Abstract: A switch, that appears the same as an ordinary snap switch, is shown with a positive ON and a positive OFF with a variable control circuit therebetween. The variable control circuit includes a triac gated through a diac to give an infinite control range that depends upon the point at which the triac is triggered. In using the variable control circuit of the switch, a shunt or a bypass is provided for the gate of the triac through a full wave bridge rectifier circuit for a predetermined time interval. The time interval is determined by an RC time constant connected across the bridge. Therefore, for the aforementioned predetermined time interval, essentially a full wave AC voltage is passed through the triac to a load. For motors, this allows the motor to come up to speed prior to subsequently reducing the speed of the motor by the variable control circuit after the predetermined time interval.