WYLIE - A innovative new circuit breaker invented by George Spencer of Zlan Ltd. is being met with resistance by manufacturers in the industry.

Spencer believes the Zlan Digitally Enhanced (DE) Circuit Breaker will revolutionize the industry by providing a safer electrical environment for homes, buildings and even vehicles.

Zlan still hopes to distribute the product through leading manufacturers such as General Electric, Siemens, Eaton Cutler-Hammer and Square D. Spencer said sometime this year Zlan may decide to explore other ways to manufacture and distribute the DE breaker. He said the benefits of the DE breaker out-weigh any manufacturing costs involved.

Primarily, it will save lives. Consumer cost could be from $5 to $10 more per breaker. That concerns some of the major manufacturers.

"Circuit breaker manufacturers are real sensitive about me talking about this," Spencer said. "They are concerned about a class action suit. They know the current circuit breaker does not function well. UL (United Laboratories) is doing nothing to inform us about the real problem. Because these manufacturers are European-owned, we don't believe they have any interest in spending money where they don't have to spend it. Unless they are forced to upgrade the safety they are not going to do it."

Spencer says the public currently sees a circuit breaker differently than a manufacturer does. "The public believes a circuit breaker protects them from fire but it doesn't," he said. "Fires start inside walls well before a circuit breaker is tripped. The manufacturers see the breaker as protecting wire."

The firm claims electrical fire protection can be improved by 1,000 to 10,000 percent with its DE breaker. The device has been designed with a microprocessor, an optional serial port, LED status light and auto test. It has a fast response time to detect low arcing (current) conditions and the intelligence to avoid false tripping.

The prototypes have been hand made in Wylie to the same size and rating as the current breakers to be easily interchangeable.

Ken Krogh, operations manager, said the insurance industry is interested in the DE breaker. Success of the DE breaker could be mind boggling for the small Wylie firm. Zlan is considering inviting more investors and establishing a corporate structure and an IPO.

Spencer quit school after the ninth grade and became a welder and boiler tender in the U.S. Navy. He later attended the Navy's electronic school at Great Lakes and was its first honor graduate. He then went to cryptography school where be believes he still holds some of the highest marks ever recorded.

Besides his interest in Zlan, Spencer is a staff test engineer for SGS-Thompson Microelectronics of Carrollton.

The initial aspect of Zlan began in Spencer's house in Murphy. "It started with the 95th Congress (1978)," he said. "They issued an aluminum wire study and several things stood out to me. One, there was no test equipment for electrical wiring and that it needed to be tested periodically. Two, no one was being informed about the real problems. The UL was not addressing safety issues. They are still keeping it covered up."

Spencer developed a wire tester which he patented in the early 1980s. It helps determine the condition the internal wiring - loose connections, undersized wiring.

"More than 80 percent of electrical fires start in the internal wiring - from the socket to the breaker and the pole," he said. "Smoke detectors will not detect those fires. Every facility I went into had bad wiring according to my tester," Spencer said. "I didn't find one that came close to meeting the code standards."

An unfortunate turn of events involving Spencer's partner in the project caused him to put the wire tester project on the shelf. But he never lost his concern about the dangers involved.

While working on his dishwasher he discovered several large wires had been severed by a metal plate. He went back and turned off the circuit breaker. "A few days later it dawned on me - why didn't that circuit breaker trip?" he said. "It's not how new it is. It's how much resistance there is."

Zlan moved from Richardson to Wylie when Charlie Womack was director of the economic development corporation. "We provided them $10,000 for moving expenses and they came back and repaid all of it," Womack said. "They had no obligation to do so. It was a grant."

"We try to give back and help the next guy along," Spencer said. "I enjoyed working with Charlie. He really went out of his way to help us move out here. You don't do things sometimes because you have to do them, you do them because it is the right thing to do."

In 1994 when Zlan moved into an old feed mill site in west Wylie on FM 3412, officials found rotten timber and soiled feed sacks. They cleaned it out and recently expanded to 6,000 square feet.

One aspect of the old mill remains - a large truck scale on the east side. That provides another revenue source for the company. Griffin Waste Management leases the scale to weigh its trash trucks. In a nearby pasture cows frequently escape the fence and approach the Zlan building.

Garbage scales and grazing cattle? That's country style high tech.