Aleksandr Grigoryevich Loran (russian: Александр Григорьевич Лоран) (1849 – presumably 1911), sometimes called Alexander Laurant or Aleksandr Lovan or Aleksandr Lavrentyev, was a Russian teacher and inventor of

fire fighting foam Firefighting foam is a foam used for fire suppression. Its role is to cool the fire and to coat the fuel, preventing its contact with oxygen, thus achieving suppression of the combustion. Firefighting foam was invented by the Russian engineer a ...

and foam extinguisher. USCG AFFF

He was born in 1849 in Chișinău (Russian: ''Кишинёв'') in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, now the capital of

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistr ...

. After graduating from the

Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, abbreviated as SPbPU (also, formerly "Saint Petersburg State Technical University", abbreviated as SPbSTU), is a Russian technical university located in Saint Petersburg. Other former names i ...

, he continued his education in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, where he studied chemistry. Returning to Russia, Loran became a teacher in a school in Baku, which was the main center of the Russian

oil industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larges ...

at that time. Impressed by the terrible and hardly extinguishable oil fires that he had seen there, Loran tried to find such a liquid substance that could deal effectively with the problem. So he invented

, which was successfully tested in several experiments in 1902-1903. In 1904 Loran patented his invention, and developed the first foam extinguisher the same year.The history of fire extinguisher
Subsequently, he founded a company called ''Eurica'', based in Saint Petersburg, and started to sell his fire extinguishers under that brand. Firefighters spray foam

References

1849 births 1911 deaths Moldavian inventors Russian inventors Engineers from the Russian Empire Chemists from the Russian Empire People from Chișinău Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University alumni {{Russia-chemist-stub

See also

References