Alex  Burton  Commentary

RADIO STATION KAAM 620 Plano, Texas That circuit breaker in its little black box is going to protect you from electrical fires isn't it. When you've plugged too many heaters or hair dryers or soldering irons into the same socket you know the circuit breaker is going to trip and the lights in that half of the house will go dark. So you know you are protected. I wish I could say, "you bet" to that but the fact is, circuit breaker or not, there are a disturbing number of fires in this country attributable to short circuits or circuit overloads that did not trip the circuit breaker. How is this possible? Pretty simply the circuit breaker depends on a strip of metal, two metals actually, that have different rates of expansion when heated. The strip will bend when heated by a short circuit or circuit overload. The bimetal strip, as it is called, was invented back in the late 1700's. It's been part of circuit breaker technology for over fifty years. Just as the circuit breaker replace the old glass, screw in fuse as a protector of our homes so now there is a new technology to replace the bimetal strip. Look around you. Just outside of Wylie, Texas is a company called Zlan, Ltd. They have developed a circuit breaker with a tiny little computer inside, a chip about the size of your fingernail that works faster and better than the bimetal strip circuit breaker you now have in your home. I watched a demonstration of a short circuit that could have caused a fire that went totally unrecognized by the bimetal job, but was recognized immediately, I'm talking fractions of a second here, by the new breaker. Not only does it operate faster but it has a little LED window that will explain WHY the circuit was interrupted, either by a short or by an overload. You should know that the longer the distance is from the short to the breaker panel box the longer it takes for the current breaker to work. Not so for the new Zlan Digitally Enhanced Circuit Breaker. If you would like more information on this new electrical fire safety device please call me at KAAM, or better yet contact the people at Zlan, Ltd. at (972) 442-0558. In the mean time stay tuned, this is not the last time you'll hear about this. I'm Alex Burton, the opinions are my own. Alex M. G. Burton is Director of Broadcast Services for Halcyon Associates and has over forty years of experience as a newsman. He’s been a street reporter for both Radio and TV, a newspaper columnist and feature writer, the author of two books and a long time college instructor on "Writing for Money." He has won numerous awards for the excellence of his radio commentaries, from organizations such as Sigma Delta Chi, The Dallas Press Club, the Southwest Journalism Forum, Associated Press and United Press International Return to home page.