"Stuart B" wrote in message
...
Ages ago someone on Freecycle gave me a couple of fire extinguishers
and one of them was a water filled one . It was empty so I took the
top off and filled it with water . It didn't work when I squeezed
the
handle . Today I was clearing out a spare room and picked up this
extinguisher and squeezed the handle and water spurted forth so I
took
it in to the bathroom and directed the hose in to the bath and
operated it and water gushed out of the hose . .
Does anyone know what it is that makes these things work .There must
be more than just water in them . Is ther some sort of tablet you
put
in before or after filling with water .
I'd love to know .

I was going to give it away on Freecycle but as it seems to be
working
I'll keep it but I need to know more about it .

Stuart

The water is actually laced to be alkaline, and in the knob on the top
there is an acid capsule. "Invert and bang knob on ground" always gave
us fits at school, but what it does is to infuse the acid into the
alkaline and release loads of CO2 which forces the water out of the
spout. If yours was empty it has probably been used and the acid
capsule is toast.

AWEM