An early form of circuit breaker was described by Thomas Edison in an 1879 patent application, although his commercial power distribution system used fuses.[1] Its purpose was to protect lighting circuit wiring from accidental short circuits and overloads. A modern miniature circuit breaker similar to the ones now in use was patented by Brown, Boveri & Cie in 1924. Hugo Stotz, an engineer who had sold his company to BBC, was credited as the inventor on DRP (Deutsches Reichspatent) 458392.[2] Stotz's invention was the forerunner of the modern thermal-magnetic breaker commonly used in household load centers to this day.