Electric circuit breaker with pushbutton for tripping

Claim 1

In an electric circuit breaker having a casing, a pair of separable contacts in the casing, a releasably latchable trip lever pivotally mounted in the casing and releasable from a latched position to effect separation of the contacts, a terminal strap extending into the casing, a bimetallic strip secured adjacent one end to an inner end portion of the terminal strap, a magnetizable coRe in the casing secured to the bimetallic strip and having an extension with a slot therein, an elongated generally flat armature in the casing pivotally mounted adjacent one end on the core, extending generally parallel to the bimetallic strip, and having a finger portion at the other end extending at an angle to the remainder thereof through the slot in the extension of the core, and an elongated generally flat latching member in the casing secured adjacent one end to the one end of the armature, extending generally parallel to the armature and to the bimetallic strip, and normally latching the trip lever with the other end portion thereof, the improvement comprising a pushbutton extending into the casing in endwise alignment with the armature and latching member adjacent their joined ends and depressible to move the armature and latching member longitudinally and pivot the trip lever while the angled finger portion of the armature is guided by the extension of the core to cause pivotal movement of the armature and latching member and disengagement of the latching member from the trip lever.