History
The NFPA was formed in 1896 by a group of insurance firms with the stated purpose of standardizing the new and burgeoning market of fire sprinkler systems. The scope of the NFPA's influence grew from sprinklers and fire extinguishers to include building electrical systems (another new technology), and then into almost all aspects of building design and construction.
Its original membership was limited to insurance underwriting firms and there was no representation from the industries the NFPA sought to control. This changed in 1904 to allow other industries and individuals to participate in the development of the standards to be promulgated by the NFPA. The first fire department to be represented in the NFPA was the New York City Fire Department in 1905, though their participation has declined steadily since then. Today, the NFPA includes representatives from some fire departments, many fire insurance companies, many manufacturing associations, some trade unions, many trade associations, and engineering associations.
Read more about this topic: National Fire Protection Association
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The history is always the same the product is always different and the history interests more than the product. More, that is, more. Yes. But if the product was not different the history which is the same would not be more interesting.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)