ODDS AND ENDS/ AUGUST 20TH

Here at O’Hara we have a set of tubes by the kitchen stove, and you may not expect them to be what they are. These tubes are long canisters filled with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and were used to put out fires! Yes, that’s right, these are fire extinguishers.

Fire extinguishers today are made with monoammonium phosphate (also used in fertilizers!) and is compressed into the canister with nitrogen gas. When you use a modern fire extinguisher, the solution shoots out of the nozzle at its target. These fire extinguishers require you to be at a closer distance because the sodium bicarbonate would have to be poured onto the fire without any help of a pressurized tank.

The idea was that these extinguishers would be hung on a very strong hook by the stove. When there was a fire, the user would pull down on the tube as hard as they could to remove the top and then pour the contents onto the base of the fire to smother it. Not quite as safe as modern extinguishers! However, these extinguishers were only effective on smaller, more contained fires.

In a more intense situation, like if the whole house was on fire, more often than not the damage would be irreparable and it was better to just let the fire burn. In cases where there was still a chance to save the house, there were more primitive fire departments that would have horse drawn carriages with water tanks that would have to be pumped manually. You could see how this is a little less than effective in comparison to the massive fire engines we have today. Families outside of the range of the “water tank carriages” would have to deal with the fire themselves and extinguish the fire using buckets of water.

The Bickle Fire Extinguisher

Although we cannot find a date for when the Bickle-Seagrass extinguisher was manufactured, we know it was between the company’s establishment in 1906 and when they filed for bankruptcy in 1956. The apparatus was constructed in Woodstock, Ontario and was inspected and distributed by the Bay of Quinte (as you can see on the label) Mutual Fire Inspection. Fun fact; the company that produced these fire extinguishers also made two-wheeled fire engines for the Canadian military during the First World War!

Liberty Fire Extinguisher

The Liberty fire extinguisher was produced by the Wawanesa Insurance Company to give to their clients, talk about good business! This extinguisher in particular was produced in 1912 and was sold for $4.00 at the time, which is about $100 today! The inscription on the tube reads:

“DIRECTIONS Pull down quickly thus removing cap, holding the tube firmly, hurl the contents forcibly with a clubbing motion into the base of the flames repeating strokes rapidly.”

Another inscription on the tube reads “harmless to person and fabrics” which is handy to know.

Needless to say that fire safety was just as important back then as it is today!

𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 & 𝓜𝓲𝓪