact and versatile extinguishers, installing them throughout their 2WW Willey jeeps and truck transports.
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Pyrene’s growth continued until 1971 when the company evolved into the firefighting company known today as Chubb Fire Fighting Systems.
Left picture arrow shows a fire extinguisher bracket in a 2WW Willeys jeep; right in a Lancaster bomber aircraft from the RAF’s Pathfinder 106 Squadron. The top picture shows the model in the CSS Museum.