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Walter Kidde, the founder of the Walter Kidde & Company, was driven not only by his entrepreneurial instincts, but also by an unending pursuit of solutions to the world’s challenges. The Walter Kidde & Company was founded in 1917 after Kidde desired to expand into the firefighting business. This expansion quickly catalyzed the company’s rapid growth and development.
In 1918, Walter Kidde & Company purchased the rights to the “Rich” system for detecting fires onboard ships. This method of extinguishing fires by steam had a significant flaw; namely, the steam caused extensive damage to the ship’s cargo. Walter Kidde’s answer to this problem was to utilize carbon dioxide instead of steam to smother the fire without causing damage to cargo.
Unfortunately, Walter Kidde passed away suddenly in his home in 1943. Today, his entrepreneurial spirit lives on through the company he founded, now known as Kidde, Incorporated.
