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Technology

Fire Extinguisher Balls 218

Posted by michael from the slow-pitch dept.
An Anonymous Coward writes "The Far Eastern Economic Review has this article about a Thai inventor who has come up with throwable fire extinguisher balls. You just toss them into the fire, or place them in high risk areas, and - boom - they explode from the heat and spew various fire-retardants all over the place. According to the article, they will soon be on sale in Thailand's 7-Eleven stores and are being considered by US-based fire and safety supply company Tyco."
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Fire Extinguisher Balls More

Fire Extinguisher Balls

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  • Fire Extinguisher Balls (Score:4, Funny)

    by teaserX ( 252970 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @01:01AM (#3461614) Homepage Journal
    That was my nickname in college.
  • i've had strange, sexually charged dreams like this scenario
  • I mean really. This does make a strange kind of sense. Why worry about high pressure tanks, and proper discharge ratios. Just grab a water ballon full of this stuff and toss it at it!
    • It has been thought of.

      Anyone who has worked on a flight deck is familiar with halon balls. Engine flames up? Lob one of the balls in the sucking side of the engine and poof! flames are out, the plane and pilot are safe. Find out what caught fire, fix it/plug it, and you're good to go.

      If you use a powder or foam on the engine, sure the flames will go out, but someone will be picking residue out of that engine for weeks, if not months for a rebuild.

  • Fire extinguisher bottles (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sigwinch ( 115375 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @01:06AM (#3461625) Homepage
    This sounds like antique fire extinguisher bottles [antiquebottles.com]: thin glass "grenades" full of water or other chemicals that were tossed at fires.
    • I was thinking the same thing as I read about it. I still have one somewhere on the farm in storage.
    • My father had something like these sitting in the shed. They were dated from 1916 and used in barns to put out fires.
      • Carbon tetrahydrate. It was also used to read the watermarks on stamps. nasty stuff.

        My dad had some of those glass bombs in his shop.
        • Carbon tetrachloride, you mean.

          Essentially the same thing as halon, but hugs the ground better because it has a higher boiling point and a denser vapor.

          • Essentially the same thing as halon, but hugs the ground better because it has a higher boiling point and a denser vapor.

            Tetra-chloro-methane is also highly toxic and carcenogenic. At one time 1,1,1-tri-chloro-ethane was considered a safer alternative, but I think that has now been classified as highly toxic too.
    • What is the opposite of Molotov?
    • My parents' house (circa 1910-1920, I believe) had a smaller version of something like this. There were small metal brackets around the basement, each holding a glass globe (an inverted pear shape) with the narrow part resting in the bracket.

      I think my dad eventually took them down once he realized that they were somewhat toxic and potentially life-threatening (they work by removing the oxygen).
    • Another similar device: the stove bomb.

      My apartment complex management requires the use of stove bombs. They are magnetically mounted to the overhead stove hood, and are about the same size as a can of sterno. An out-of-control stove fire would crack the can's fragile bottom, dumping a load of fire-retarding powder all over the top of the stove.

  • ...of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the "NINJA VANISH" balls?

  • No oxygen?? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ark42 ( 522144 ) <slashdot@@@morpheussoftware...net> on Saturday May 04, 2002 @01:11AM (#3461642) Homepage
    Fire-proof powder, monoammonium phosphate and non-chlorofluorocarbon foam spurt out to dampen the flames and
    suck up the oxygen that keeps fires burning. At the same time, the ball emits a high-pitched alarm, set at 101 decibels--loud enough to signal for help and just tolerable to human ears.


    so, you roll the ball into the fire, suffocate the burning victim, and then run away from the annoying sound the thing makes? sounds great!
    • Except for the noise, isn't this what halon systems do? It's an accepted risk for some situations.
      • Uhh, people can go for quite large number of seconds without oxygen, while a fire cannot. This would be able to put the fire out, and keep a victim safe. Its not like there is an unfillabe void that people get trapped in.
        • The average human can't last more than a few minutes without oxygen. Do you ever see firefighters just coat a fire with retardant for a few minutes and then head home?

          Fires can make use of very low oxygen environments and then start back up when oxygen returns. Humans cannot.
      • If it means your poor sysadmins are going to die when the precious mainframe catches fire, then no, it isn't an acceptable risk. Period.

        I can think of some situations where it would be acceptable (ships), but the last time I saw a halon system was at a university datacenter.
        • I for one wouldn't mind taking my last breath, knowing that my machines would survive.

          Then again, I don't have a whole lot to live for.
        • Bollocks, mate. Cable monkeys are there to be sacrificed if necessary: it's part of the job description after all. The data's far more important than some punk who thinks he's a leet Perl haxor.

          The world's full of replacement self-important "administrators" anyway - hell, in these days of recession they're 10 a penny.
        • I can think of some situations where it would be acceptable (ships), but the last time I saw a halon system was at a university datacenter.

          Thankfully, halon is not harmful to people, at least for the sort of brief exposure if you were to get caught in a halon dump. Read the MSDS.

  • Please. (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by tcd004 ( 134130 )
    Please don't confuse them with the salty chocolate ones.

    Reach out and put a beating on someone! [lostbrain.com]
    tcd004
  • Please, please, tell me these things are baseball-sized. Please.

    There are so many pranks I want to pull with these things.

    • I gotta agree-chuck one of those puppies somewhere that'll get warm... hmmm. maybe the air intake of someones engine... you could be a real party-pooper at a camp fire. anyplace that gets warm and depends on an open flame.... I guess the pilot light on a furnace would count, wouldn't it?

      sad part is the first thing that came to my mind was this sentence....

      "ok, so he's using a fire based pokemon-
      ...I know what to use."

  • invented? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tmarzolf ( 107617 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @01:13AM (#3461650) Homepage
    Another spurrious patent ... if I recall this has been done (and patented) a long long time ago.
    HARDENS HAND GRENADE FIRE EXTINGUISHER", --> "PATENTED NO 1 AUG 8, 1871 AUG 14 1883

    For those who are interested check out the picture of the blue glass bulb towards the bottom of the page. Cached [216.239.51.100]

    • Re:invented? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      1871? 1883? Long expired.

    • Re:invented? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Dirty Pickle ( 576372 )
      It's a real beaut, but doesn't it seem a bit ornate for something you're going to lob into a fire with hopes that it will shatter?

      Manufacturers had tons of class back then.

    • Re:invented? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04, 2002 @09:16AM (#3462348)
      You display a stunning ignorance of how the patent system works. Worse then that, it's the same stunning ignorance that's causing many of the current problems with patents in the United States. Patents cover a specific product or process. They do NOT cover every possible way of doing a particular task.

      If you develop a fire extinguisher in a glass ball, your patent covers things like the shape of the glass ball, the composition of chemicals inside, etc. It does NOT cover every possible one-use fire extinguisher that could possibly be made.

      This later invention has a different containment system, contains different chemicals, and uses a different means of detecting when to go off (heat versus impact). It deserves it's own patent.

    • Re:invented? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by oyenstikker ( 536040 )
      He can probably get a few patents out of it. If a mousetrap has been invented I can still get a patent on a better one.

    • Re:invented? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by crazyeddie ( 137560 )
      Yup, I've actually seen one of these. My great-grandfather built a cabin in the 1920's that my family still owns, and hanging on the wall in the kitchen is one of those glass "grenades" for putting out fires. It's red and shaped like a sno-cone. There is one like it in the above-linked picture in the bottom left corner. AFAIK it is original to the building. I probably wouldn't trust it to still work but I remember as a kid thinking that was a neat idea.
  • please do not use the words "fire extinguisher" and "balls" in the same sentence (especially if they are the total sum of the words in it), some of us have dirty minds and over-active imaginations.
  • ...when you're trying to run out as fast as you can or the firefighter tries to get in to resque people all they need is one of these to burst in their face and blind 'em.

  • Goodness gracious!

    b&

  • Advertisement deal? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Kronovohr ( 145646 ) <kronovohr@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Saturday May 04, 2002 @01:17AM (#3461663)
    I can almost see the commercials now...people throwing these things at fires to the tune of "Goodness, gracious, great balls 'o' fire!"

    *shudder*
  • Nice concept, but who wants to lug a small bowling ball to a fire, hope it'll hit the right spot, get hot enough to explode (!) and extinguish a measly little bonfire. Not me.
  • There must be at least 5 Micheal Jackson jokes based on this story/title. I'm am too tired to try right now.
  • Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball [happyfunball.com], fire extinguisher model

  • Coolness, great DnD stuff! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sort of like a 3d4 negative fireball, you throw them and they explode to stop fire damage. Hmm, I wonder how many of these you'd need to take on a full-grown Red Dragon?

  • In Russia it's routinely used... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WetCat ( 558132 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @01:22AM (#3461676)
    there is a lot of such production for example on

    http://ognet.h1.ru [h1.ru]

    English translation of the site is, for example:Babelfish translated [altavista.com]

    So it's at least some prior art present...

    • Yes, but as you can read:
      - is not allowed the installation of modulus/module near negrevatel'nykh and space heaters, where the temperature can exceed +50 about s

      See: these inferior Russian products can't even be installed
      near negrevatel'nykh!

      That happens to me all the time!
  • Actually, they're headquartered in Bermuda.
  • Whatever it's called, the result of this single-handed, civic-minded tinkering from Thailand could lead to a day when firemen carry catapults in their trucks as well as ladders.

    I don't know about the rest of you but this sounds like it has the potential for one very cool water fight. While settle at catapults though, I want to see fireman running around with a bandolier loaded with these balls. Even better, why not just cram some Pokemon with a water attack into one these balls. The kids would love it!
  • I'd be worried about one of these things going off while I was facing it. It would not be pleasant to get flying fire retardant in your eye.

    I wouldn't want to be yawning either.

  • WORADECH KAIMART REMEMBERS the hotel fire in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya, southeast of Bangkok, in 1997 that killed more than 100 people.
    But in August, Thailand-based 7-Eleven convenience stores will put the ball on shelves in their 1,800 stores nationwide.

    Huh, that's funny, with this guys name, I would have expected to see these on sale exclusively at K-mart, not 7-Eleven.

    • actually we don't really use super-size store like kmart or walmart in thailand. yes, there are some. but not a lot 7-eleven, you can found everywhere.. THAILAND is about the size of texas.. imagine, 1800 stores in texas
  • ...have these things, are they going to squeeze them and ask me to cough before they can stop my house from burning down?

  • Fire Fighing Balls.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by j_kenpo ( 571930 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @01:29AM (#3461701)
    For some odd reason, Im just picturing a guy throwing a ball at the fire and a big Pokemon coming out and squirting water at it.....

  • Fire Balls... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Fire Balls...I choose you! Flame retardant attack! =P
  • "Fire Extinguishing Balls"

    And the jokes just write themselves...
  • What bullshit - I have been casting Quench Flame since I was a level 4 cleric.
  • I load up Slashdot only to find an add for Bawls from ThinkGeek acompanied by a story about more balls...

    Makes me crave the days when there were stories about Apple's Cube. At least we had some right angles to mess around with back then.
  • They are about $35 USD. Not to bad, but i perfer the initial price of $7. Then again, who can put a price on safety, I'd love to have these in my apartment.

  • Hehe... (Score:1, Troll)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 )
    "...they explode from the heat and spew various fire-retardants all over the place..."

    That sounds like a colorful metaphor for most Slashdot articles about Microsoft. Heh.
  • ... Buy two of our 1.4 Kilogram balls and we'll throw in this free garden hose!
  • My grandmother's farmhouse has a few glass balls in wire racks hanging high up on the walls. If there is a fire they are supposed to explode and spread fire retardant over the fire. Or you can take them out of the racks and throw them into the fire.

    They have been hanging there for (I think) close to 100 years.
  • A few years ago I attended a safety training session put on by the fire department. They told us that fire extinguishers "cake up" inside and no longer work after a year or two (if I recall correctly). I couldn't help but wonder how many fire extinguishers out there are as useless as tits on a bull. 90%? These balls could be an answer to that largely unknown problem.
    • The fire dudes come to my office once a year and hit the bottom of the extinguisher with a rubber mallet to loosen up the fire retardant...

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Actually, it depends on what type of extinguisher is in service. Most commercially available portable fire extinguishers use CO2 as the extinguishing agent.

      I believe the type you are referring to is PKP (aka Purple Kake Powder). AFAIK these are primarily in service in areas where class B/C fires are a potential hazard.

      And more often than not, it's not the powder itself that is the problem, it's the CO2 cylinder that provides the pressure to exhaust the chemical that fails.

  • fyi, About Tyco (Score:4, Informative)

    by Jeff Knox ( 1093 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @02:26AM (#3461817) Homepage
    This is somewhat redundant as someone mentioned they are from Bermuda, purely for tax reasons of course (like Global Crossing is/was incorperated in bermuda as well) , which is correct, but to say they are a fire and safety company isnt even close to what Tyco is. Tyco is one of the largest conglomerates in the world in everything from electronics to healthcare. In fact, I would say fire & safety is the smallest part of their business. Its also one of the Top ten stocks in volume of trades every single day. A direct quote of their website probably explains them best.

    "

    Tyco International is the world's largest manufacturer and servicer of electrical and electronic components, as well as undersea telecommunications systems. We are also the world's largest manufacturer, installer, and provider of fire protection and electronic security services-not to mention our strong leadership positions in disposable medical products, plastics, and adhesives, and the manufacture of flow control valves. Our Company operates in more than 80 countries and has over 180,000 employees."

  • The Bad part... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tazzy531 ( 456079 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @02:48AM (#3461847) Homepage
    The bad part is the high squeeching sound. Yes, I agree that if you were stuck somewhere it would help that it would emit a sound. But after you're rescued, you and/or the firefighter is not going to go around searching for this ball. Other people are going to hear it and go towards that sound in hopes of rescueing someone in effect, putting their life at risk...
  • Is this the same Tyco that makes radio-controlled toy cars? Their corporate site seems to be /.ed so I can't check.

    If it is them, then I can think of a couple of great product crossovers:

    • Evil Kenivel stunt-rider fire extinguisher.
    • Toy Fire-trucks that home in on the noise from these balls to put out any patches of fire that the balls didn't get (you could have them patrolling throughout large buildings).
    Anyone got any other ideas?
  • I remember going down stairs to my uncles workshop. Right there he had a glass ball fire extinguisher that was to be thrown. I was not exactly a ball. Ball on top, cone on bottom.

    It was old when I was a kid. That's almost half a century now.
  • Throwable Extinguisher Balls sure beats Coughable Fur Balls. I should install this on my cat.

  • Oh, come on! (Score:2, Funny)

    by KC7GR ( 473279 )
    So if I get some of these things, and happen to use them on a fire at some point, I suppose it's inevitable that someone'll tell me "That's using your balls!"

    It certainly adds new meaning to that old song "Great Balls of Fire!" Except now it's going to have to be "Great Balls of Anti-Fire!" or something similar.

    And don't even get me started on the potential of these things for practical jokes in, say, golf games. Lord, I can just picture it: "FORE!" (thwopPAFFOOOSHHH!!)

    I like it! ;-) It's just the kind of terminally quirky thing that someone had to come up with eventually. I'll have to keep an eye on the Lab Safety Supply [labsafety.com] catalog and see if they start selling the things.

  • Last time my office on small fire I rushed to the secretary and asked "show me the bottle that can put off the fire!!"

    Now I'd be hestitate to ask "Show me the balls that can put off, oh baby, the fire in me..."
  • Dammit, that was my idea! I submitted that to Steve Jackson Games' Car Wars, and it was included in the 2035 Uncle Albert's catalog... I should dig up the old issue of Autoduel Quarterly with my name on it and go for prior art...
  • when your shed catches on fire and you naturally call the fire department. Then Cousin' Jed who is the fire marshall has a catapault on the back off his pickup says 'he be right back, need to run to the store for ammo.' And then in his drunken stupor, confuses the handy dandy "Extinguisher Ball" with bottles of Moonshine.
  • I've been waiting my whole life for just one - Baht
    And all I needed was just one - Baht
    How can you say that you don't give a - Baht
    I find myself stupified, coming back again ...

    long night.. thought i'd stretch it a bit..

  • I invented a similar product!

    Kirk Israel's Dehydrated Fire Fighting Marbles.

    Just add water.
  • He's selling them for 1,500 bhat.

    Based on this list of exchange rates, [www.uta.fi] they cost about $34.80 in US dollars.

    $64.83 Austrailian, $23.76 UK, $54.47 Canadian, $38.21 Euro, $330.35 Mexician.
    And if I didn't list your country, oh well. You'll just have to look it up :)

    Interesting, but I think the price may need to come down to really catch on.

    -

  • In a related announcement... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ty_kramer ( 262524 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @09:55AM (#3462411)
    ...the Fire Department of New York just signed Roger Clemens to a five-year contract.

  • I'm not sure I like this (Score:4, Funny)

    by Our Man In Redmond ( 63094 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @09:56AM (#3462412)
    I mean, I've spent the greater part of my adult life trying to keep my balls out of the fire.
    • I mean, I've spent the greater part of my adult life trying to keep my balls out of the fire.

      I should mention that these balls release a white foam when they burst.

      I also shriek when my balls are exposed to an open flame.

  • Catapults (Score:2, Funny)

    by dr_eaerth ( 149359 )
    Whatever it's called, the result of this single-handed, civic-minded tinkering from Thailand could lead to a day when firemen carry catapults in their trucks as well as ladders.

    Help! Help! Fire! Someone save me!

    [Sound of catapult launching]

    Help! Hel--OOOOOOF!

    [Sound of unconscious body being consumed by fire]
  • Surely even the most rabidly anti-patent fanatics on Slashdot would agree that these things were what the patent system is for.

    A brilliant idea, but easy to copy once you see it.

    It's fascinating to me that the government grant he received is for the purpose of getting international patent rights to this idea.

  • Did this story remind anyone of the 60s TV series "Emergency!" [halpin.com]?

    Fireman John Gage wanted to invent a "Foam Grenade" to throw into fires for the firemans invention contest at one point. He also wanted to invent suction cup boots to walk up walls though, but I'm sure the series writers are grinning at this news.

    • Did this story remind anyone of the 60s TV series "Emergency!" [halpin.com]?

      Fireman John Gage wanted to invent a "Foam Grenade" to throw into fires for the firemans invention contest at one point. He also wanted to invent suction cup boots to walk up walls though, but I'm sure the series writers are grinning at this news.

      All he had to do was wait for the GEKKO pads to be invented (also covered in a previous SLASHDOT issue).
      http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/g ekkomat010518.html [go.com]

      Now if they managed to emulate a REAL Gecko that would damn neat.
      http://beyond2000.com/news_archive/story_656.html [beyond2000.com]

      [from the article]
      "In fact, the adhesive is so strong that a single seta can lift the weight of an ant. A million setae, which could easily fit onto the area of a dime, could lift a 20-kilo child. Our discovery explains why the gecko can support its entire body weight with only a single finger."
  • Cleaning out the basement of an old historic building I used to work in we found something very similar to this. It was a glass sphere containing what appeared to be water. It looked a little like a lightbulb. It was attached to a holder on the wall with a spring loaded pin pointed at the sphere. Holding the pin in place was some sort of metal that looks like it would melt under heat (thus releassing the pin, bursting the bulb, and releasing the liquid). There is a picture of it here [ryansimpkins.com]. I showed this to my father and step-father who are both professional firefighters (L.A. and Las Vegas). They mentioned that these things were very dangrous and were destoyed, they were used clear up to the 1950's. Apparently the clear liquid is a fire-retardant that upon hiting the fire puts it out, but also releases DEADLY fumes. Not to mention the shards of glass that fly everywhere. These devices were also ment to be used as "hand-grenades." Perhaps the innovation of the stories topic "invention" is that it doesn't have these draw backs.

  • Every month I have to walk some guy into the data center to inspect the fire extinguishers. Now he's going to ask to see my balls. Couldn't they have made them like Frisbees or something, heck anything, that's not so... personal?

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