Aleksandr Grigoryevich Loran (1849 – after 1911), sometimes called Alexander Laurant or Aleksandr Lovan or Aleksandr Lavrentyev, was a Russian teacher and inventor of fire fighting foam and foam extinguisher.
He was born in 1849 in Kishinyov in the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, now in Moldavia

Moldavia

Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

. After graduating from the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute, he continued his education in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where he studied chemistry.
Returning to Russia, Loran became a teacher in a school in Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

, which was the main center of the Russian oil industry 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 fire fighting foam, 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.

Subsequently he founded a company called Eurica, based in Saint Petersburg, and started to sell his fire extinguishers under that brand.