January 31, 2008

Catapulted “Bomb” Puts Out Fire (Aug, 1935)

Filed under: General — @ 2:02 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1935
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Catapulted “Bomb” Puts Out Fire

A GLASS “bomb” fire extinguisher throws itself into the flames when heat melts a plug to release spring tension in the wall bracket. When catapulted, the bursting bulb spreads an extinguishing fluid to smother flame.

16 Comments »

1. Why must this contraption catapult itself into the fire anyways… Isn it too dangerous that the thingy will possible miss the fire and splash far away without doing anything?
   Not even thinking of someone trying to escape the fire and finally finds himself dodging glass bombs here and there, not to mention fire fighters…

   Sounds very weird to me…

   Comment by Roflcopter — January 31, 2008 @ 4:28 am

2. I think the assumption is that if it’s hot enough to melt the plug, there’s not much in the room other than the fire.

   Comment by Eli — January 31, 2008 @ 8:44 am

3. I like the company name (reminiscent of “The Producers”) and the inevitable ad tagline:

   “If this puts out a fire it’s a MIRACLE!”

   Comment by Stannous — January 31, 2008 @ 10:35 am

4. This reminds me of an old Joe E. Brown movie:
   “Fireman Save My Child”
   It is part of a Ring Lardner baseball trilogy, and Brown has little “bombs” to put out fires that he’s trying to sell.

   Comment by Dane — January 31, 2008 @ 12:32 pm

5. I have several of these ‘bombs’. As best I can figure there are no hazardous materials involved. They are remarkably common in the eaves and furnace rooms of buildings constructed c. 1910.

   Comment by mdhatter — February 1, 2008 @ 10:30 am

6. Actually, you might want to be careful with those. Often the contents of those fire extinguishing globes was carbon tetrachloride.

   I have a manual pump fire extinguisher that was filled with it - now it resides in a sealed flask in my workshop. The fumes from that stuff will cause kidney failure…leading to its banning for common usage as a spot remover/dry cleaning fluid.

   ajr

   Comment by Alan J. Richer — February 1, 2008 @ 10:34 am

7. The George Pal “Doc Savage” movie featured anti-fire bombs.

   Dane…
   Is that the movie with a fireman/inventor who starts a fire in an office wastebasket and puts it out with two squirts from his experimental extinguisher?
   Was it a musical or did it have a musical sequence?

   Comment by jayessell — February 1, 2008 @ 11:18 am

8. My grandparents house has at least five of these, but they are just the bulbs. The house is pretty old, it’s from the early 1940’s or so.

   Comment by Patrick — February 2, 2008 @ 12:20 am

9. I may be wrong but it looks like the product doesn’t match the description.

   It looks like the model shown simply breaks the bottom off the glass bulb when the striker is released. There is no mechanism for the bulb itself to be jettisoned.

   Comment by Adrian — February 5, 2008 @ 11:35 am

10. Jayessell-
    The Joe E. Brown character almost burned the building down–he had the wrong briefcase–the one without bombs! Eventually he got them and they worked beautifully. Then it was off to the ballgame for more heroics. Don’t recall a musical theme…

    Comment by Dane — February 14, 2008 @ 12:30 pm

11. Hi, I have one of these carbon tet. Fire extinguishers stored away in a padded wooden crate. I removed it from my Grandmothers farmhouse, it was attached to the insulated chimney that passed through the second story. It is quite alot fancier than this model shown but still activates when the flame is hot enough to melt the solder on the spring mech. There were also 3 that looked like the one shown located in the old barn. The reason these things worked well was because the Carbon Tet. Displaces oxygen in a room almost instantly…. problem being, It also displaced the oxygen in peoples lungs just as fast.

    Comment by Rob Groves — September 13, 2008 @ 7:48 pm

12. I have one of these i’ve had it for 25 years anybody know if its worth any thing

    Comment by D.J. — November 9, 2008 @ 8:42 pm

13. I have been looking for one, If any are for sale or trade.

    Comment by Paul — December 12, 2008 @ 12:01 am

14. Paul, please contact me as I do have some for sale. I have no idea of what they’re worth–do you??

    lshemanski “at” verizon.net

    Comment by Laura — December 29, 2008 @ 11:11 am

15. Paul

    I have 3 for sale, 2 round and one oblong and pointed at one end. If interested you can contact me at lorilowens@gmail.com.

    Thanks.
    Lori

    Comment by Lori Owens — January 1, 2009 @ 1:29 pm

16. I have contacted the two above and I’m still looking for one. Paul.

    Comment by Paul — January 11, 2009 @ 1:04 am

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