Snap-action electric switches

728,925. Switches held set and freed mechanically. GLOBE-UNION, Inc. Sept. 30, 1952, No. 24452/52. Class 38 (5). The switch comprises a flexible actuator 62 movable in a path in which is located a cam means 66 which deflects the actuator from the path, the actuator when released from the cam means controlling the movement of a contact with a snap action. In one form, Fig. 8, when the actuator 62 is moved rectilinearly to the right, the sloping tip 64 of the actuator slides over the upper face of cam means 66, the tip 64 then snapping down over the right hand end of means 66 to engage and depress a block 68 on a contact spring 58 to separate it from a fixed contact 52. On movement of actuator 62 to the left, the tip 64 slides under the cam 66 and holds the contacts open until it snaps up at the left hand end of the cam. The actuator may be secured to a rotary spindle so as to move in a circular path, (Figs. 1 to 6, not shown), the switch then forming part of' a variable resistor. The contacts may be normally-open, normally-closed or of the changeover kind.