Sprinklers may be required to be installed by building codes, or may be recommended by insurance companies to reduce potential property losses or business interruption. In the US, sprinklers are today required in all new high rise and underground buildings generally 75 feet (23 m) above or below fire department access, where the ability of firefighters to provide adequate hose streams to fires is limited. Sprinklers have been in use in the United States since 1874, and were used in factory applications where fires at the turn of the century were often catastrophic in terms of both human and property losses. factories, process lines, retail outlets, petrol stations etc) However, outside of the US and Canada, sprinklers are rarely mandated by building codes for normal hazard occupancies which do not have large numbers of occupants (e.g. Over the years, fire sprinklers have become mandatory safety equipment North America,in certain occupancies, including, but not limited to newly constructed hospitals, schools, hotels and other public buildings, subject to the local building codes and enforcement. Until the 1940s, sprinklers were installed almost exclusively for the protection of commercial buildings, whose owners were generally able to recoup their expenses with savings in insurance costs. He continued to improve the device and in 1890 invented the glass disc sprinkler, essentially the same as that in use today. In 1874, he installed his fire sprinkler system into the piano factory that he owned.įrederick Grinnell improved Parmalee's design and in 1881 patented the automatic sprinkler that bears his name. Parmalee improved upon the Pratt patent and created a better sprinkler system. Parmalee of New Haven, Connecticut is considered the inventor of the first automatic sprinkler head. The first automatic sprinkler system was patented by Philip W. Inventors first began experimenting with automatic sprinklers around 1860. However, they were not automatic systems they did not turn on by themselves.
#Fire sprinkler design training series#
A series of smaller pipes feed from the distribution pipe were pierced with a series of 1/2" (15mm) holes which pour water in the event of a fire Fact|date=May 2008.įrom 1852 to 1885, perforated pipe systems were used in textile mills throughout New England as a means of fire protection. The systems consisted of a cylindrical airtight reservoir of 400 hogsheads (~95,000 litres) fed by a 10in (250mm) water main which branched to all parts of the theatre. The world’s first sprinkler system was installed in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the United Kingdom in 1812. Although historically only used in factories and large buildings, home and small building systems are now available at a relatively cost-effective price. A fire sprinkler system is an active fire protection measure, consisting of a water supply, providing adequate pressure and flowrate to a water distribution piping system, onto which fire sprinklers are connected.