Saturday, April 07, 2007

Look What I Found


We are doing some spring cleaning here at the Towers. Tons of junk is being tossed or distributed around town. As soon as a bundle of junk goes to the curb, the scavengers descend, soon to be picked clean of anything usable. Wall paper, nuts and bolts, fabric samples, lampshades, carpeting, tile, flower pots by the dozens (a local amateur botanist got those), wood scraps and more, all a testimony to one man's junk is another's gold.

But one thing caught my eye and I quickly glommed on to it. An antique fire extinguisher. Pyrene (love the name, sounds like an insult..."you pyrene, you..")1 1/2 quart brass Heavy Duty Type fire extinguisher. Supposedly They were used on many of the larger military vehicles in World War II. It is about 17" tall and is mounted on a bracket. Seems to be in good shape, never used and still full of some kind of liquid. The design was patented in 1928, but a similar extinguisher had been around for sometime before that. The Pyrene Company still sells equipment, mostly in Canada it appears.

This did not go to the curb, it was dusted and wiped off. I think I'll sell it on Ebay and see if I can get something for it, or at least get it to someone who is interested in this type of thing. One never knows what someone will pay for something collectible.

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