Inventor of fire extinguishers: Captain George William Manby

However, George Manby is also the inventor of a device that is considered the ancestor of today's fire extinguishers, which has also saved thousands of lives.

Captain George William Manby FRS (28 November 1765 – 18 November 1854) was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the first modern form of fire extinguisher.

There were different types of fire extinguishers on the market prior to Manby's invention, and there is still some debate today as to which fire extinguisher design was the first. One of the first recorded fire tube designs was designed and used by Ambrose Godfrey in 1723. But Godfrey's device contained a container with a fire-fighting liquid and a gunpowder box to which a series of detonators were attached. Burning the detonators caused the powder to explode, resulting in the scattering of fire extinguishing liquid. Although this device was not widely used, it is known that it was used to extinguish a fire in London in 1729.

Captain Manby's invention in 1818 was more effective. A fire at a house in Edinburgh inspired Manby to invent a portable fire extinguisher, as firefighters struggled to contain the fire on the upper floors. Designing a copper barrel, Manby filled it with 13 to 18 liters of potassium carbonate and compressed air. When the valve on the tube was opened, the compressed air came out quickly, thus allowing potassium carbonate to spread over a wide area. This system can also be used with water, making it possible to access places that were previously difficult to access remotely due to its easy portability.

Manby's invention was soon replaced by a more efficient model, but his technique of spreading liquid over a large area with the aid of compressed air formed the basis of all these new models. Today's fire extinguishers use carbon dioxide instead of compressed air.