DiMola Bros finds Grinnell Sprinkler in Brooklyn interior demolition job!

Grinnell Automatic Sprinklers box, found back in 2007 on an interior demolition job in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

DiMola Bros finds Grinnell Sprinkler in Brooklyn interior demolition job!

It’s time to add to my antique collection — again!

Inside of the Grinnell Automatic Sprinklers box

I found a Grinnell Automatics Sprinklers box, complete with the sprinkler and wrench. It was back in 2007, when I was hired to do an interior demolition in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The DiMola Bros crew and I had to dismantle the masonry and wood frame walls of an old manufacturing building. The building used to produce injection molds for plastic caps (like the kind you find on a soda bottle).

The man who hired me for the interior demolition had just purchased the building, which was 10,000 square feet, and was planning on dividing it into three rental units. That meant that any remaining rubbish or debris had to be removed, and several of the walls had to be torn down.

I focused on the job, knocking down wall after wall, until I saw this Grinnell Automatics Sprinklers box. It was hanging by a single nail. Now, it hangs outside of my office.

Although Henry S. Permalee patented the first ever sprinkler device, Frederick Grinnell immensely improved the design. In 1881, he patented his own sprinkler, known as the “first sensitive sprinkler.” In order to improve Permalee’s design, Grinnell addressed thermal sensitivity, prevention of clogging, leak tightness, and “the necessity for completely rupturing the solder joint before any water could escape to cool the solder,” according to research by the American Society of Plumbing Engineers.

Check out some more cool facts about the Grinnell Corporation:

* In 1892, Grinnell founded the General Fire Extinguisher Company

* The General Fire Extinguisher Company was incorporated in 1893 with a capitalization of $1,000,000.

Grinnell sprinklers and wrench

* The company’s name was changed to Grinnell Fire Protection Company after Grinnell’s death in 1919.

* The company’s name was changed to Grinnell Corporation in 1944.

* Grinnell Corporation was purchased by International Telephone & Telegraph in 1969. It was called ITT Grinnell.

* ITT sold the company to Tyco a few years later.

* General Fire Extinguisher Company and Simplex Time Recorder Company merged in 2001 to create SimplexGrinnell.

* Today, SimplexGrinnell is the largest fire protection company worldwide.

* Frederick Grinnell had been awarded 41 U. S. Letters Patents since January 2, 1893

* Frederick Grinnell died in 1905 at the age of 69

* The Grinnell R&D facility is in Cranston, Rhode Island. It is the site of a former foundry that produced cannon balls during the Civil War (according to research compiled by Jerome S. Pepi, the vice president of Research and Development for Fire Protection Products).

**Facts were taken from research by the American Society of Plumbing Engineers.

Wrench that comes with Grinnell Automatic Sprinklers

DiMola Bros Rubbish Removal
1640 Summerfield St.
Ridgewood, NY 11385
Phone: 718-326-6969
Fax: 718-326-7979
NGDimola@aol.com / http://dimolabros.com

~ by DiMolaBros1956 on January 27, 2011.