09/04/2024
On 9/4/1894 the first fog nozzle for fighting fires was patented. A fog nozzle breaks water flowing through it into “tiny” droplets, creating more surface area absorbing the heat and creating steam. The A. J. Morse company made a brass 2-½” “fireboat type nozzle and stand” with patent dates of Aug. 2, 1891, July 31, 1894, and Sept. 4, 1894. Some sources suggest “the first United States patent for a fog nozzle was granted to Dr. John Oyston in 1863. During the late 1800s and continuing through the turn of the century, various articles appeared in fire service literature extolling the merits of spray streams. One of the earliest such articles, entitled “Extinguishing Fires,” was written by Oyston himself. It was originally published in Oyston’s local newspaper but was reprinted in the March 16, 1878, edition of the National Fireman’s Journal (known today as Fire Engineering). Significant research in fire behavior and the use of spray streams for interior fire attacks began in the United Kingdom and several Western European countries during the 1920s, this research continues to this day. In the mid-1930s, Elkhart Brass introduced the first production periphery jet fog nozzle to the American fire service. Known as the “Mystery” nozzle, it was based on a nozzle designed by the Mystery Nozzle Company in Hamburg, Germany, some years before. The United States Navy and Coast Guard used a combination fog/solid-stream nozzle during World War II, although its exact date of issue may predate the war by several years. Manufactured by the Rockwood Sprinkler Company, and known as an “all-purpose” nozzle, it was available for both 1-½ inch and 2-½ inch hoses and had a three-position shutoff that could produce both an impinging jet fog stream and a solid fire stream. It could also be fitted with a variety of extension applicators. It is still in limited use today by the Navy as well as several fire departments… What happened in 1950 that so radically changed fire suppression tactics? The late Chief Lloyd Layman of Parkersburg, West Virginia, presented a paper entitled “Little Drops of Water” at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) in Memphis, Tennessee, and in the process stood the fire service on its collective head. In his paper, Layman introduced what he termed the indirect method of attack to suppress interior building fires using the tremendous heat-absorbing properties of expanding and condensing steam, produced in great quantities by fog (spray) streams. Most of the theory and methodology of indirect fire attack were based on the Coast Guard experiments (Layman was in charge of the Coast Guard’s wartime firefighting school at Fort McHenry), as well as additional testing conducted jointly by the U.S. Navy and other agencies in San Francisco under the project name “Operation Phobos.” Layman continued his experiments after he returned to his position as fire chief in Parkersburg, where he began in earnest applying the indirect method of attack to building fires.”
The Rockwood nozzle mentioned was used by almost every FD in the nation. Remember the "Bent Tip Applicators" and the "Foam Aeration tubes"?
