Light emitting diode blown circuit breaker indicator

Claim 1

In a conventional circuit breaker (10) having a stationary contact (16) on a line terminal clip (18), a movable contact (20), a contact carrier (22) having the movable contact (20) mounted thereon, an operating mechanism including a handle (14) for manually moving the movable contact carrier (22) to selectively open and close the line circuit contact (16 and 20), a load terminal (32) from which the load circuit extends through the line contacts (16 and 20), a tripping mechanism including an overload circuit responsive member (38) in the load circuit between the movable contact (20) and the load terminal contact (32) for moving the contact carrier (22) to open the contacts and interrupt the load circuit in response to an overload condition through the overload responsive member (38); the improvement comprising a blown circuit indicator circuit (42-56 and 24', 22, 40) in parallel with the load circuit, said blown load circuit indicator parallel circuit being connected to the line circuit and load circuit terminals (18 and 32) and through and including a resistor (44) in series with a light emitting diode (50), a fixed contact (56), and a movable parallel circuit contact (24') held in parallel circuit interrupting position by said overload responsive member (38) until said overload responsive member is actuated to load circuit interrupting position to thus actuate said parallel circuit contact (24') to parallel circuit completing position (24') to light up said light emitting diode (50) to remain lit up to indicate that the load circuit breaker has blown.