ABB celebrates the miniature circuit breaker’s 90th anniversary. The invention, patented in Germany in November 1924 by Hugo Stotz and his chief engineer, Heinrich Schachtner, made the rapidly increasing electrification of private homes safer and more efficient. Today, nearly every household is equipped with miniature circuit breakers to stop the flow of electricity, protecting people and equipment from electrical fire. Like a police officer who halts traffic at an intersection when there’s an accident, these breakers interrupt the current when something in a home’s or building’s electricity system goes wrong.