Posted 11 years ago
huey
(52 items)
these are red comet fire grenades that have been hanging in my grandfathers house since 1931.i have 4 of them seems like it would have to be a real small fire for this to work and im not sure i want to know whats in them
They look nice but are very hazardous! They most likely contain carbon tetrachloride, a dangerous chemical. At that time the dangers of its use to the body were unknown. It can cause damage to the lungs, liver, kidneys and the brain. The carbon tetrachloride is easily absorbed into the body through the skin and lungs. People of the late 1800's were not aware of this.
It is now banned and is considered a hazardous material.
Contact your local fire dept. to see what to do with them.
Very interesting!
This one doesn't seem to have a trigger mechanism that contained a spring with a hammer and a magnesium plug. When the magnesium plug melted (in a fire), the hammer would be released and would break the sealed Carbon Tetrachloride ball. This one was probably a "Throw at the fire" type of grenade. RER(BOB)
The early ones were salt water.
If that's cigarette smoke on the glass, I'd be more worried about it than the CT. Although CT was faded out of the fire extinguishers in the 50's, I think dry cleaners used it into the 70,s.
We had a few 55 gal drums of CT in the 60's that we used to wash grease off of car parts. Yep, bent over an open pan with a brush splashing around the parts till clean.
The good o'l days,lol
thanks guys,tom my grandfater was a smoker way back when.mabe ill try to clean them very carefully