The History of the Fire Sprinkler System - Essay Example

Fire Sprinkler Systems Introduction A sprinkler system is an integrated system of underground and overhead piping, designed in accordance with fire protection engineering standards, and connected to one or more automatic water supplies. The system is usually activated by heat from a fire, and the sprinkler heads then discharge water over the fire area. Sprinkler systems are nearly 100% effective. Many sprinkler systems are supervised electrically from a central station, and alarms are transmitted to a fire department whenever the sprinklers operate or when a valve in the sprinkler system closes for any reason. If a fire-fighting unit arriving at a fire finds that the sprinkler system is not receiving sufficient water and pressure, a pumper is connected to the sprinkler system to supply additional water. History The history of fire sprinkler systems began in the year 1806 when John Carey started designing systems for perforated pipes, burning strings and plungers. When one of his designs finally became successful, John Carey became the first inventor of the automatic fire sprinkler system in England. The system had a lot of pipes with several valves which are held closely by counter weights which were also attached by strings. The system works by the counterweight dropping to the floor enabling the valves to open which releases the water and extinguishes the fire when flames burn through the string where the counterweights are attached (FPG, 2003). By 1812, Fire Prevention 2 Colonel William Congreve designed a sprinkler with perforated pipes and valves (FPG, 2003). In 1864, one member of the 1st Engineer Volunteers in London, invented the first automatic sprinkler head, and his name was Major Stewart Harrison. Another important figure in the history of fire and fire prevention is Henry Parmelee who was the brother of Mr. George F. Parmelee, a fellow from America who brought the sprinkler to Manchester in the year 1881. This sprinkler was invented by Henry 7 years before, and was known to be the first modern sprinkler. The invented sprinkler consisted of “a shell and a soldered brass cap (Wormald, 1923)”. Henry Parmelee is from New Haven, Connecticut. He was a piano maker who invented a fire sprinkler system to protect his piano factory from fire. Although it Major Harrison who invented the first automatic sprinkler head and John Carey invented the first automatic sprinkler, it was Henry Parmelee and Frederick Grinell were the ones who gave the two above-mentioned inventions their most practical use (FPG, 2003). In 1882, a year after Henry’s brother brought his invented sprinkler to Manchester, a man known as Mr. Frederick Grinnell invents a sprinkler which is more improved in the sense that his sprinkler invention can bear and resist greater pressures and has the ability to distribute water more evenly. The history of the invention of the fire sprinkler didn’t end there. Three years after Grinnell invented the improved sprinkler, John R. Freeman performed several extensive tests on sprinkler systems in the hope of finding a much better system. In 1895, due to the invention and popularity of the sprinklers, the several insurance representatives met in New York to discuss about fire protection and establish a fire protection standard. A year after the National Fire Protection Association or simply known as Fire Prevention 3 NFPA was officially established, and the organization published codes for the installation of automatic sprinklers (Wormald, 1923). In 1874, on the 11th day of August, Henry Parmelee had his sprinkler heads patented with US patent number 154, 076 (Grant, 1996). Casey Grant (1996) described Henry’s sprinkler as “a perforated head containing a valve that was held closed against water pressure by a heavy spring made of low fusing material.” On September 17, 1872, Philip W. Pratt was the first person to be issued US patent number 131,370, the first sprinkler system that was patented in the US 076 (Grant, 1996). In due time, Henry Parmelee’s sprinklers were manufactured and sold, and was eventually a great part of the Providence Steam and Gas Company for installing his sprinkler systems and it was not long after that that Henry’s sprinklers were used all over England. Although Henry Parmelee was not the one who actually invented the automatic sprinkler, he is given credit for inventing the sprinkler head. Fire Sprinklers Performance Statistics Fire is the most devastating event as it spreads quickly, causing so much damage not only to property but also to life. From the first years that the fire sprinklers were made available to the public, and installed in every type of establishment, fire sprinklers have somehow helped in protecting people and property against fires. Sprinklers can even be found in most residential Fire Prevention 4 areas all over the world because people have realized its value in helping them whenever fire occurs. Of course, during the first few years, although sprinklers were already installed in almost all of the establishments in England and also in America, sprinkler use incur more damage than the fire due to the damages done on furniture, important documents and other pertinent things. Automatic sprinklers serve to discharge water automatically upon a fire in quantities sufficient to extinguish the fire or to hold it in check until the fire department arrives. Based on fire reports between the years 2002 - 2004 done by the US fire department the sprinklers have been reported to have operated in 93% of the fire cases reported. Sprinklers have also been reported to be 97% effective which results to a 90% performance reliability rate. Today, there are two types of sprinklers available in the market and both are widely used in different establishments. 1) The wet-pipe sprinkler in which “the water has already flowed into the pipes and it is sitting right behind the sprinkler waiting to be released instantaneously as soon as you activate the sprinkler” and 2) The dry-pipe sprinkler in which the water is held back at first and it still has to come in and travel some distance when you activate the sprinkler. Dry-pipe sprinklers are usually used in cold environment when you have concerns over freezing or other serious concern on the release of water (Hall, 2008). Both are very useful and the performance reliability of these sprinklers is 91% and 83% respectively. When we talk about reliability, we also think on the lives that were spared due to the use of fire sprinklers. In the US, fire reports between the years 2002-2004 indicate that death cases due to fire are reduced at least by 57% and the property damage is reported to have been reduced by 34 Fire Prevention 5 to 68%. These figures do not include those sprinklers that had malfunctioned or ineffectively used (Hall, 2008). Due to the high performance rate of sprinklers, America now even have the new home fire sprinkler system, wherein quick responding low-cost fire sprinklers are attached to the home water supply. It functions with the use of smoke or fire sensors, and once the sensors sense smoke or heat with a degree of hotness similar to that of a fire, the sprinklers are automatically activated. This new sprinkler system resolves the 2005 fire report which shows the following figures: 396,000 fires; 3,055 deaths of civilians caused by fire; 13, 825 injuries; and $6.9 billion dollars in damage to property (USFA, 2008). The effectiveness of a sprinkler system depends upon the adequate supply of water and pressure sufficient to discharge approximately 15 gallons of water per minute from each head. In the 1970’s an average building, one sprinkler head is provided for each 80 square feet of floor area, but different spacing is specified for every different types of building as well for the light or severe hazard areas. In cases where sprinklers fail, closed water supply valves and poor maintenance of sprinkler systems account for most of the 4% of failures. The protection provided by the sprinklers is of great value and importance where large numbers of people are congregated. It also played a major part in the development of a large-scale industry. Manufacturing plants having valuable machinery and supplies concentrated in a small space are possible because of the protection afforded by automatic sprinklers. Warehouses and mercantile stocks can be similarly safeguarded; and today, even right in our very own homes. Bibliography and References Wormald, J. (1923). “History Automatic Fire Sprinklers.” History of Mather & Platt UK LTD. Retrieved: 28 March 2008, from Fire Protection Group (“2003). “History of Fire Sprinkler Systems.” API Group, Inc. Retrieved: 28 March 2008, from Grant, C.C. (1996). ”The Birth of NFPA.” National Fire Protection journal. Retrieved: 26 March 2008, from Hall, J.R., Jr. (2008). “The Latest NFPA Statistics on Sprinkler Performance.” National Fire Protection journal. March/April 2008. Retrieved: 26 March 2008, from < http://www.nfpa.org/publicJournalDetail.asp?categoryID=1344& itemID=37925 &src=NFPAJournal> U.S. Fire Administration (2008). “Residential Sprinkler Systems.” US Fire Administration, journal. FEMA. 06 February 2008. Retrieved: 30 March 2008, from FitzGerald, M. (2005). “Henry Parmelee.” Genealogy.com. The Generations Network. 10 March 2005. Retrieved: 31 March 2008, from < http://genforum.genealogy.com/parmelee/messages/375.html> Read More