世界第一支灭火器诞生在一八三四年，伦敦，一场大火几乎完全烧毁了英国议会大厦所在地古老的威斯敏斯特宫。在众多的观火者当中，有一位却不是无所事事赶来看火景的人，他就是乔治·威廉·曼比。曼比出生在诺福克，青年从军，官至上尉，任雅茅斯兵营的长官，这一闲职使他能够有时间致力于强烈吸引着他的拯救人类生命的事业。早先，他热衷于船难救助，他发明过裤形救生圈，也是第一个提出用灯塔闪射识别信号的人。以后，曼比把他的天才从海洋救助转向火灾救生事业中。发生火灾的时候，他正在进行防火服的实验。他最卓越的首创性的贡献是他发明了手提式压缩气体灭火器，这种灭火器是一个长两英尺，直径八英寸，容量为四加仑升的铜制圆筒，和今天的灭火器基本上相同。他把灭火器放在他专门设计特制的手推车里，他希望有配备这种灭火器的巡逻队，在起火地点立刻扑灭初起的小火，从而减少爆发重大火灾的次数。
The world's first fire extinguisher was born in 1834 in London. A fire almost completely destroyed the ancient Westminster Palace, where the British Parliament Building is located. Among the many fire watchers, there is one who is not idle to see the fire. He is George William Manby. Born in Norfolk, Manby was a young soldier, officer-to-captain and commander of the Yarmouth Barracks. This idle job allowed him time to devote himself to the cause of saving human life that strongly attracted him. Earlier, he was keen on shipwreck rescue. He invented trouser-shaped life buoys and was the first person to propose a lighthouse flash to identify signals. Later, Manby turned his genius from marine rescue to fire rescue. When the fire broke out, he was experimenting with fire-proof clothes. His most remarkable pioneering contribution was the invention of a portable compressed gas extinguisher, a two-foot long, eight-inch diameter copper cylinder with a capacity of four gallons, which is basically the same as today's extinguishers. He put the fire extinguisher in his specially designed trolley. He hoped that patrols equipped with the fire extinguisher would extinguish the initial small fire immediately at the site of the fire, thus reducing the number of major fires.