The invention relates to a method for the
early detection of fires based on the detection of volatile thermolytic products which are characteristic of the object to be monitored for fires. According to the method,
ambient air of an area to be monitored for fires is taken in and ionized, the ionized gas
stream being guided through an
electromagnetic field, the resulting
field strength of which in terms of its temporal or
spatial dependency changes the trajectories of the ions in a parameter set in such a manner that positive or / and negative ions of the ionized gas are forced into predefined trajectories and detected. The invention further relates to a device for the
early detection of fires using the detection of characteristic volatile thermolytic products which are specific to the objects to be monitored for fires. The device consists of an intake unit (1), an
ion generation and ionic current measuring chamber (10) in which the gas
stream (5) of the taken-in
ambient air is ionized, electrodes (16, 17), having a connection (19) for generating and controlling a
DC voltage (21), a ground connection and a connection (18) for generating and controlling an alternating field (20), two
electrometer plates (22, 23) which detect characteristic ions, and a
microcontroller system (8) which evaluates and stores the temporal dependency of the ionic currents and utilizes a significant change of the measured current at at least one
DC voltage value to generate a fire
alarm signal.