Captain George Manby (1765-1854) is perhaps most famous for his invention of the Manby Mortar, which was a device to help rescue people from shoreline shipwrecks. However, he is also heralded as the father of the modern fire extinguisher, which in itself has helped to save many thousands of lives.
Fire extinguishers in one form or another predate Manby's invention, and there is some debate over the design of the first, extinguisher, although one of the earliest recorded ones was designed and used in 1723 by Ambrose Godfrey. But Godfrey's device consisted of a receptacle containing a fire-extinguishing liquid and a chamber of gunpowder with a series of fuses attached. When the fuses were lit, the gunpowder exploded and scattered the liquid. They were not widely used, although there is an account of them being used to put a fire out in London in 1729.
Captain Manby's 1818 invention was more efficient. He was inspired to invent a portable fire extinguisher after witnessing a house fire in Edinburgh and seeing the firemen's inability to fight the fire on the top floors. He designed a copper cask containing three or four gallons of potassium carbonate with the remaining space taken up by compressed air. A stopcock on the top of the extinguisher could be opened to allow the air to rush out, spreading the potassium carbonate over quite a range. The system could also be used with water, and was easily portable, allowing firemen to reach otherwise inaccessible areas in peril.
Manby's invention was soon replaced by a more efficient model. However, his use of compressed air to force the retardant out and over a large area formed the premise for the development of new prototypes, with modern extinguishers using carbon dioxide as the pressurizing agent in a similar way.
