Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

This report describes tests comparing the performance of the "wide-cover" type of sprinkler developed by the Factory-Mutual Laboratories of the United States of America, and sprinklers of conventional design. The tests included measurements of water distribution, and of ability to control a spreading fire beneath both plain and joisted ceilings. While reports of tests on fires in high stacks of materials have: shown a superiority of the "wide-cover" type of sprinkler in extinguishing the fire, the tests reported here showed them to be scarcely the equal of conventional-type sprinklers in dealing with a fire at ground level when operating at the minimum acceptable water pressure. The "wide-cover" type, used singly, was not so effective in controlling a fire directly beneath it, mid in one case it is doubtful whether the sprinkler could be deemed to give adequate cover in this respect.