Henry S. Parmalee, a piano maker from New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

, invented a fire sprinkler

Fire sprinkler

A fire sprinkler system is an active fire protection measure, consisting of a water supply system, providing adequate pressure and flowrate to a water distribution piping system, onto which fire sprinklers are connected...

system in 1874 to protect his piano factory. While other patents for fire sprinklers predated Parmalee's work, he is credited with the first practical automated sprinkler head.

His piano company The Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co, is credited as being the first building in the United States to be equipped with a fire suppression system (automated sprinkler system).