Abstract: An electromagnetic relay comprises a base formed with a depression in which plate-shaped ferromagnetic armature rests under its own weight in an inclined position with reference to the lower surfaces of the legs of an electromagnetic yoke overlying that depression, these surfaces defining with the armature a pair of air gaps which in the unexcited condition of the relay increase in width from one edge of the armature to the opposite edge. A movable contact member in the form of a flat spring bracketed by the yoke legs, spacedly overlying the armature in this unexcited condition, is clamped to the base at the narrow gap end and has a free extremity, coacting with a fixed contact member, at the wider end; magnetization of the yoke elevates the armature into engagement with the contact spring near its clamped extremity and then causes it to swing into contact with the free spring extremity for closing (or opening) a load circuit which is independent of the energizing circuit of the relay.