Question:
We moved into an old house about a year ago. We have finally got round to clearing out an old cupboard and have come across what appears to be an old type Fire Extinguisher. It is the sort that is like a gun with loadable (presumably pre-pressurised) cylinders and was made by AntiFyre Ltd, London. Has anybody come across this before and can give me any gen on it or can even tell me when this sort of extinguisher was last in use ?

I don't plan playing about with (especially with pressuired cylinders), but its really for curiousities sake - or in blunter terms, is it worth anything before i consign it to the great rbbish heap in the sky...

Answer: It sounds like one I saw demonstrated about 30 years ago. That had a holder, rather similar to a mastic gun, and cylindrical charges of roughly the size of the mastic tubes. They used small explosive charges to fire dry powder at the fire. The idea was to try to beat the flames out as well as extinguish it chemically. Also, being small, it was possible to have several spare charges in case the fire was too large for one. Whether it would be wise to tackle a fire of that size with an extinguisher is another matter. It was remarkably effective for its size, but also quite expensive.