smoke detector

smoke detector, device used to warn occupants of a building of the presence of a fire before it reaches a rapidly spreading stage and inhibits escape or attempts to extinguish it. On sensing smoke the detectors emit a loud, high-pitched alarm tone, usually warbling or intermittent, and usually accompanied by a flashing light. There are two types of smoke detector: photoelectric and ionization. Photoelectric smoke detectors utilize a light-sensitive cell in either of two ways. In one type, a light source, e.g., a small spotlight, causes a photoelectric cell to generate current that keeps an alarm circuit open—until visible particles of smoke interrupt the ray of light, breaking the circuit and setting off the alarm. The other photoelectric detector, widely used in private dwellings, employs a detection chamber shaped so that the light-sensitive element cannot ordinarily “see” the light source (usually a light-emitting diode [LED]). When particles of smoke enter a portion of the chamber that is aligned with both the LED and the photocell, the particles diffuse or scatter the light ray so it can be “seen” by the photocell. As a result a current is generated by the light-sensitive cell and the alarm is triggered.

Ionization detectors employ radioactive material—in quantities so tiny they are believed to pose no significant health hazard—to ionize the air molecules between a pair of electrodes in the detection chamber. This enables a minute current to be conducted by the ionized air. When smoke enters the chamber, particles attach themselves to ions and diminish the flow of current. The reduction in current sets off the alarm circuit.

Photoelectric detectors respond faster and more effectively to the large smoke particles generated by a smoldering, slow-burning fire. Ionization detectors respond faster to the tiny smoke particles released by a fast-burning fire. For this reason some manufacturers produce combination versions of detectors. Many fire-prevention authorities recommend the use of both photoelectric and ionization types in various locations in a private home. Either type of detector can be powered by batteries or by house current.