Our tools for extinguishing fire are almost as primitive as our forefathers who discovered it. Extinguishers that attempt to choke or disrupt the chemical reaction often do just as much damage, so DARPA’s been working on a high-tech alternative.
Because they’re developing this new way of fighting fires for the US military, the details on how exactly it works are a little vague. But their IFS, or Instant Fire Suppression, program has apparently created this wand looking electrode device that fundamentally destabilizes the plasma in the flame using electromagnetic fields, acoustics, ion injection, and other novel approaches.
They’re just a little vague as to which one is actually being demonstrated in this video, which is — admittedly — a bit underwhelming since the flame that’s extinguished could have been easily dealt with by a four year old at a birthday party. So more research is needed to be able to scale the system to deal with genuine infernos. But it demonstrates a proof of concept that could one day be installed in every vehicle and building, quickly extinguishing fires without water, foam, or other dangerous chemicals. [Darpa via Geekosystem]
Ozoneocean
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 12:14 AMRadiation (and other stuff) to snuff out fire… I wonder how safe that’d be for humans to be exposed to and how much energy you’d need to do it?
Matt L
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 10:21 AMI doubt there will be any harmful reactions from the radiation, but I am sure of one thing. I’m sure it’s easier to recover from a mild radiation burn then it is copping a burn from a fire.
Awnshegh
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 10:43 AMI want to see this sort of stuff in a highly mobile and scalable form – it’s the best way to control our rather nasty bushfire season.