Here at San Francisco Plumbing, we enjoy educating people on all different types of residential and commercial plumbing needs and concepts. One thing that most people are fairly familiar with today is fire safety sprinkler systems. These are sprinklers that you see in the ceiling of many buildings. They are most common in large office buildings, dorms, apartment buildings, and nursing homes. Our professionals here at San Francisco Plumbing would like to teach you more than just the obvious. We want to tell you all about the history of the fire safety sprinkler systems.
The first fire sprinkler system was said to be in the Theatre Royal in the United Kingdom. It is said that it was installed in 1812 and even had a patent. Of course, this was a very basic version of what you are familiar with today. There was actually a reservoir of water that had large pipes coming out of it. From there, there were smaller pipes that branched all across the ceiling of the Theatre. These smaller pipes had many small holes in it. When a fire occurred, the reservoir would be opened and the water would flush through these pipes which would then spill through the holes and on top of the fire.
This original type of fire sprinkler system was great except that it was not automatically turned on when a fire occurred. Someone would have to realize there was a fire and go turn on the system so that the water could be rushed through the pipes and down onto the fire. It was not until 1872 that the first automatic sprinkler system was created by a man named Philip W. Pratt. A few years later a man named Henry S. Parmalee decided that this system just was not good enough. He invented the first automatic sprinkler head. He did not think that Pratt’s system was good enough so he improved it with his own type of automatic head and installed it in his piano factory. In 1881 though a man named Frederick Grinnell once again improved the sprinkler system. He was the one that invented the glass disc sprinkler. This is essentially the type of sprinkler head that is widely used today in buildings.
Up until the 1940’s, these sprinkler systems were only used inside of commercial buildings. They were installed so that companies could get savings on their insurance costs. Today, there are many different building codes that require these fire sprinkler systems to be installed in hospitals, apartments, schools, and hotels. They are very widely used in the United States and Canada. Still today though, they are not built into the building codes in most of Europe and other countries.
We hope you have enjoyed your history lesson on fire sprinkler systems. You probably never thought too much into those systems, but they really are important to your safety. If you have questions about plumbing services in San Diego be sure to contact your local plumber.
