the.com/breaker
the one switch that sacrifices itself so your house doesn't become a campfire
means A device that automatically interrupts an electrical circuit when the current gets dangerously high, protecting wiring from overheating; also, more broadly, a person or thing that breaks something.
from From the verb "break," which traces back to Old English "brecan" — to shatter, snap, or burst apart — with deep Germanic roots and a likely cousin in Latin "frangere" (to break, as in "fracture"). The "-er" suffix simply names the doer: a breaker is "that which breaks." The electrical sense is a modern specialization — the thing whose whole job is to break the connection on purpose.
- job
- trips before wires melt or fires start
- reusable
- unlike fuses, just flip it back on
- radio slang
- breaker one-nine asks to interrupt a channel
- invention
- Hugo Stotz patented it around 1924
- breaking capacity
- some interrupt thousands of amps in milliseconds
circuit breaker — electrical safety device that automatically interrupts excessive current flow in buildings and appliances
ice breaker — icebreaker ships like the uscgc healy that cut through polar ice in the arctic and antarctic
wave breaker — breakwaters like those at santa monica pier that protect harbors by dissipating wave energy