Some history

The oldest way to put out a fire is, of course, to pour a bucket of water on it, but the first registered patent for a fire extinguisher dates back to 1723, when English chemist Ambrose Godfrey filled a wooden cask with fire-extinguishing liquid. At the bottom of the barrel was gunpowder – the firefighters rolled the cask into a burning building, and the explosives caused the flame retardant to splash everywhere.

The modern fire extinguisher as we know it today was patented in 1819 by Captain George William Manby. George’s device was a brass cylinder filled with three gallons of potassium carbonate and pressurised air.